- Eliminate growth arrest after planting out
- This is how tomato fruits become plump and stately
- tips and tricks
The problem gradually comes to light or the hobby gardener suddenly realizes: the tomatoes just don't want to grow. Find out here what causes it and how growth can be stimulated again.
Eliminate growth arrest after planting out
If sowing and pricking out were normal, young tomatoes don't seem to like moving to the bed at all. After planting outdoors, the tomato plants stop growing. The following triggers are usually behind growth arrest:
- Tomatoes are not hardened
- Planting was too early
- no protection against ground frost
- unsuitable location
Tomato plants must be hardened off before moving outdoors. To do this, they spend every day on the partially shaded balcony for a week, returning to the house overnight. The sensitive plants are finally allowed outdoors in mid-May at the earliest. There they are protected from the cold under fleece or in the foil tunnel (€11.46). They can only grow in a sunny, warm location.
This is how tomato fruits become plump and stately
If a tomato plant grows tall, the volume of the fruit sometimes falls far short of expectations. Inexperienced hobby gardeners are faced with a puzzle here, because all care aspects have been carefully considered. If the tomato fruits do not want to grow any further, the solution to the riddle is to use too little.
If a tomato plant develops too many side shoots, it costs a lot of energy. Instead of growing magnificent fruits, it constantly branches out. All that remains is energy for many small tomatoes. You counteract this hustle and bustle by breaking out the stinging shoots with your fingers several times a week. These sterile side shoots grow out of the leaf axils and have to give way.
The situation is more differentiated when the plants cultivated are vine tomatoes. These tomato varieties are said to branch widely and develop a bushy habit. Therefore, there is no stinging here.
tips and tricks
It is a completely natural process when freshly planted tomatoes stop growing in the first two weeks. It is therefore advisable to have a little patience at first and not immediately lapse into hectic activism.