Tansy,
I'm not Zone 7, but I WSd 'Sprite' tomatoes (6 containers last week and 1 today w/ DGS) already. Also WSd Yellow Bells, jalapenos, poblanos, & anchos about 2 weeks ago. The peas go in the ground on Monday. Sat & Sunday I will attempt (ta-da) to WS about 60 more containers of various tomatoes.

In other words, don't be afraid. Don't baby them. I wish you all the best.
~Carol

iris girl.. you plant your maters in individual containers oor do you bulk sow?

Carol: That's great advice, I need to be more confident in WS.

Do you have a problem with wilt with any of your tomatoes?

My ground is getting tomatoes for the first time so they are free of the scourge so far (knock on wood), but I had one heirloom on my deck that withered up from some strange fungus and was the most pathetic thing in my garden last year.

I dread getting wilt in the soil ever again.

Tansy, zone 6 here and if my weekend goes as planned I'll be doing 1/2 of my maters now and the rest in early April, peppers will all be in April.

You know Tansy, your comment about hardening off your tomatoes and peppers in WS containers gave me an idea. Last year, my WS peppers were so late to germinate that they didn't have time to produce ripe fruit before the first killing frost. I went ahead and WS'd some of the tomatoes this week, but the peppers really seem to need warmer soil to germinate. So I think I will sow them in WSing containers, but keep them inside until they germinate, then put them outside, before they have a chance to die from damping off. I think it will give them a little edge over the ones I WS'd last year. I may even do some of the longer DTM tomatoes that way too. What do you think?

Trying to get a harvest in a short growing season,
Bonnie

Hi Tansy,
I'm trying something new w/ tomaties this year. Rather than bulk sowing in milk jugs, I am putting 3 seeds in each half-liter water bottle. I have over 150 bottles (Aquafina) all prepped. It is so easy to fill the soil to the right level, drop the seeds plop-2-3 and tape it shut. Then outside they go. They will germinate when it is warm enough.

As I see baby plants, I will uproot them individually and transplant to a paper cup which is where they will stay until time to go in the ground or to my plant sale in mid-May. I have to finance this habit somehow! lol...

I forgot to mention that I am using mini-blind labels in each little bottle, and the bottles go, in sets of 10, into large clear plastic bags which can be tied shut and moved if need be. I probably ought to put some pictures up, eh?

Bonnie,

I did that last year and it worked very well. I really babied them during the first few nights of freezes, not knowing how well they would do, but they did fine. I had early and hardy tomatoes and peppers. As I recall over all, the pepper season didn't do real well any where around here until about late August - September. Good Luck with it.

hthigbie-Ks

Bonnie and hthigbie, yes, I think it's a great idea to start peppers, and eggplants too, indoors then harden them off in the WS containers so we can get a jump on the fruiting. I didn't get a single eggplant last year and my Hungarian peppers were only just starting in September. I'm switching to some early varieties and going to use the WS containers to get bigger plants earlier in the year.

Iris, I'll bet you make a bundle on those 'maters! Most people are salivating over the idea of vine ripened tomatoes by this time of year. I was imagining them grilled with portobellos yesterday .....

Zone 6-7 WV-DC

Irisgirl, when you plant your tomatoes into cups, do you then put those cups back in plastic and put them back outside? Or is it usually late enough in the season that you just put them out and water them as a potted plant? Just curious! Sounds like a great idea! I'm WSing a bajillion tomatoes!

Alina