Last frost is this week (or so I am informed by hearsay) so I transplanted the harbinger and cherry tomatoes out in the balcony greenhouse.

I first planted the tomatoes in seed trays in February. Then, in early March I moved two of each type (harbinger and cherry) to their own containers (10-15 cm in diameter).  They grew much bigger than the ones we maintained in the seed tray.  Indeed the tomato plant that was transferred to the largest pot was considerably larger than the rest after a couple of weeks so I would recommend transplanting out of seed trays into 15-20cm containers if you can manage the space.

Transplanting to the Greenhouse

Today I transplanted the tomatoes into much deeper pots in the balcony greenhouse. The transplanting procedure amounted to:

1. Find a container about 40 cm deep to transplant into, one for each plant.
2. Fill 2/3 with compost.
3. Make a well in the centre of the compost as far down as you can. My well was about 25 cm.
4. Upend the tomato plant’s current pot to remove it. You may want to gently loosen some of the roots to encourage them to spread.
5. Place the plant in the well and fill around it with more compost. Don’t worry if some leaves are covered. The deep transplanting encourages root growth throughout the container. Maximizing space and resource usage is the name of the game!
6. Place a stake of some kind (I used bamboo) alongside the stem of each plant. The tomato can then be tied to this as it grows to help it stay upright. Adding a stake later may disturb the roots so it’s best to do at the same time as transplanting. With little wind in the greenhouse, the stem will not strengthen as it would outside.
7. Water the plants with some tomato fertilizer. Generic fertilizers might have too much nitrogen and cause excessive foliage growth. A good deal of water will help the newly transplanted plant to bed-in well.

I put the two large containers for the harbingers at the base of the greenhouse and the two cherry plants in hanging baskets at the top. I may hang the hanging baskets out at some stage but for the moment I’m letting them aclimatize to outdoors in the greenhouse. Putting them vertically above the other tomato plants again saves on space.

The greenhouse is very flimsy so I have my fingers crossed as to its durability. Putting the heavy deep containers on the bottom shelf at least adds stability and prevents a high centre of gravity-related disaster.

I am also slightly concerned at the short time for which the greenhouse gets direct sunlight (about 10:00 – 14.30 each day). I guess only time will tell whether I am being paranoid or I’ll have to rethink the light issues. And this is before the plants start doing complicated things like putting each other in shade with their leaves!

It’s worth mentioning that the the harbinger tomatoes are indeterminate. This means that, all going to plan, they should deliver their tomatoes in a steady flow rather than all at once. This is a bit better than the prospect of eating tomato bread with tomato soup for three meals a day all summer (he said optimistically!).