Yes, knock yourself out. Just make sure the seeds are covered - does not need to be deeper than that. I am very haphazard about planting depth in wsing and have very high germination success rates.

Thank you spartangardener.

Bigdaddyj,

Good question. I was wondering the same thing.

BigDaddyJ,

I want to thank you very much for making this post both here and on Growing Tomatoes. On this forum there's very little controversy about WSing toms because the method is based on any plant's ability to reseed. In my garden tomatoes reseed like weeds--it's a no brainer here. In colder regions they will still succesfully reseed, but for a Winter Sower there is wisdom in choosing tomatoes that will crop ripe fruits in your growing period. In other words, if you live in zone five or colder, choose short season toms that have an estimated maturity of 75 DTM or less--the shorter your growing season, the lesser amount of DTM means ripe fruits.

As a reminder, for anyone that needs tomato seeds I do have a long list to choose from available on my trade page for you to select from. Many great tomato gardeners on the internet have shared seeds with me so that I can distribute them to you.

Trudi

Here is a link that might be useful: A list of tomatoes for SASE, please choose six and four defaults

I wait until about 1 month before last frost because I winter sow and then pop the seedlings in the cold frame before I plant them out.
Our soils probably won't freeze at all much anymore now, so the seedlings will germinate quickly in those sun warmed containers. If we get a hard frost, ZAP! I lost a lot last year because of that freeze snap we had. Some years we don't get a freeze and they are fine. However, the cold frame tides me over and I don't have to worry then. In Atlanta my last freeze date is March 30th so I start my seedlings in a few weeks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Last Freeze Dates in Georgia - map and info.

Trudi, when you say your maters reseed do mean in the following season or the same growing season. I don't recall ever seeing mine reseed her in zone 6, just curious.

Romas re-seed here the next season in Columbus, Ohio.

Hi Rich,

I have a large tomato garden and sometimes I don't pick them all and get them inside--an overripe tomato will drop to the ground; and under all the petunias or marigolds beneath my plants I won't see it. It breaks down into the soil over the winter and in spring I will find a nice and healthy cluster of tomato seedlings where that tom had dropped. Also, when I do find dropped fruits I chuck them onto the compost heap and those breakdown too--those seeds are just as viable--my compost heap is alive in spring with tomato seedlings there too.

If you've been diligent with cleaning up your garden at the end of season and remove all the dropped tomatoes from the ground you're not going to get volunteer seedlings the next spring.

I'm not particularly diligent--and with the heavy ground cover in the beds I'm not going to find any but the most obvious tomatoes. The tomatoes are on the ground, they break down over winter, the seeds become one with the soil--and come spring the seeds sprout and poke up their leaves to the sun. Tomatoes do reseed like weeds here.

T

Trudi,

Thank you for all the good advice over on the Tomato forum.

And yes I get a few cherry tomato volunteers each year. I am pretty good with fall garden clean-up but a few SunGold cherries always seem to fall through the mulch.

The thing is, by the time the volunteers show up my indoor sown and fussed over plants are alreay a foot or two tall and bushy and have a big head start over volunteers. Now, if I can get similar results as you (We have similar weather) and my WS "pop" around May 1 then the time difference between my WS and indoor fussed-over won't be so great. And then THAT would be great! I hate fussing over all these flats of seedlings each year...:)

BDJ,

For all of us, our experience has been that WS tomatoes go into the ground small but do catch up in size to indoor or store bought transplants as soon as the weather gets warmer. They may seem small at first, but that's only the topgrowth. When you look at your puny little WS seedlings you will be amazed at their root systems--they have very well established root systems, and its these great roots which are so important to fluid and nutrient uptake. Cropping starts about a week or two later in comparison to indoor-started transplants, but seems to go on much longer.

WSing toms makes plants that are attuned to a natural cropping period--if you want the earliest tomatoes on your block then this is not the method for you, but if you want plants that are still going strong when all else have crapped out, then WS is the way to go.

I can talk about this until I'm blue in the face, but I hope other people will chime in and tell about their experiences so you know exactly what to expect. I won't start my tom seds any other way ;-)

T

I usually winter- sow my tomatoes sometime in March, then transfer them to pots until they get a bit bigger before planting out in the garden. I've had too many dug up by squirrels & critters, so I baby them a bit until they're stronger. . .
My San Marzano tomatoes that were winter-sown year before last were the most prolific, sturdiest plants I've ever seen! They produced all the way to frost! I found a few volunteers last year and love it when I do find them. I think they are hardier, since they were the seeds that survived all the weather, etc. Natural winter-sowing! :) Can't wait to see what springs up this year!

Thanks Trudi, you hit the nail on the head, although I'm not overly diligent in cleaning up in the fall I do remove most of the spent plants and used to till every spring and fall. I no longer till but now I cover my beds with compost and chopped oak leaves for the winter. No volunteers here.

Okay then - here's my WS tomato experience from last year (first year to try WSing).

I sowed the tomato seeds in the same order as I usually would, i.e. longest DTM to shortest. I don't keep much in the way of records, but I know I began on 21 January with 80 and 85-day varieties and continued on through mid-March.

I had the best success with sowing only 3 seeds per milk jug. I didn't have puny plants, they were bushy with sturdy, fat stems. This could've been because of:

• Beginner's luck

• The jugs being set in a raised bed directly up against the house with full southern exposure

• The fact that I didn't set them out until late May due to more-unpredictable-than-usual weather, or

• All of the above

Once I set the jugs outside I utterly neglected them - no peeking, no nothing. Really, the only attention I paid was to glance at them on warm days to make sure there was condensation. If I remember right, I think it was late April before I ever added more water to the jugs, and at that point I just turned the hose on'em.

By the time they went into the ground they were growing out the tops of the jugs (yeah, yeah, I know - I'm a bad tomato mommy).

Our weather heated right up not too long after Memorial Day and the tomatoes really took off. Usually it seems to take 10-14 days for transplants to get going, but I clearly recall being astounded when I could see new growth on the WSown toms after only three days! That made me a true believer.

For what it's worth, I did bell peppers & chilies right along with the tomatoes, and they did just as well. In fact, last year was the first that I haven't staked peppers - I didn't need to, since they were so fat and sturdy. I kept thinking that they were like little trees.

And yes, depending upon where they end up at the end of the season, tomatoes readily reseed here. Last year I had dozens popping up all around the compost pile.