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hendi_alex
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Tomato seedlings, how are yours doing?

My earliest planting is screaming for the weather to settle so that they can go into the ground here in zone eight.

First batch of seedlings, Juliets, planted in December, is about thirty inches tall counting the three gallon containers. They started blooming this past week. The plants should have fruit by the time they go in the ground in about 4-5 weeks. Will be able to get them back outside in the next day or two as temperatures get back into the sixties and higher.


[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3451/3355791969_271a708bb6.jpg[/img]

Sweet Cluster planted in early February is only about ten inches tall and are not blooming yet. They will be put into gallon sized nursery pots this coming week.

[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3578/3355792253_23db4a96f3.jpg[/img]

Slicers including new varieties and heirlooms planted mid February. Mostly between three and six inches tall. Plants include celebrity, whopper, big beef, big bite, delicious, goliath, brandywine, Cherokee chocolate, German johnson, German queen, and Believe it or Not.

[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3615/3355858597_2d5a65e628.jpg[/img]

[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3425/3355859055_e2111e4226.jpg[/img]

[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3576/3356677352_646f7a4c8f.jpg[/img]

elevenplants
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Mine are looking very similar, with the exception of your big Juliets! Have a little longer to go here in zone 7a, but potted up some on saturday while the moon was in scorpio. They all doing right well. :-)

Rebecca

Cirtes
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My eight early varieties have been out on the patio since late February. They are all 4 feet plus now with fruit on them.

The Black Krim has a huge 6" 'mater on it that is looking like an early one pound gem.

Granted, we did not get a killing frost this winter so I am still picking last year chery tomatoes and most of my 2008 peppers continue to put out flowers and set fruit. Go figure.

The remaining tomatoes are in various stages of growth. I start new seed every month since I gamble with the weather and set out really early.

Here is a peek at my weather station:
[url]https://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KCAWOODL12&day=16&year=2009&month=3&graphspan=month[/url]

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hendi_alex
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Wow, sounds great! Making my mouth water just thinking of one of those big slicers. Even it it were not for the prospects of killing frosts, starting fresh plants makes sense to me as it is always good to replace tired plants with younger more vigorous ones.

su_ju
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I planted Manitoba and Siletz the last week of Feb. and they are still tiny! They aren't spindly, though. They are just now showing signs of their first true leaves :clap: I'm new to this still, so I'm not sure if I was just being impatient, or if this has taken longer than usual (3 weeks). It's fun, though and we are doing better than last year (my first go at gardening) :D

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hendi_alex
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Keep the roots warm, around 70 degrees. Give plenty of light, daylight plus supplemental light totalling 14 hours. Keep the plants moist but not overly wet, and they should grow pretty quickly. When they get to six or eight inches tall, move them into six inch pots, but make sure the soil drains well.

Good luck.

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rainbowgardener
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You all folks in the big number zones just have to rub it in. My tomato seedlings are doing fine. Some look almost like the ones in the cream colored pans and some more like the picture under it with the blue pots in the background. But I have at least three weeks maybe a month before I can put them in the ground, here in zone 6. (And at that I plant mine earlier than most folks around here.)

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applestar
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I just sowed my tomato and bell pepper seeds yesterday... :D

For these I'm using the quart and pint plastic berry containers as flats. I loosely filled them to the top, tapped the bottoms a couple of times to settle the soil mix, then mounded and screed off the excess with a ruler. I lined some of the with a paper towel to see it that would keep the soil from washing out, but I was concerned that it might hinder drainage, so left some without. Filled this way, you can get the full 3" soil depth recommended by Jeavons.

I was able to plant 4~6 seeds at 1" SQUARE spacing in pint containers (some were square others were slightly rectangular) and 8 in quart containers. -- some authors like Jeavons recommend the more dense TRIANGULAR spacing because these first seedlings are supposed to be pricked out, not cut apart into blocks, but I wanted the extra maneuvering space since this in my first experiment using the "flat" method.

Set them in water to soak up and drain, then sprayed from top to thoroughly moisten, closed the lids and put them on a shelf next to a sunny window upstairs. If it's not sunny enough, then I'll have to give them some holiday lights to sit on. :wink:

Now I just have to usher the cold hardy transplants out of the Grow Light Area in time for these guys to move in. It'll need to be re-arranged to accommodate these heat-lovers too. I hope I timed this (seed sowing) right, because the temp went down to 28ºF this morning outside and Grow Light Area temp in the garage was 45ºF. :roll:

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hendi_alex
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Applestar, I plant mine in mini flats, four or five seeds per three inch container using very loose soil. When the first true leaves appear, the soil and plants are tapped out and plants separated. It doesn't seem to matter whether the plants retain any soil or not. Stick them in their individual pot, water, let them rest in an enclosed shady spot for a day, and then they are ready for the sun and wind the next day. Those apparently very tender transplants are not really so tender after all!

Rainbowgardener, three weeks or a month until in the ground? I've got over a month until the safe planting date here in zone eight. Though we never use cloches or other protectors to fudge the "in ground" planting. Around April 10th I will peek at the long range weather forecast, and if no freeze is indicated, will plant a few tomatoes at that time. But most all tender plants are always planted after the third week in April.

Here is a pretty neat site. Shows the range of last freeze dates for most any city in all 50 states.

https://climate.usurf.usu.edu/reports/freezeDates.php

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rainbowgardener
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Thanks, Alex, I like the website. I thought it was interesting, it had a number of different points around Cincinnati (not all of which I could recognize from their abbreviations) with a big range of average last frost dates, from 4/3 to 4/23. That seems huge, more than the difference from one zone to the next. I've always said our 50% last frost date is 4/15, where I am, not that far from downtown (urban heat island). However those averages are based on a hundred years of data, not on the last ten years of global warming temps. I would guess these days it's considerably less than 50% of the time we have a frost after 4/15. Anyway, somewhere around 4/1, I start watching the temps very close and move the tomatoes out to my greenhouse. The greenhouse is not heated and not all that tight, so it just gives them a little protection. If we get a freeze, I still can bring them back in the house. Depending on what the weather does, by or before the 15th they go in the ground, with cloches. Then I just watch real close and if we do get a freeze they get blankets for the night. The soil isn't real warm at that point, so they don't grow a lot, but they are getting themselves established, so once it warms up, they just take off. I have tomatoes in June when no one else in the neighborhood has any til after the 4th of July ... It's a little risky and I've been known to kill off a few plants, but I keep some for back up. I do Early Girly, Quick Pick, and a beefsteak (this year it's Big Beef). The Quick Pick particularly tolerates the cold soil and gets going early. It's called being an impatient gardener. :D

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hendi_alex
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I know how that goes, as am always trying to push the harvest date a little earlier. My Juliets usually ripen in early May, large salad tomatoes come next in mid to late May, with the slicers not ripening before mid June. Still, the average person around here doesn't get tomatoes of any kind until late June or early July. I'm thinking of building a couple of mini greenhouses to place over tomatoes placed in the ground early, will put an infrared heat bulb inside each to warm them on extra cool evenings. Will also place black plastic a couple feet around on the ground, to heat it a little quicker. Perhaps will be a project for next spring.

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applestar
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Thanks for the tip, Alex. I guess tomatoes seedlings are pretty sturdy!
I won't be so concerned about the transplant process now. :wink:
Bookmarked the freeze date website too....

su_ju
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Now I'm going to show my utter ignorance! My tomatoes had ceased to progress in their growth, so I added lights and heat as per Alex's advice. I had been waiting for the first true leaves to appear before transplanting them out of the little seed tray-thingy they were sprouted in...and waiting... and waiting... Finally, I potted them up in compost in paper cups, and voila! Happy little plants again!! :clap: The true leaves came out quickly and continue to grow. Yipee!! Chalk that up as another lesson learned!

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hendi_alex
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Congratulations! It is quite exciting to watch healthy plants develop.

IMO much more rewarding than going to Lowes and buying them off of the shelf. However, I do buy quite a few seedlings from both Lowes and a local nursery as don't have room or inclination to start everything from seed.

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tomatodude
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I wouldn't really call it a seedling, but my Stupice is my number one for an early producer...and the flavor,,,wow..great..

[img]https://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g187/atascosa_tx/stupice.jpg[/img]

pepper4
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Saw pics. of Alex's tomato plants. I wish I had a way send send pics of mine because I'm not sure if they're on track with growth or maybe I'm just being impatient. I planted beefsteak and sweet 100 hybrid from seed The first part of February. They look healthy. Nice and green with 4-5 leaves. I am just concerned because they are only about 4 inches tall. Is that about right after 8 weeks or so? They get plenty of heat and light. I have read alot of posts. Some talk about eggshells, coffee grounds, miracle grow to name a few. Is there something else I should be doing or adding to the soil to boost growth or am I just being paranoid? Bambi

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hendi_alex
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Here we are in early April. Another three weeks until planting time. Frost coming for two days early next week and I'll be out of the country. What to do? What to do? Have white flies in the greenhouse, so am hesitant for the plants to go in there, but have little alternative. Can't keep them inside the house for a week.

Anyway here are some of my plants grown from seed, show in the first series of photos in this thread. They seem to be making very good progress.

Oldest batch, started in December. One blew off the porch this week and lost the top few inches of the main stem. Have 4 this size.


[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3144/3409879748_7a6a7e25e8.jpg[/img]

This batch was started in February. A little wilted from the wind, just watered them.


[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3629/3409071695_76e31a0be4.jpg[/img]

This batch started in mid February. Recently moved into one gallon pots. Size will jump over the next couple of weeks.

[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3308/3409069681_f576de309c.jpg[/img]

One of the plants from the first photo has a couple of clusters of fruit. Will be ripe before the end of April, which is pretty good for here in zone 8.

[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3321/3409885152_766a53d1e6.jpg[/img]

[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3100/3409884634_f66784ed6f.jpg[/img]

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hendi_alex
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Bambi, I wouldn't be concerned as long as the plants look thick and have a healthy green color. We have mostly had very warm days and my plants have been outside during the day time for most days since mid February. When the soil gets warm and you put the plants in the garden, they will jump. As said earlier, make sure you get the plants outside as soon as possible and make sure that they are hardened properly to avoid sun scald and wind burn.

The Helpful Gardener
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I'm a fan of some of those Eastern European varieties too, Dude; did Black Krim last year and loved what little we got (BAD weather for tomatoes here last year). I have heard good things about Stupice (which is Czech, I think, but I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong...)

HG

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hendi_alex
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Posted this somewhere else, but this year is a year for experimenting with a few new heirlooms. Cherokee Chocolate is one of my choices. Next year will be sure to include both Black Krim and Carbon both of which appear repeatedly on superlatives lists.

The Helpful Gardener
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Darker means more lycopene which means better for you (Lycopene is a super antioxidant) AND more tomato flavor. I do 'Cherokee Purple' and like that one too... fun to mix colors because if you are doing a plate of slices it just looks great... 'Yellow Pear' was kind of smallish on fruit, but tasty, a little tarter, and ' Striped German' was pretty last year, but not so abundant (we had a BAD year, cool rainy summer)

HG

petalfuzz
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I just started my seeds yesterday! That is one week earlier than last year. We've had a bit of a cold snap, so they're hanging out in the laundry room until the garage warms back up--or until they start sprouting!

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BrianSkilton
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Right now I have a jungle of tomato plants, that are looking very good, and growing fast. I have Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Red Beef Steak, Yellow Brandy wine, Cherry Tomatoes, Yellow Pear, Matt's Wild Cherry, Grape Tomatoes (from grocery store experiment)...and I think that's it. I have to keep them inside for at least another month and a half and they are getting pretty huge. I will post pictures later. Happy Growing ALL!

Cirtes
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I picked my first Black Krim of the season. It was heavenly! I was moving to a new house these past two weeks so I split it with the movers and we just ate it like an apple. It was pure delight. Big sucker too at ~ 12 Oz.

Black Krim beat all my other early varieties including Fireworks and Aunt Ginny's Sugar Gem. I lost a bunch of tomato clusters from both of these plants in the move but they will recover.

At long last I can go and put everything in the ground.

elevenplants
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My Cherokee Purple and the Carbon (both started later than my others) are just POKING along....and not looking too good at that. They'll be late going in the ground, so I'm hoping....

Rebecca



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