First time plant grower - help please

finc

My family gets through loads of cherry tomatoes (unfortunately not the cheap ones as they taste watery) and strawberries. Money's a bit tight at the moment and my 4 year old son has asked to grow a plant so thought I'd kill 2 birds with one stone and grow some.

Only problem is I have no idea where to start as I've never grown anything before and don't have a good track record with house plants and herbs . We haven't got much in the way of flower beds so can I use grow bags to grow them and do they need to be protected? Should I start from seeds or buy baby plants? I need something hardy so they stands a chance to survive with me looking after them.

I've tried googling but there's so much choice I don't know where to start

jimbo_the_jetset

Well, if you hate tasteless shop tomatoes then growing your own is the way to go!!

I'd probably buy tom and strawb plants this year as it may be getting a bit late to sow from seed and you'll get an earlier crop by buying. If (when!!) you get the growing bug you can get some seeds for next year, much more choice on variety as well as cheaper!

Have you considered growing toms and strawbs in hanging baskets? I've heard they work a treat, I'm going to grow my stawbs like that this year.

In terms of care, a generous water in the summer and a weekly feed with liquid tomato feed (mix with water - only £1 from wilko's - one tub will last year or two) once a week or so.

Hope you have a good crop!!

Jack's_mummy

Strawberrys do really well in a big pot and you can easily get a couple of plants from a garden centre or somewhere

Cherry tomatoes I am trying for the first time in hanging basket this year. Regular watering is the key with tomatoes. Again I would buy a plant now as time is getting on.

You could always ask on freecycle for either plant. My spare tomatoes will be going on our local one in the next couple of weeks and I have already seen 3 other lots up for grabs

Boudica

Hi there

For seeds I would use www.alanromans.com

The most expensive packet is only 80p and the service is great.

You can buy seeds of a tumbling tomato and plant them in hanging baskets around the garden. You can also do the same with strawberries. This also helps to keep the slugs and snails off the fruit too.

Thompson and Morgan do great strawberry plants that are a reasonable price.

You can still grow stuff from seeds, it's not too late. Everything is behind anyway cos of the weather so I wouldn't worry about it. You need to start quite soon though.

Hope this helps

Farway

Lidl have strawbery plants this week if one near you

quickstepqueen

Last year I grew some "tumbling toms" in a hanging basket and they were a big success. Very easy and just outside my back door.

I also grow "gardeners delight" in my greenhouse (from seed though.).

One tip re: grow bags. Tomatoes grow tall so need staking. However, just popping a stake into such a shallow grow bag will be useless. It won't support the tomato properly.

What I have done is empty the grow bag equally into 3 x 12" plastic tubs (ideally need to be bigger but I've not had problems with these.) I then make a hole in the compost, add the tomato plant and place the cane in at the side. Don't put the cane through the roots as this can damage them. Just pop it in alongside and then the roots will grow around the cane and give your tomato support. Then as the tomato grows tie the stem to the cane farily loosely (the stem will continue to grow bigger so don't tie tight otherwise the string will cut into the stem and then it can damage it and possibly cause infection.)

However, despite saying about growing in pots, this morning on "This Morning" I saw a gardener put some plastic structures around the grow bag so that when you put the canes in they stay in place. He said that each grow bag will take 3 tomato plants but to give each one a good chance to grow I would suggest just 2 or put them in pots.

Then water once every 4 or 5 days with tomato feed as jimbo-the-jetset explains. Tomaotes are full of water when you buy them from the supermarkets so the key is to keep tomatoes well watered. Don't let the compost get dry but then don't overwater so as to rot the roots. I would rather underwater as if they are thirsty you can easily top them up.

Good look. Have a go. It's a lot of fun and even I was surprised at how easy it was to grow toms in a hanging basket.

finc

Wow thanks for all the advice. I will get myself down to Lidl later and see what they have left. I'd never thought of hanging baskets, we've got loads of the hooks on our house from the previous owner so just need to find some cheap baskets.

I'll have a look on freecycle later, not holding out too much hope there as there's too many begging posts for Wii's etc so people seem to have stopped bothering.

I'll buy the baby plants for now and see if I can keep them alive and if I have some success I'll try the seeds next year! I know they're more expensive but I spend about £10 per week on tomatoes and strawberries so hopefully it'll still work out cheaper.

doraexplorer

finc they had hanging baskets in the pound shop on sunday when i was in .

hth

finc

doraexplorer wrote: »

finc they had hanging baskets in the pound shop on sunday when i was in .

hth

Thanks is that poundland or another one? I'm going to check out Home Bargains later.

I got some strawberry plants on Lidl yesterday so thanks for that tip. We're going on the hunt for some tomato plants at weekend as there's nothing on my freecycle. If they're successful and don't die I'll let you know!