Tomatoes

[igenlode]

I potted up the five surviving towel-tomatoes in the big but relatively shallow tray, which were the only ones that have really thrived and thickened up -- although they had a worryingly low proportion of root to crown when I got them out, often a very small proportion indeed... (and there was still loose compost round the far edge of the tray, so the roots simply hadn't expanded that far, as opposed to being hopelessly cramped and tangled). I put the three biggest into what may end up being their final pots -- I only have a few of the even-larger pots -- since these seemed the right size relative to the leaf mass, even if that meant a small root-ball in the middle of a very large pot. The two smaller ones I put into rather smaller pots, with the idea of probably giving them away later if the second batch of towel-tomatoes successfully comes through. I don't want to waste too much compost; it took forever to wet and mix enough compost from the various bags to fill all those big pots, and there isn't that much left in any of the bags. (It is all very dry now, so quite hard to rehydrate. I have been told that this is dangerous and leads to toxic particles, and thus you should always reseal your half-used compost bags...!)

The towel-tomato that previously lost most of its root when being repotted looks as if it is on the way out, which doesn't really surprise me. I should probably have pinched out the top to reduce the amount of water loss while (if) it was developing new roots. On the other hand, the seedling that was leaning does appear to have stablised itself as opposed to withering and collapsing.

The Roma tomatoes *finally* seem to have turned the corner and are starting to look more vigorous, and much to my surprise we have a chive seedling -- and possibly a second. And what may be a second and extremely delayed nasturtium; I had assumed that the seeds which had not germinated had simply rotted away by this point. (Zero signs of any of the non-germinated dwarf peas showing up as 'pea-shoots', and the two that were previously showing some sign of life in that pot are very small compared to the ones that were properly sprouted before going into the soil.)

I have sprinkled yet another batch of orange poppy little black dust seed across the soil, which must consist of a high proportion of dead poppy seed at this point! The single adult orange poppy plant is on the verge of opening its bud, and the yellow poppy has two flowers open and another one already over.