A very rainy day

Today started out warm and dry, so I settled down to do some much needed potting up of herbaceous perennials at my outside potting bench


I managed to do quite a lot of work and had done 20 or so rooted cuttings into pots, when I realised it was getting very dark.

and then I heard a rumble of thunder, and then another.  At this point I decided to get all my stuff off the bench and into the dry. I loaded up the wheelbarrow and two trips saw all the assorted potting paraphernalia into the polytunnel.

 At that point I thought I would go inside and have a drink,


but then the rain started to fall. Epic quantities of water fell from the sky.

 



  And I was trapped in the polytunnel, with no coat, so I decided to stay where I was,


I thought I would have a good look round at all the plants, seedlings, cuttings and check on everything to see how it was faring.

My turmeric has finally sprouted! I planted a bit of rhizome back in Feb, and it has finally grown :-)


 And the Lemongrass has all grown - so I now have far too many plants for me to use - will have to add "lemongrass" to the list of herbs for sale!

 

My temporary prison - not that I minded as I love being in my polytunnel.


Aubergines nearly ready to harvest




Still poring with rain after 30 mins and it was lunchtime so I made a dash for the house - I got very wet!

But I could see the ground soaking up the much needed water like a sponge and all the vegetables immediately perked up and grew a few inches, so I didn't mind in the least getting a bit wet :-)

How I prick out and pot on my tomato plants.

I have been asked quite a few times recently how I grow my tomato plants, a reminder that there is a  "How to " guide on growing tomatoes, peppers and aubergines on the "How to..." tab up the top and I also talk about this subject on my YouTube channel.

But I realised I haven't discussed what I do with the plants once they have germinated so I thought I would do another  "How to" guide,  on pricking out and potting on Tomato plants.

Seed sown Feb 10th 2013, in porch in heated propagator at ~20 C














 March 2nd 2013 - seeds germinated and seed leaves showing.
 
At the end of March the seedlings were pricked out into individual 2 inch pots, with the soil well up the stem so as to encourage aerial roots to grow.



  

April 14th 2013 Plants well grown and need moving from these 2 inch pots into next size (3 inch) pot.

If you click on the photo above, you can see the tiny hairs on the stem - these will form more soil roots if buried.

Again, the stem is covered with soil to encourage the aerial roots ( the tiny hairs) to turn into soil roots - this gives the plant a better root system and so it can take up more nutrients and water.
 

And so we come to today, where I potted some plants on again, this time into 4 inch pots. These are not the same plants as above ( they are now in 6 inch pots and have their first flower trusses) but I thought it would be useful to show how I do this.

I carefully took the plant out of  the old pot. You can see from the photo below how much extra root system has been produced by earthing up the stem each time.

 This is the way I re fill the pot around the plant.

I put the plant in the pot and tilt it away from me,

then gently pour growing medium into the pot on the side nearest to me.

 I then tilt the pot towards me and pour growing medium into the pot on the side furthest away from me.

This puts the plant upright in the pot, and I add more growing medium until the soil level is up to the next pair of true leaves.

I do the same with peppers and aubergines, but do not bury them so deep. I am careful with all the plants not to overwater them, so as to avoid the soft stems rotting. Once the stems are harder (as they age) this is less of an issue.

I will probably pot the tomatoes into larger (6 inch) pots once more, before they go into their final places in the polytunnel, growing individually in builder's buckets standing in gravel trays.

This is what it looked like last year, at the start of July.

I only have 100 or so more plants to pot on, today!

Hope this helps you to understand how I grow them :-)