Due to this success, the following year I decided to grow my own and I headed to the local garden centre to pick up some seeds. I never really know which brands or types to buy, so I tend to pick the types I get at the supermarket, such as plum and baby Tomatoes, which I've grown successfully year after year.
This year I've grown Gardener's Delight and Moneymaker varieties from seed (both collected from garden magazines). In late February I placed 2 to 3 seeds in two rows of my propagator, which all germinated very quickly and any unsuitable weedy plants were removed. Once they grew to a suitable 5cm to 6cm, these were transferred into small individual pots, placed in a tray which was kept topped up with water daily and left on a very sunny south-east facing windowsill. These were again left to grow to at least 15cm to 20cm in size and once the frost started to disappear, during April, they were taken outside during the day to harden off, but always brought back in and placed on the windowsill during the night.
After hardening for at least two week, the plants were ready to be placed in their last growing place, a very large patio planter bag, filled with muti-compost and water crystals. Due to my large amount of Tomato plants (12 in total) only 6 of these were put into the planter and another six were placed into larger plant pots, all with small cane supports, which will be removed and given larger canes as the plants grow bigger. These have been watered at least every other day if not every day since being planted out.
It is now Mid June, the Tomato plants have grown to around 4ft and the first signs of flowers are just developing. I've been pinching out the small shoots that have been appearing between the branches and as a little added bonus I have been feeding the plants with Tomato feed, a few times, just to help encourage growth and this will now continue every 10-14 days, while the plants flower and grow the Tomatoes.
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