put toms out

[stocko75]

i just came back from hols today, i had put my toms from gh to kitchen so neighbour could water them,they are now about 2 ft high and i have put them in garden tonight, is this ok??? its my 1st yr as a alottmenteer, thanks!!!

[stocko75]

[saddad]

Have some fleece on hand just in case we get a late frost!
;D

[woody]

Hi all,
         i've had my toms out for a month all is well, just watch the weather like a hawk :P

[Spookyville]

2 grow bags planted out this last weekend.  seem ok so far..

[stocko75]

its just a trial as i have some little babies in the gh,anyone know when its ok to put chilles out in our new climaate!!

[Melbourne12]

It was pretty chilly (no pun intended) even in the southern climes of Harrow last night, around 6C.  So I think anything like chillies will certainly need a cloche or coldframe for protection for the next week or two.

We've used cloches (bought via Ebuygumbay :) :) ) quite a lot this spring, to very good effect.

[Chris Graham]

we had a bit of frost lastnight (Stirling, Scotland) but everything seems ok.  Marmande still alive!!

[Barnowl]

Despite no apparent frost risk in London,  I'm hedging my bets - most chillies and toms still filling the GH,  some in the CF and some out.

[Trevor_D]

Tomatoes in 5" pots gradually being hardened off: I might start planting out later this week if the forecasts are true.

I wouldn't plant chillies out at all. Grow them under glass. Even in my fairly sheltered garden, aubergines & chillies don't do anything useful outdoors. (They look pretty - if I've got any over I sometimes use 1 or 2 as ornamental spot plants.)

[Barnowl]

I tried two plants (Espanola and Mirasol) up at the allotment last year (put out in July) and they did pretty well.

The poinsettias were in front of south facing wall in the garden

[Barnowl]

PS Didn't like the November frost ;D

[caroline7758]

How long do you take to harden off tomatoes? It's a real faff moving them in & out of the greenhouse every day and I haven't got a tall enough coldframe.

[daisymay]

our definition of hardening off <runs and hides under desk for risk of getting told off> is to just bung stuff in their pots down the side of the greenhouse, where it is very sheltered and hope for the best! They get that for about a week and if they survive that they go in the ground.

Our survival of the fittest approach does work for us more than it doesn't, we have not got time to faff about too much either!

[tim]

I'm close to that, BUT.........http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0504/hardening_off.asp

[quizzical1]

We just leave the GH door and vent open 24/7 to harden plants off.

[caroline7758]

"2 to 6 weeks!". Ok if going straight from a propagator, but not from a cold greenhouse, surely!

[Barnowl]

I think two to six weeks is spoiling them rotten  ;D 

[STHLMgreen]

Wow, beautiful chilli photos.

What should the temperature be (at night) before planting tomatoes out?

[Trevor_D]

"Two to six weeks" - I think a lot of this advice (handed down & rarely tested) comes from The Victorian Kitchen Garden days, when you had staff & had to keep them busy. If you have the time & patience, then trundling stuff out every morning and back every evening does result in very sturdy plants.

In practice, as it's just the two of us and we also have to do all the washing, housework & shopping as well, it's usually give it a taste of the great outdoors and then let them get on with it.

But I still hover and am very nervous about putting things out too early....

[Marymary]

I am still nervous about putting them out but am chucking 6 tomato plants out every morning & back at night - I thought 4 days should do it then onto the next six - all I can cope with every morning before work.  At 2 to 6 weeks it would be September before I had them all out.  ;D

Wonderful chilli plants.