2023 - the good, the not so good but hopefully not ugly of growing your own!

nmaria

Has anyone ever tried to grow tomatoes from seeds taken out of shop bought tomatoes? 

Have lovely piccobella tomatoes at the moment and would love to grow them myself. 

Suffolk_lass

You  could try - nothing to lose. I see that T&M sell that seed so you could order online from them (5 seeds for £1). I find them good for seed but rubbish for plug plants, if that helps. 

carinjo

nmaria said:

Has anyone ever tried to grow tomatoes from seeds taken out of shop bought tomatoes? 

Have lovely piccobella tomatoes at the moment and would love to grow them myself. 

my sister have done that, buying "posh" tomatoes. i've not had great success.

so, reason felt so unwell wednesday, got covid. so in bed, hoping for a negative test before next week holiday.

Soontobeoap

I have grown from cherry tomatoes before with grandchildren. We got healthy plants but not so much fruit and much bigger tomatoes. 

Farway

nmaria said:

Has anyone ever tried to grow tomatoes from seeds taken out of shop bought tomatoes? 

Have lovely piccobella tomatoes at the moment and would love to grow them myself. 

Yes, no problems, but be warned they may not resemble the ones you bought due to pollination of parent plants

But certainly worth a go

There's a YouTube vid on it BTW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAfJCyBq0pI

Soontobeoap

Good video.
We just cut slices of the tomatoe to start them off in egg boxes. I also often have tomatoes that drop to the ground and seed themself. They have grown well too. Its a good way of getting bigger tomatoes on a bush plant, without a greenhouse.

At the moment I am chitting some already sprouting supermarket potatoes. We did quite well with those last year too. 

YBR

Soontobeoap said:

Good video.
We just cut slices of the tomatoe to start them off in egg boxes. I also often have tomatoes that drop to the ground and seed themself. They have grown well too. Its a good way of getting bigger tomatoes on a bush plant, without a greenhouse.

We get self-seeded tomatoes too, and potatoes - we call them "ferral potatoes"! Last year I had onion/garlic sets which hadn't  grown until late autumn and found them while digging over the beds. I've moved them and maybe they'll result in an early crop.

I'm admiring all your growing seedlings - I'm so far behind I hadn't anything sown until this morning.  Usually I've had the veg bed covered in plastic from early in the year, but this year only the ferral onions/garlic which has helped them through the cold snaps. I've uncovered that since we're finally forcast milder weather. I've managed this morning to get going - now have tomato, lettuce, celery, cucumber and courgette on a window ledge - Celery is new for me - anyone grown celery before?

Outside, I've marked out my veg bed so I remember where I intend to grow stuff, and planted about half my onion sets - we might still get late frosts so left some for another time. Plus short row of Mangetout peas, which are not my favourite (Sugar Snap is preferred) so not too concerned if they get killed by frost. I've sorted the perenial herbs too - pruning the bay tree is one of the things I had already achieved and most of the other herbs sit under it in pots since they're thugs, err ... vigorous! I've dealt with a couple that didn't do too well last year (mint, chives) as they'd got totally pot-bound. 

Next time I'll need to look at fruit more - raspberries and strawberries need tidying and tying up.

@carinjo I also get totally crowded lettuce seedlings when my daughters help enthusiastically. I pot them out quite young and hand them out to all my friends and neighbours or sell them at church for charity. 

alicef

Sowed some annual/biennial herb seed today (Sweet basil; bush basil; coriander & parsley). 

A thing I waste money on is those packets of cut fresh herbs which I don't seem to use up before they deteriorate.

Soontobeoap

If I buy coriander or any herb really that I dont use up I chop it and put in tub in freezer and use when needed. Agree with you though @alicef the cheapest wat is to grow it yourself. 

carinjo

Soontobeoap said:

If I buy coriander or any herb really that I dont use up I chop it and put in tub in freezer and use when needed. Agree with you though @alicef the cheapest wat is to grow it yourself. 

Ice cube trays all the way!

Found an almost empty pack of spring planting broadbeans, stuck it inbetween the 4 autumn sown broadbeans that managed to survive the snow.
The tomatoes, cut and come again salad planter all germinating, 7days after planting. Unfortunately, due to covid, no energy to transplant baby lettuce to pots, will have to survive another week with  no attention, till back from portugal. 
Got a packet of uchiki kuri from L1dl, only 3 seeds in packet, not sure it worth the price.
Ald1 got selection of veg food, seed trays etc. incl walk-in green house. Note to anyone planning on getting something similar: tie it down in protected spot. Any bad weather and it will go flying. 
P0undstr3tch3rs have a good selection of seedtrays, greenhouses etc, prices slightly more than Ald1s.