Marmande tomatoes advice

pat2167

Hi. I've started growing tomatoes for the first time this year. I bought a packet of Marmande with a mini propagator from Lidl last month. There was very little info on a pack. I have no clue how tall they will be and when to start feeding them. At the moment seedlings have 5-6 sets of true leaves and have been re-potted twice. Can I grow them in the plastic grow bags or they will be too shallow for the root system? I'm thinking to place some of them in grow bags or pots along sheltered house walls. Any advice welcome.

Hillybilly4

They aren't the tallest variety - more a bush type. What I've done in the past is to partially sink a pot with its bottom cut out into a growbag or trough, to give the roots more depth of soil. Or one growbag on top of another would work too. The fruit are large and heavy so the plants do require support. Hope that helps!

CelticRambler

I've grown them in the past (from seed) and they get to about 1.5m with minimal pruning. They're grand, as far as the plants go, but I never really liked the "crinkly" shape of the tomatoes themselves, even though I have nothing against ugly fruit & veg in general. Haven't grown them for a few years now, but I think they all ended up being chopped up for soup and sauce and I used a smoother variety for salads and sandwiches.

2011abc

Yeah most beef steak / big varieties sacrifice flavour for size.I think I grew the Lidl Marmande last year too in polytunnel and they were no better than average at disease resistance . You can put a lot of effort into dozens of seedlings at this time of year to end up with only a few survivors .Far better to buy bigger plants from Lidl /garden centers .In mid July when growing at an astronomical rate weekly prunings will be far bigger than seedlings after 2 months .And you can just pop them in soil to create a tomato forest

pat2167

Thanks very much for the advice, folks. Not knowing what to expect I was slightly frightened as tomatoes started to take over all window space. I'll start building a supporting rail this week, so looking forward to setting them outside.