Youre planting all these tomatos? Oh, my gosh -- I would love to see it when all these have been transplated and growing !!!!

Melissia in Marshall County

Well, I started some romas and some poblano peppers today. That's all.

(covers head in shame...)

Don't feel bad Scott. Dawn has a lot of kids to feed. :-)

I winter sowed a few things this week. Tomatoes, salvia, sunflowers, coneflower, and a few other things that don't come to mind.

randy

I started my inside tomato seed on January 11. They're all up although some took some extra coaxing. Most have two sets of leaves. Normally I plant somewhere around January 20, but my plants aren't really as big as I'd like by time to set out. So I thought I'd do earlier just to see if that helped. These are the seed I started inside:

Kelloggs Breakfast
Martinos Roma
Mule Team
Nebraska Wedding
Striped German
Watermelon Beefsteak
Big Red
Black Krim

I wintersowed these:

Large Red Grape
Marglobe

These are all new to me, as were the plants I got last year from Tomato Man. I spent $60 last year buying tomato plants and probably didn't recoup my investment last year. And that's kind of important to me. But I didn't have much choice since the late freeze killed most of the tomatoes I had grown from seed. Older, wiser now. Well, older anyway. I ended up with enough to can about 21 quarts, but I can't use them in just anything because I read on another forum that heirloom tomatoes aren't acid enough and need 1 TBSP of vinegar added to each jar. ACK! They're so tart, about the only thing I can use them in is chili, and that's only because, in my family we always added a little vinegar to our chili bowl (Germans...what can I say?). I would think heirloom varieties would be more likely to have enouch acid naturally than would the newer kinds.

I have been having trouble finding a good paste tomato. I planted Roma for several years, with mixed results. Never anything fantastic. Last year tried Cody's Paste, which was supposed to be prolific, with larger fruit than normal. I don't know if it was all the rain or what but I got one tomato that was as advertised and all the rest were small. They were few and far between, too. I guess I'll try a different one each year till I find one that does good for me. Last year's plants that I got from The Tomato Man, some did well and some did not. I saved seed from them. I thought I'd do Mortgage Lifter and Arkansas Traveler for fall tomatoes, as they did pretty well last year. But when the time comes to plant that seed, I probably will add a few others.

Hi Everyone!

Melissia,

Well, my tomato garden always looks incredibly lovely in mid- to late-May, before the pests and diseases arrive, so I'll try to get DS or DH to take some photos and post them while everything looks so wonderful. We have an ongoing problem with them keeping the camera FULL of fire photos (son is a professional firefighter and both son and hubby are volunteer firefighters) and I am totally inept at taking photos and posting them. What I really need is my very own camera that they are not allowed to touch....and then I would have to get them to teach me what do to after I take the photos. Then, there is also the ongoing problem that just taking care of the acres (15 of them) and keeping everything mowed, weed-eated,etc. all spring through fall keeps me REALLY busy. And we won't even talk about the hours I spend in the garden. Suffice it to say that I have a gorgeous "farmer's tan" long before summer arrives.

Marshall County is not so far from Love County. If you want to, you can come visit in May.....or, better yet, in June when I have tomatoes to give away. : )

By the way, I HAVE TO plant this many tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes, especially, are like a fine wine.....every one of them has its own unique flavor, and once you've tasted them, you are addicted and MUST have them. I grow lots of hybrids, too, cause I have tons and tons of family members, friends, neighbors, DH's co-workers, etc. to whom I supply tomatoes for as long as the big harvest lasts. A lot of them are perfectly content with the flavor of the hybrids, so I grow lots of them to give away. (I'm not knocking the flavor of hybrids, as many of them taste perfectly fine, just not "as fine" as my beloved heirlooms.)

Scott,

Don't cover your head in shame! (grinning) When I lived in Fort Worth, and had a shady backyard, and two shady sideyards, and a fairly shady front yard, I was excited if I found enough of a sunny spot to plant eight tomato plants, and generally only six of them got all the sunshine they needed.

THEN we moved to acreage in the country, and my tomato beds expanded accordingly. It is easy to overdo it when you have all the space you need. One year I had 400 tomato plants, which was too many.....I couldn't even keep up with picking all the ripe ones, and I picked them every single day. It became a "chore" and not a "labor of love". Now I only grow 150 to 200 plants and it is so much more manageable.

Randy,

And do you know that my list of "kids" grows every year? For example, I give tomatoes (vast numbers of them) to a very dear older couple to whom we are very close. How many tomatoes do I share with them in a good year? Enough that they can share them with their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. In a good year, there's enough for everyone! I sure hope that this year is a good year, as everyone is really hungry for tomatoes. (Last year, due to the wet weather, was not a really good year.)

I hope to get some wintersowing done this weekend. I'm behind!

Ilene,

What a great list of tomatoes you're growing!

I have found paste tomatoes to be less impressive in taste than I'd hoped, and I have tried so many different ones that it boggles the mind.

The plain old Roma is probably the most reliable one I've ever grown. It produces large numbers of tomatoes in spite of the heat. Flavor-wise, though, some of the heirlooms are vastly superior, including Amish Paste and Opalka. The last time I grew Amish Paste, though, it seemed like it took FOREVER for it to flower and fruit. And, even though the flavor of Opalka was superior, it had tons of foliar problems that drove me nuts. So, this year I am trying several paste tomatoes that are new to me, and am still hoping to hit the jackpot and find "the one" that is exactly what I've been looking for. I did love Martino's Roma last year! It was so loaded with tomatoes that I swear the plant had more fruit than foliage. And they were pretty tasty too!

My favorite sauces, though, come from using a mixture of the big heirlooms....like Black Krim, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Marianna's Peace,etc. They do take a lot longer to cook down to the right consistency, but they make a sauce that is out of this world!

Have you heard anything lately about the Tomatoman? The last I heard, he was in a serious battle with some sort of cancer and had moved into an assisted living center. I hope he is doing well. He's a legend in the tomato world in this country.

Dawn

Yall are all professionals compared to me . . . I never even heard of winter sowing -- I looked it up though -- what did u do yours in?

should I start seeds now or wait and put them directly in the ground? Yall are making me feel like Im getting behind. : )

Dawn -- I would love to come see -- for real --

Looking forward to learning from you all !!!

Melissia,

You can winter sow in anything that will hold soil.

I just use regular seed starting flats and sterile seed-starting mix like Jiffy Mix or Pro-Mix.

Lots of people use 'recycled' containers like soda bottles (cut so the top part lifts off as needed) or yogurt cups or whatever.

You can wintersow directly into prepared beds, but it is chancey. Your seeds that are sown directly into the ground are at the mercy of the wind, rain, etc. and may wash away, blow away or rot if the ground stays too wet. I keep my wintersown stuff on the porch until it sprouts. Then, I try to move it to a sheltered place where it gets some sunlight during the day, but not too much out in the open where the wild things, pets and wind can tear it up.
At night, the wintersown stuff has to go back up onto the porch or the bunnies (and other wild things) will eat the plants.

There are some things I wintersow directly into the ground, including larkspur, poppies, chamomile, catmint, chives and veronica. Some of these also reseed themselves pretty regularly so I only have to throw out new seeds once every few years.

Some plants, like echinacea (purple coneflower) and hollyhocks do better when wintersown, I think, as they need the period of cold weather to help induce germination.

And you really aren't behind. We have oodles and oodles of cold weather, sleet, snow, hard frosts, etc. to get through before we can put any warm season crops in the ground. Cool season crops, on the other hand, can go in beginning in mid-February, which will be here before we know it.

Dawn

I'm planting my tomato seeds this weekend. I have not finalized the list yet. I usually get my trays ready, count the cells, spread all the seeds out, see how many I can plant, and get after it! I don't know what I'll end up with but I did order some seed of Sun Gold and Burpee's Long Keeper this year. I'll let you know when I get done...

Lynn

Lynn,

It's starting to feel like Spring, isn't it? Have you grown SunGold before? We just love them. I eat so many of the little SunGold tomatoes while working in the garden on lovely summer days that I don't even have to go inside and eat lunch 'cause I'm already full!

Have fun planting!

Dawn

Hi Ya'll, wow- you all must have more room than I do. I have a small little backyard with a few sunny patches to support about 12 tomato plants total. This year I was looking at doing a few for canning- either canning stewed tomatos or sauce (dawn I would love your advice on that one later on!) Anyways, I also wanted some of the usual salad/cherry varieties as I am officialy addicted to my summer salads! So any advice on what to plant from anyone? Just thought I would get some input as I don't have a lot of room for trial and error! Will it be possible to have both canning varieties and the usual salad stuff between only 12 plants? (am wondering how many plants its going to take to make it worthwhile to can them!?) This is my third year for gardening and my first year to attempt canning!

Hi Backyardmomma!

Welcome to the Oklahoma Gardening Forum! I hope you'll keep us posted on how your garden fares this year.

If you are raising your own tomatoes from seed, the sky is the limit and you can grow whatever you want. However, if you are purchasing transplants, you're limited to what the stores offer, so I'll give suggestions for both.

I. If raising your own from seed:

NOTE: If you have a good independent nursery in your area, some of these might be available there as transplants. Generally, though, you have to raise the following from seed as they are not normally carried by the usual big box stores like Wal-Mart, Lowe's or Home Depot.

Cherry Tomatoes: Black Cherry (maroon), SunGold (golden orange), Sweet Million (red), Ildi or Dr. Carolyn (yellow) or Rosalita (pink)

Small Slicers for Salads: Fourth of July (red, one plant produces tons and tons of tomatoes), Porter (pink, produces all summer in spite of the heat)

Larger Slicer for Salads or Sandwiches: Black Krim or Cherokee Purple (maroonish-purplish), Brandy Boy (pink), Nebraska Wedding (orange) or Big Beef (red)

For sauces, canned tomatoes or salsas: Martino's Roma (red and a very heavy producer), Opalka (red, outstanding flavor, large fruit) or San Marzano Redorta (superb flavor, larger fruit than regular San Marzano)

II. If you buy transplants:

NOTE: The following are generally fairly easy to find in the spring.

Cherry Tomatoes: Sweet 100, Husky Red Cherry, Large Red Cherry, Jolly (2001 AAS Winner) or Juliet (1999 AAS winner). All produce well, taste good and have good disease resistance.

Small slicers for salads: Jet Star VF (red, good flavor, but specificall not recommended for canning because it is low-acid), Early Girl VFF (very early, red, dependable producer, or Super Fantastic (red, produces all summer)

Larger slicer for salads or sandwiches: Better Boy VFN (red, heavy producer, disease resistant, great flavor), Big Beef (1994 AAS Winner,red, great producer, great flavor) Celebrity (red, 1984 AAS winner, very reliable, great disease resistance, good flavor), or Homestead 24 F (red, heavy yield, good flavor).

For sauces, canned tomatoes or salsas: Roma VF (compact plants, good disease resistance, heavy producer, good flavor), LaRoma II VFFNA (larger plants and larger tomatoes than Roma VF, outstanding disease resistance, heavy yields, good flavor), or Viva Italia VFFNA (red, very disease resistant, heavy yield, sets well in the hottest weather, good for fresh eating or canning/cooking).

You can have both fresh-eating and canning tomatoes. I would plant at least six paste types for canning. Keep in mind that that paste-type tomatoes are almost all determinates so they are shorter and more compact and can be grown a little closer together than the larger indeterminates.

If I could have only 12, and I wanted to do a moderate amount of canning, I would plant the following:

2 cherries: 1 SunGold and 1 Sweet Million or Sweet 100
2 small slicers: 1 Fourth of July and 1 Jet Star
2 large slicers: 1 Brandy Boy and 1 Better Boy
6 paste tomatoes 3 Roma and 3 Viva Italia

I might be tempted to grow Window Box Roma (a Roma bred for containers) in a two to four window boxes sitting on the ground in front of the other tomatoes, with 2 plants per window box). Or, if all the other tomatoes are in a row in the ground, I might plant a "border" of Window Box Romas around them. They don't get too tall and produce fairly well. (Even with a lot of space, I am always looking for a way to squeeze in a few more plants).

Good luck.

Dawn

With the exception of Mortgage Lifter (which was seed that is about 8 years old), all the tomato varieties I planted on Monday have sprouted! Guess I'll try Mortgage Lifter again with fresher seed.

It is so wonderful to see all the little green sprouts.

Now that they have sprouted, the tomato flat is coming off the seedling heat mat and the pepper seeds are going onto it.

Dawn

Got mine planted today. I planted......

Galina
San Marzano
Jaune Flammee
Heatwave
Arkansas Traveler
Green Zebra
Burpee's Long Keeper
Sun Gold
Nebraska Wedding
Porter
Early Girl
Jubilee

That's 12 different tomatoes, which means if I only grow one of each I'll have 12 plants. Some I really love so I'll have to have more than one.....hubby made the comment as I was planting that it looked like we'd have a "tomato garden" this year. :)

I've not tried jaune Flammee, Heatwave or Jubilee before so I'm looking forward to seeing how they do.

Lynn

Dawn,

you commented about wintersowing and I wondered if you could go into more detil about wintersowing?

For example, you said "There are some things I wintersow directly into the ground, including larkspur, poppies, chamomile, catmint, chives and veronica." I was under the impression that wintersowing meant starting seeds INDOORS (either a greenhouse or in the house.) So how and when do you sow into the ground?

Ok, also you said "Some plants, like echinacea (purple coneflower) and hollyhocks do better when wintersown, I think, as they need the period of cold weather to help induce germination." Do you start these seeds indoors? I would love to plant some hollyhocks. Last year I planted some and they grew to about 2-3 inches and then just stayed that way. I figured they didn't get enough sunlight in that location.

Thank you again for your advice. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!

Brandy

Lynn,

I see that you and I still like many of the same tomatoes. LOL

I think you will like Jubilee and Jaunne Flammee'. Both are really great performers in our heat, but your heat probably is worse than ours. Heatwave is iffy. It does produce in the July and August heat but the flavor is a little lacking (but you know that I say that based on my "heirloom-preferring" tastebuds). In your soil and your growing conditions, it may taste better than it did in my soil and growing conditions. I do think Heat Wave II tasted better to me than the original Heat Wave.

Brandy,

Sorry if I confused you by referring to seeds sown directly into the ground as wintersown. On GardenWeb, winter sown does refer to seeds sown in containers and exposed to the cold temps. To me, though, anything I plant in the winter in wintersown, which probably would drive the people on the wintersowing forum nuts! LOL

If you want a good explanation of wintersowing, go to the wintersowing forum here at GardenWeband read Trudi's FAQ. It is very informative.

I sow larkspur, poppies, etc. into the ground anytime between November and February, depending on when I get around to it. This seeds will sprout in the cold and form tiny ground-hugging rosettes. You won't see much vertical growth, but they are making roots all that time and, when the spring conditions are right, they start to grow like crazy. (Lots of cool season weeds, by the way, grow exactly the same way....germinating in fall or winter's cooler weather and flying under the radar until spring).

Some plants don't like to be transplanted, and for me, poppies and larkspur are two of those. (I have transplanted poppies before, but they aren't crazy about it because they have long taproots.) So, wintersowing them in containers doesn't work because they get mad when you transplant them into the ground.

As far as the purple coneflowers and hollyhocks....I tried numerous times to start them indoors under lights. I was able to do it with the hollyhocks pretty easily, but the coneflowers just didn't want to sprout. Yet, they would reseed readily in my garden. So, I wintersowed some a couple of years ago and had great results.

As for the hollyhocks, there is no reason to take up a lot of space indoors under lights because I can direct sow them into the ground (if it is not a rainy winter) or in flats. They transplant easily and are pretty cold hardy.
I seem to get higher germination rates with the ones sown outside than I do with the ones sowed inside. I love hollyhocks and have them every year. However, if a really, really wet rainy year, the seed often rots before it can germinate because I have horrible, slow-draining red clay soil.

Your problem with hollyhocks last year probably had more to do with the excessively wet weather, the lack of sunshine as it seemed to stay cloudy FOREVER, and the late cold spells. Those three conditions caused lots of problems with plants here that are usually pretty easy to grow. Between "the cold" and "the wet", a lot of roots were stunted and the plants just didn't grow.

I noticed this weekend that hollyhocks are already sprouted in my garden. They are small and low to the ground, with 2 or 3 leaves about the size of a nickle or so. You could direct sow hollyhocks in the ground now or wintersow some in a flat or other container.

My main challenge with wintersowing is that the cats like to lay on any flat I plant anything in, even if I have lids on the flats! The dogs, of course, like to walk on the containers, and the wild things, like racoons and possums, like to paw through the soil looking for whatever. Also, if I am not careful, the wind carries them all away, even when I think I have them in places where they are sheltered from the wind.

Dawn

Dawn, Wow- thanks so much for the information! The advice helped sooo much because like I said- I am short on space and really want to try some recommended plants for the canning this year. I looked up Martino's Roma- sounds like I am going to give it a try. Do you have some good online seed sale sites that you'd recommend?
Hey thanks again for the advice. I've been "listening in" for a few months and really have learned a lot from everyone!

Backyardmomma,

You're welcome, and I hope the info helps.

There are lots of good retailers, but I am partial to some of the medium-sized ones that carry lots of heirlooms AND tend to ship more quickly than the larger companies like Park and Burpee (not that I have anything against those two seed companies.....just that I like smaller, more customer service-oriented companies).

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com) is a favorite of mine. They ship very quickly and they always put a LOT of seeds in the packets. Victory Seeds (www.victoryseeds.com) is another. Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedsavers.org) is a non-profit organization that offers great heirlooms AND I support their mission of saving the heirloom seeds of the world from extinction. Heirloom Tomatoes (www.heirloomtomatoes.net) is a small operation, started by the late Chuck Wyatt and continued by his friend Donna. Mariseeds.com is another sort of home-grown operation, but you have to take her variety recommendations with a grain of salt because she is very enthusiastic about everything. Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Tomato Growers Supply Company (www.tomatogrowers.com). They are an outstanding firm although slightly slower to ship than some of the others (and, to be fair, they are a much larger and perhaps much busier company).

Dawn

How's everybody's seedlings doing?

I took my babies outside to sit in real sunlight for 1 hour yesterday (full sunlight) and 3 hours today (filtered sunlight).

The following are growing well and have been transplanted from the original peat pellets (containing numerous seeds in one pellet) to 9 oz. paper cups with Jiffy Mix and only 1 or 2 plants per cup. Some of them have 2 true leaves and others have 4.

Aunt Gertie's Gold
Aunt Ginny's Purple
Beefmaster
Beefsteak
Better Boy
Big Beef
Black Cherry
Black Krim
Brandy Boy
Brandywine (Suduth's)
Buck's County
Burpee's Big Mama
Bush Big Boy
Bushsteak
Caspian Pink
Cherokee Green
Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red
Coyote
Dr. Carolyn
Earl's Faux
Early Girl
Extreme Bush
Fourth of July
German Johnson
Grandma Mary's Paste
Granny Cantrell's German Red
Hillbilly
Husky Cherry Gold
Husky Pink
Husky Red
Ildi
Indian Stripe
Jerry's German Giant
Jersey Devil
Kellogg's Breakfast
Little Brandywine
Little Lucky
Lucky Cross
Marianna's Peace
Martino's Roma
Momotaro
Mortgage Lifter, Estler's
Mortgage Lifter, Red
Mortgage Lifter, VFN
Nebraska Wedding
Neve's Azorean Red
Old Virginia
Orange Santa
Pineapple
Porterhouse
Principe' Borghese
Pruden's Purple
Rio Grande
Royal Hillbilly
San Marzano Redorta
Snow White
Stump of the World
Sungold
Sunray
Sweet Million
Tennessee Britches
Tennessee Heirloom
Tess' Land Race Currant
True Black Brandywine
Valena Pink
Viva Italia
Wapsipinicon Peach

The following seedlings either didn't germinate or did germinate and then quickly died, so I'm reseeding them tomorrow. Thought I'd do them today, but the fire pagers kept going off and I got sidetracked. I don't usually have this many "crop failures" when starting tomato seed, but some of the seed is older....and I used peat pellets. I've noticed with peat pellets that I have more problems than when I use Jiffy Mix, so I'll be using Jiffy Mix for the "problem children" on their second go-round.

Cherokee Chocolate
Cherokee Purple
Cuostralee
Debbie
German
Husky Cherry Red
Husky Gold
Mortgage Lifter
New Big Dwarf
Rose
Zogola

If the weather cooperates, I can start transplanting into the ground here in zone 7B in about 5 weeks. Yippee!

On a pretty sunny and warm (69 degrees!) day like today, I really start wishing I could plant now. But, of course, it is way too early. We are still having nighttime lows in the upper 20s and lower 30s, and the soil temps are too low (barely) also.

Dawn

Mine are doing fairly well. I have started about 8 tomato and 8 pepper varieties, either 9 or 18 of each (little juffy packs of 9). The original tomato plants from the last couple of days in Jan are in need of re-potting.

The cheap Atwoods seed actually germinated better than most of the others. The Brandywine Red virtually all germinated, the other Brandywines were about 50%.

My seeds from TomatoGrowers arrived 9 days after I ordered online. It then took me 4 days to get them started (yesterday). Some of those pepper seeds cost me 30 cents each! I only did one per slot on those. I'm not going to thin and throw away those little guys!

I think I may have started a week or two too early. When trying to raise my lights to stay above the plants, one of my fixtures stopped working. Can you believe it was the only one I had that was made in the USA. The Chinese ones have taken the same bumps and all still work. Go figure.

After another inch or rain this past weekend to go with the 2.5 inches the week before that, and some frozen precip coming, it looks like my garden will not support a tractor for tilling until at least March, and that is if it gets hot and dry. It has been a long time since the clay was dry enough to use the big tractor. A LONG time. I should have not left the dirt piled up in it from last fall's landscape work. I can't even plant potatoes now.

Scott,

Wow! I can't believe your soil is so wet. We have been so dry down here that I sometimes forget that most of Oklahoma has had a lot of moisture.

Prior to this weekend's 2" of rain, we'd only had 0.40" of rain this year, and very little in the preceding 4 months.
Our clay soil in the pastures has cracks about 1" wide, and that doesn't usually happen until mid-summer. (sigh) The soil around the house, barn, garden and yard is somewhat improved, so no cracks there.

Maybe you did start your plants a little early, but I always think that early is better. Larger transplants usually take off and produce much earlier. If the tomato plants are outgrowing the lights, say, by late March, you can set them outside every morning in a location with some protection from wind and full sun and bring them in every evening. I have left my plants on the porch for up to a month sometimes. Does it get old carrying them in and out? Yes, but it is worth it. Pepper plants just have to tough it out indoors (maybe in a sunny window?) if they outgrow the lights, though, because exposure to colder air or soil can stunt their growth and, especially, their productivity, for the entire year.

As far as seed quality goes, I've never really seen much difference in germination rates regardless which company I purchased seed from, with one or two exceptions. Many, many of the seed companies in this country get their seed from the same wholesalers so it doesn't matter as much as people think when it comes to choosing a retailer. The exceptions, by the way, are Seed Savers' Exchange, Victory Seeds, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seed. I believe SSE and BCHS both either raise all their own seed, or contract out the raising of the seed to select growers who grow just for them. Victory Seeds has great foil packets that are superior to the packaging used by most other companies.

I hope it dries out there soon (although the forecast isn't looking good for that, is it?) so you can work the soil.

Dawn

Dawn-
My first round (Sungold, Black Cherry, Kimberly, Matina, Martino's Roma and Sprite) are now four inches or so tall and potted up for the second time to 18 oz. cups this past weekend. They've gotten as much as several hours of sunlight through screens every day for a couple of weeks now. Plan to get these earlies in their moveable containers in 2-3 weeks. Second round started this past weekend includes Cherokee Purple, Opalka, Eva Purple Ball, Porter and Anna Russian. But what I'm really looking forward to is the Fall crop using your timing, as you may recall you explained to me last year. Good luck with the reseeding.

Tom

Hi Tom!

It's nice to hear from you and to hear that your spring seedlings are off to such a wonderful start.

What is your target date to plant outside? Technically, our last frost date here is about the third week in March, but every time I try to plant out that early, we have a "late frost". So, I think I'll aim for mid-April unless the weather stays REALLY, REALLY warm.

A cold front was due here earlier today and our temps were supposed to plunge 30 degrees, so I didn't carry the plants outside today.....and the cold front isn't here yet! So, I wish I had taken them out to get some sun, but I didn't.

Depending on what this coming cold front brings us, I would like to move all my seedlings off the light shelf and out to the screened-in porch to stay 24/7 by March 1st. Of course, if the temps were to go too cold at night, I'd bring them back in again.

You and I need to stay in touch this year and compare weather patterns and tomato results. Of all the people on the Tomato Forum, I think our weather most resembles one another's....at least in terms of summer heat and humidity and the critical timing of fall tomatoes....oh, and disease issues as well.

Later!

Dawn

Dawn-
I expect to have eight plants in moveable containers
sometime during the first week of March. Rest will go at the end of March/first week of April. Average last frost here is March 11, so I'll be pushing it but can move them into the garage overnight if I need to. We haven't had a frost for a couple of weeks now and next week is supposed to be mostly in the low 70's. Azaleas have started blooming...
Tom

Tom,

Azaleas blooming! Oh, I am so jealous. Our high temp today is supposed to be 37 degrees, so nothing much is blooming here yet. The plum trees and peach trees are very close to budbreak though.

We have had some high temps in the 70s and 80 in both Jan. and Feb., but also have had low temps in the mid-teens. The wild swings in the weather always make Feb. and Mar. very interesting weather....and often lead to early blooms on fruit trees and subsequent freezing of the young fruit.

I usually put a couple of tomato plants in moveable containers about the third week in Feb. and set them outside on the concrete apron/patio on the south side of the garage/barn. If I used purchased plants from Lowe's (usually Better Bush or Early Girl) that I buy in 5" or 6" pots in the Dallas area, I usually get the first ripe tomatoes the last week in April. It is just one little way of extending the season and getting earlier ripe tomatoes. I may purchase and plant these over the weekend.

If I watch carefully and purchase the tomato plants as soon as I see them in the stores, their main stalk is huge for Feb., probably as big around as my little finger. Sometimes they are even blooming when I buy them. Do I pinch off the blooms? No way. The sole reason for these plants is to get early tomatoes. Last year we had our first ripe one on April 25th. I usually get my first ripe fruit from the in-the-ground tomatoes no later than Memorial Day weekend, if the weather cooperates.

Dawn