I would say a 4 plant maximum for smallish tomato plants in that container such as a red robbin. They look leggy to me as well which probably means light is too low.

This is a good place to visit.

http://www.containerseeds.com/products/veggies/tomatoes.html

the red robbin is a good low light variety as well with broad leaves that collect light well.. for example.

Laurie,

Sorry but thats not gonna work at all. WAY, WAY too many.

Depending on the variety you may need to thin down to as few as one and from nothing to a substantial support system.

They need lots of light and as they get bigger, a fair amount of water and nutrients.

If you know the variety, you could try looking at the site below for some size info.

Best of Luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Files

And special halide lights will be needed if you want them to bloom indoors unless you have a greenhouse? Normal spectrum indoor lighting with supplemental sunlight will allow them to grow as green plants but to force blooms broad spectrum will be required.

Any way you can transplant them to larger or individual containers and put them outside?

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: How To Grow Tomatoes Indoors

I would agree, put those outside. Indoor fruiting plants is kind of a holy grail. The easiest is the leafy green stuff with root types in the middle.
You can garden with even ordinary florescent lights especially with supplemental light from a window but you must choose the right things to grow. Grow lights are even better. Parsley and green onion does real well indoors for example. You can do tomatoes like Red Robbin with no special equipment and I used a 120W florescent grow light(that is very low end) with no natural light since I don't have any good south facing windows. They are universally accepted to be good low light and can set fruit indoors with out much help.

Here is one I have outdoors. I had a few extra annuals and just stuck them in with this tiny Tom.

Start over with this indoors and leave it in your window and if you get enough light you may not even need artificial light. If it needs help a cheap florescent will do. You can save seeds and keep growing. In that space do 3.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/74494/

Thanks for your advice guys,

I can move them outside as I can plant them in tyres, space is limited so how many plants in one tyre and how many tyres should I pile on top of each other in order to allow the roots to grow? The tyres is 21" in diamater and 7" deep?

Thanks again laurie :(

Laurie,

Its really impossible to properly advise how large your spot should be without knowing the variety. Many plants routinely grow 8 feet tall or more and need substantial support systems, scant few have ultimate heights shorter than 3 ft.

Some Cherries especially are notorious for being monsterous plants.

Your tires stacked 1,2 or 3 tall may be able to hold several very succesfully or only one.

It also matters what your tires will be placed on. An impervious surface that will heat up harshly in the sun, or earthen contact where native moisture and temps will help moderate extremes.

Putting aside the debate over growing in tires because of the chemical leaching concerns - I'd go 2 tires tall. As to how many in each - it depends on the variety you use.

What is the name/type (bush, dwarf, det. or indet.)? Small ones could go 2 or 3. The big indeterminates - 1 plant. But that is just a guess without knowing the variety/type. ;)

Dave

It would be nice to know what it is but this will work all around. If space is limited and I were doing it I would use 5 gallon buckets and I am doing a bit more of this these days. You may not get the biggest plant in the neighborhood but it will get plenty big and 5 gallon containers are in the sweet spot of yield per square foot of soil which seems to be in a range of 1/2 to 2 square feet of soil. If you grow say 2 plants in 1 and 1/2 square feet you will generally get around the same productivity from 3 square feet and 1 plant if it a large plant. If it smaller than 1 plant will hurt your yield.
The reason I like 5 gal is by using good potting soil I am probably as good as anyone in a 10 gallon container using good top soil. It is simply a manageable size. The advantages are as follows.

1. Portable. Plant too close? Not getting enough sun? Move them. If there will be a frost you can move them in the garage. Anything over 5 gallon is a pain to move. You can grow a beast of a plant even in this space. I put some in a portable green house this year. I have Sun until mid-May in the back yard and then moved them once the weather was better.

2. Reduce transplanting. Put seedling into its container once and never transplant again.

3. Harden plants. 5 gal buckets can be moved into shade , partial shade and then sun with ease.

4. Soil born disease? Empty contents into black garbage bag and leave in the driveway for a month. You now have recovered valuable peat and vermiculite growing medium and may be mixed with compost.

This is an inspiring example.

http://www.el34world.com/Misc/Garden/Images/IMG_0516.jpg

http://www.el34world.com/Misc/Garden/Garden.htm

Hi

I have found the seed instructions all it says is that they are:

cherry tomato cerise (lycopersicon lycopersicum)

I have thinned them out removing all the thinner stems, I have around ten plants left now which I plan on either potting individually in 9" wide 9" deep pots, or three plants to two tyres.

I put them outside for a couple of hours today to get them used to being outside.

I plan on planting the stems deep to try and reduce the legginess.

I ahve not used fertiliser, do I have to wait until they have flowered to use this? I bought tomato rite.

Once again many thanks for all your advice

Finally found it! ;) Not found/available in the US apparently so the name didn't ring any bells.

Tomato 'Cherry Cerise'

Produces heavy crops of small bite sized fruits with a delicious sweet flavour. Great in salads or Mediterranean style pasta dishes. Requires staking.

When to plant: Early Spring to early Summer
How to grow: Sow 5mm (quarter-inch) deep in pots or trays of seed raising mix or compost. Transplant to 10-15cm (4-6in) pots in a warm sunny spot and to final position when sturdy enough. Space plants 50cm (20in) apart and support with a stake. Water daily and feed regularly when the first truss has set. Pinch out side shoots.
Harvest: When red-ripe

So it is an indeterminate variety since it requires staking and they recommend some side-shoot removal (that is optional). So I'd say 1 plant to each set of tires for best production. But that's just a general guide based on their recommended spacing as no personal experience with it here.

Hope this helps. ;)

Dave

OK, A spelling error caused me to come up with nothing on plant size the first time and this time, I find two different spellings but possibly the same plant.

From Tatiana's,

http://t-garden.homeip.net/mwiki/index.php/Cerise_Orange

From Dave's,

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/88693/

From Tomato Fest,

http://store.tomatofest.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=cerise&Search.x=23&Search.y=23

Indeterminant type. TF describes them as "big, sprawling regular leaf"

A 9" pot won't do.

Good Luck!

Thanks guys,

digdirt - the pciture on my seed packet matches the info that you found, i couldnt find any, only the orange cerise and mines are red. Seemingly they are new.

One final question, have my plants got trusses? ( i am new to this i know it seems dumb) should I start feeding them?

Included an updated picture link

Thanks once again:)

Here is a link that might be useful:

Do they have trusses? Yes. Sorry, I meant to give you the link to the picture/info. I linked it below. ;) As to feeding, I can tell you what I would do. When you transplant them, mix a good dose of time-release or a good, dry tomato fertilizer in the planting hole. Then, when they develop blooms, feed them again.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Cherry Cerise

Cerise Orange has long been available in the US.

In 1992 Bill Minkey,a great SSE friend of mine, and I were contacted by a Frenchman who wanted to trade varieties. And Cerise Orange was one of about 100 varieties that Bill and I got into the US that hadn't been here before.

I could mention many of them that are now household names that many of you would recognize but that would require my doing some thinking, and I'm not up to it. LOL

I've grown it. It's indeterminate with RL foliage.

It's been listed in the SSE Yearbooks since 1994 but I haven't kept track of when or if it got out and has been offered commercially.

Carolyn

Hi guys just thought I'd let u know that my plants are now beginning to flower outside, here's hoping that tomatoes come next! Got off to a ropy start but hopefully I'll have an easier time next year, thanks for all ur advice:)