Moving tomato seedlings into greenhouse

j@utis

It is time? or it's a bit too early? Some of my seedlings are asking for a bigger pots already.Are nights still too cold? what about cucumbers? My greenhouse is 6mm polycarbonate on wooden frame. It's roasting in there during the day but it might be too chilly at night. What you think?

redser7

It depends on the particular day and night temps. Check the forecast each day and act accordingly. I've been using a double layer of fleece when it is forecast for 5 or 6 or higher. Any lower and I bring them into the kitchen for the night.

Supercell

Mine have been in the greenhouse since i planted them. In fact i already put a couple into the ground as I'm running out of space in the greenhouse with all the other things getting going in there My location is close to the sea so we don't really get that cold overnight and more than likely have seen the last of the frost by now.

j@utis

I meant planting them into the ground. I left thermometer in the greenhouse last night. This morning it showed lowest temperature recorded overnight was +10.3C. Tonight I'm leaving it buried under 15cm of soil. I think tomatoes need +15C soil temp to be happy..

redser7

We could still get a fair few cold nights. I'd advise you to be patient a little while longer.

lordgoat

I got 5 plants for fairly cheap, so I have 2 inside patio doors in big pots, 2 in greenhouse and 1 in the ground.

All doing good so far. Pretty much a novice when it comes to Tomatoes in particular, so any advice welcomed.

redser7

Well the idea would be to bring them on now without a check in their growth. Things like too cold, too dry etc can check their growth. So cover any plants that might get cold. Use horticultural fleece or even newspaper on the ones outside the house at night. Pot them up into larger pots when they need it ie. when the root are starting to circle the inside of the pot. The final pot size for toms would be minimum 10 litre.
When the first plant flowers and sets first fruit you can start to feed it a liquid tomato feed.
If you plants are cordon types, grow them up bamboos or hang a string from the greenhouse roof and grow them up that. Snap off any sideshoots that appear (they are the shoots that grow in the axis between the main stem and a leaf branch).
Always best to water plants in pots from below by sitting them in a tray of water. Water from below, feed from the top.
Just some general pointers. Hope they help ...

j@utis

redser7 wrote: »

We could still get a fair few cold nights. I'd advise you to be patient a little while longer.

Checked the temperature this morning: minimum +11.9C under the soil. Next is to check the temp on the windowsill. It might be as chilly in there behind the curtains. I'm not moving them into greenhouse for another 1.5 weeks

redser7

But the air temp in my greenhouse went down to 1 last night. There was ice on the window. If you plant them out be sure to use some fleece. Thing is, the cold might not kill them so you think you get away with it. But it could be checking them and slowing their growth a lot. You wont visibly notice it but the truth is you might end up getting less fruit and a few weeks later than if you had protected them better. The other thing they don't like is big fluctuations in temp.