Nursing tomatoes to death

natasha · April 23, 2007

Well, it is all over now and I'm not as emotional as I was when all this happened, so I'm ready to entertain you with a story how I killed my parents-in-low tomatoes.
They went on long holiday and left me in charge of their seedlings. Tomatoes were started back in January and were kept in their spare west-facing bedroom, without grow lights and about 1.5 m from the window. So when I saw the plants they were about 12-15cm tall but spindly and couldn't stand straight, also my father-in-low likes to spray the foliage several times a day, rather than watering the soil when it needs watering. Compost the plants were in, was the cheapest you can find. You see, I try to find an excuse for myself. I guess all these things made the foliage grow and roots didn't develop properly. After an hour drive from their house to ours the plants were sad but still alive. I thought I'll make them better and positioned them on a top shelf of my greenhouse next to my plants, which was such a horrible mistake because sun shock and cold night killed 2/3 of the given plants.
I was so disappointed in myself, I should have chosen a shady spot to get them acclimatized better and replant them deeper straight away, because I saw that there is no much of a root system and when I inspected the dead plants the roots were about 1-1.5 cm long, but I was a silly cow, thinking that things will go better by themselves.
I went to the garden centre last week and bought the same variety my father-in-low grows, so that I can do a switch.
Still have 5 plants of the original bunch, but only one of them looks good, the others are still a bit dodgy.

Sherry_AK · April 23, 2007

You are a good daughter-in-law to take care of this! Is it the first time he's grown tomatoes? Seems like he might not be too well-informed to use such methods.

Good luck with the switch.

Sherry

ddsack · April 23, 2007

I sympathize, Natasha. I can understand how you would want to quickly get the spindly tomatoes into better conditions. I have a tendency to rush things myself. If a little sun is good, a lot must be alot better, right?!?

I'm sure you will amaze your PIL with how well "their" tomatoes have done in their absence.

Dee

feldon30 · April 23, 2007

There's a thread over on GW of someone who thought you could take plants from a garage to full sun in a greenhouse. And these were very healthy looking plants until that happened. They were burned to a crisp. I know nothing about greenhouses, but I would be inclined to treat them as 60-80% sunlight and the potential for a lot of heat and humidity, more than outside. So I would do the whole hardening off procedure if moving plants from indoors to a greenhouse, maybe shaving off 1-2 days. Better yet, read the Greenhouse forum here at T'Ville. They actually do this for a living/hobby.

So you are certainly not alone and I don't think you have anything to be ashamed of as the plants were already very compromised. I would suggest just growing plants for them next year and send them a bill.

Oh wait, they're your parents.

Ask for extra allowance.

natasha · April 24, 2007

Thank you good people for all these replies.
It was a good lesson for me and I'm sure that my father-in-low will be astonished to see how well "his" plants performed in his absence. You see he is very good at growing houseplants, they all flourish in his care and live for ages, but tomatoes are not the same... It is difficult for him to break his habits and treat them differently from houseplants.

April 23, 2007	#1
natasha Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: nottingham, UK Posts: 21	Nursing tomatoes to death Well, it is all over now and I'm not as emotional as I was when all this happened, so I'm ready to entertain you with a story how I killed my parents-in-low tomatoes. They went on long holiday and left me in charge of their seedlings. Tomatoes were started back in January and were kept in their spare west-facing bedroom, without grow lights and about 1.5 m from the window. So when I saw the plants they were about 12-15cm tall but spindly and couldn't stand straight, also my father-in-low likes to spray the foliage several times a day, rather than watering the soil when it needs watering. Compost the plants were in, was the cheapest you can find. You see, I try to find an excuse for myself. I guess all these things made the foliage grow and roots didn't develop properly. After an hour drive from their house to ours the plants were sad but still alive. I thought I'll make them better and positioned them on a top shelf of my greenhouse next to my plants, which was such a horrible mistake because sun shock and cold night killed 2/3 of the given plants. I was so disappointed in myself, I should have chosen a shady spot to get them acclimatized better and replant them deeper straight away, because I saw that there is no much of a root system and when I inspected the dead plants the roots were about 1-1.5 cm long, but I was a silly cow, thinking that things will go better by themselves. I went to the garden centre last week and bought the same variety my father-in-low grows, so that I can do a switch. Still have 5 plants of the original bunch, but only one of them looks good, the others are still a bit dodgy.

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April 23, 2007	#2
Sherry_AK Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Alaska Zone 3/4 Posts: 1,857	You are a good daughter-in-law to take care of this! Is it the first time he's grown tomatoes? Seems like he might not be too well-informed to use such methods. Good luck with the switch. Sherry

April 23, 2007	#3
ddsack Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Northern Minnesota - zone 3 Posts: 3,231	I sympathize, Natasha. I can understand how you would want to quickly get the spindly tomatoes into better conditions. I have a tendency to rush things myself. If a little sun is good, a lot must be alot better, right?!? I'm sure you will amaze your PIL with how well "their" tomatoes have done in their absence. Dee

April 23, 2007	#4
feldon30 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 5,346	There's a thread over on GW of someone who thought you could take plants from a garage to full sun in a greenhouse. And these were very healthy looking plants until that happened. They were burned to a crisp. I know nothing about greenhouses, but I would be inclined to treat them as 60-80% sunlight and the potential for a lot of heat and humidity, more than outside. So I would do the whole hardening off procedure if moving plants from indoors to a greenhouse, maybe shaving off 1-2 days. Better yet, read the Greenhouse forum here at T'Ville. They actually do this for a living/hobby. So you are certainly not alone and I don't think you have anything to be ashamed of as the plants were already very compromised. I would suggest just growing plants for them next year and send them a bill. Oh wait, they're your parents. Ask for extra allowance.

April 24, 2007	#5
natasha Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: nottingham, UK Posts: 21	Thank you good people for all these replies. It was a good lesson for me and I'm sure that my father-in-low will be astonished to see how well "his" plants performed in his absence. You see he is very good at growing houseplants, they all flourish in his care and live for ages, but tomatoes are not the same... It is difficult for him to break his habits and treat them differently from houseplants.