ws tomato comparison zone 3a

14 years ago

Sub Arctic Plenty started under lights

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Sub Arctic Plenty winter sown

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ws between potatoes and sugar snaps -- maybe it's not a fair trial :)

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ws second batch (either Purple Prince or Visions) these were planted at the two leaf stage in a temporary cloche. I started the second batch because the first batch was slow to germinate. You really need to keep the faith if you're winter sowing.

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Comments (7)

xaroline
14 years ago
This year I have WS several varieties as last year I did Siberia as a WS and did get green tomatoes from them.
This year it is:
Red Siberian
Early Siberian
Glacier (Sweden)
Polar Baby (Alaska)
Siberian Golden Pear
We shall see how these do. It all depends on the weather over the spring and summer.
ljpother
Original Author
14 years ago
I'm doing 50/50 this year. I'd have to look to see if I am doing exactly the same plants indoors. I had only a few seeds of some, so they might not have made it to the greenhouse. Most of my indoors are sprouting except for red brandywine and sub arctic plenty. I got about 6 more varieties at Seedy Sunday. They are exotic for me so they'll likely get started indoors.
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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.
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WS potatoes
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Comments (6)
Hi DL, I'm sorry to hear about your arthritis--when your joints hurt everything nearby hurts too. We WS seeds, but this seems a marvelous method for growing potatoes, you'll have a lot of success with it. I live in zone seven and I've grown potatoes in my raised beds--when you dig them up it's hard to get all the potatoes as the small ones break off or you can halve a potato with your spade and not find the other half. These little spuds can winter over under the mulched soil and grow the next year into vines. DL, I would love to hear of your progress on this method. I've heard of growing potatoes in stacked tires, but the plastic can is lightweight in comparison and certainly a lot cleaner to touch than dirty old tires. For anyone who is mobility impaired this is going to be a lot easier than working with a stack of tires or digging in the soil for planting and harvest. I think that digging a hole at least as deep as a few inches above the potato level and sinking the can into it, then packing around with soil and mulch is going to help anchor the can and keep it from falling over in a harsh storm--when frozen plastic tips over with weight it often cracks when it hits the ground--that would be a shame. I don't know if digging it in will provide addtional insulation from cold, but at its base it will provide insulation from wind. The article you linked to ends with "give it a try" but to do so with a small patch. I think this is prudent advice. The first time you do this will be a learning event--I expect that you will have some success, but if it is great or little is something you won't know until next year. Good luck with this--it's an idea with a lot of promise. It sounds good and is worth seeing it through to its fruition. T
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Your thoughts on Wintersowing/Spring Sowing Tomatoes
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Comments (10)
I'm not real sure what your question is so bear with me. Can it be done? Sure. It is just another method of germinating plants although it does have a lower germination rate IME. I have set out several milk jugs of wintersown tomato seeds the past several years. They are just for my own use and used as back-up plants for any greenhouse grown ones I might lose or for garden plants that don't make it for some reason.. Does it get them ready to set out earlier than the indoor ones? No, not size-wise. The indoor ones are always ready to transplant first when it comes to size. But those indoor plants still have to be hardened off before planting while the wintersown ones don't so they can go to the garden, even though smaller, a week to 10 days earlier if I wished. Do they set fruit earlier? No, about the same. Do they produce better or longer? No, about the same. Are they more cold or heat tolerant? Cold, yes. Heat, no, that is genetic not sowing method determined. The advantages WS IMO is it is easy to do as they are basically on their own so less work involved, don't take up space inside, and are pre-hardened off for transplanting. So are they hardier? Yes but only in that they are more cold tolerant, don't require hardening off, and are less affected by transplant shock. Once they are planted out in the garden next to the hardened-off indoor grown plants there is no difference IME. Dave
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I thought I would update with some pics of the WS tomato seeds that I started. All where WS on April 1st and germinated betweed May 2-10th. They where all sown in 16oz styrofoam cups in miracle grow potting mix, 1 seed in each cup. 16 seeds of each of the following varieties. yellow jubilee purple cherokee white wonder rutgers select sweet 100 black cherry warren's yellow cherry large cherry red xmas grape 8 of the nine seedlings where planted in pots that hold about 1 1/4 cubic feet of soil on June 3rd. I used pure miracle grow potting mix. They where about 8-15 inches tall. I missed potting up one of the tomato plants when I took this pic. It was potted up the next day and was 9 inches tall. This pic was taken on July 4th with all 9 plants in the pic. They ranged in height from 25- 40 inches and the sweet 100 and the black cherry already had fruit on them. This was taken August 2. they range in height from 4-6 feet. I lost count on the number of tomatoes on the sweet 100, black cherry, xmas grape, warren's yellow cherry and large cherry red, but have been picking at least 10 on each every other day. The others have at least 25 toms on each, but none ripe yet. WS tomato seeds can be one of many ways to start tomato seeds. Oh yes, all the seeds these plants came from where saved from last years crops. Fran
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xaroline
14 years ago
Seedy Saturday in Calgary was so crowded that i did not get to the tomatoe sellers booth. But I had gone in swaps last fall.
ljpother
Original Author
14 years ago
The greenhouse got down to -3C overnight. It was 0C at 11:00 PM so it was below freezing for most of the night. I lost about half my ws tomatoes and an ivy geranium doesn't look healthy. Other than that everything looks fine. The survival of the tomatoes seemed to be related to variety. Ironically, the sub-arctic plentys are gone. Sophie's Choice looks unscathed. Purple Prince and Sweet Millions are about 50% or less. It's supposed to be below 0C tonight but today is sunny and the greenhouse is heating up. It's been holding about 3C above the outside lows. The sprouts were young and hadn't leafed out. The daytime temps in the greenhouse were considerably higher than outside so they probably sprouted earlier than they would have in a container in the backyard.

My tomatoes under lights are ready to pot up but I decided to wait until after this cold spell. They will be bigger than they should be but not dead.
xcaret
13 years ago
I didnt have to plant tomatoes this winter as I had mine growing in 1 gallon buckets and just moved them into my large east window .Now I can pick a few cherry tomatoes for supper .Its amazing how little sunshine they need .I dont have lights on them and the room often gets only sun/daylight.I plan to grow them all winter and spring then transplant them into the ground outside.I only have cherry ones growing.But think I will try larger ones for next winter.
Neil
nutsaboutflowers
13 years ago
ljpother

Do you still have your pictures for the comparison?

I've never grown tomatoes from seed, but would like to try this year. I plan on trying a few in a snowbank, and a few in the basement under lights.
ljpother
Original Author
13 years ago
nuts,

email me or add an email address to your page

ws tomato comparison zone 3a

Comments (7)

xaroline

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ws tomato comparison zone 3a

Comments (7)

xaroline

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xaroline

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xcaret

nutsaboutflowers

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