Bet you're right. I remember, some years ago, when we had unusually warm weather in January and February. Walmart put out tomato plants sometime like the first week of February. What amazed me was that a LOT of people bought them, planted them, and then came back for replacements when temps went down and back up again.

George

Y'all, our Wal-Mart and Home Depot had their very first tomato plants out right before southern OK had that last 8" or 9" snowfall in February (the day Dallas got over 12" of snow). I think it was Feb. 11th. Did anyone cover up those plants or move them inside? Nope. Those poor plants sat there, were snowed upon and died....and I saw those dead plants in stores from Gainesville to Denton to Southlake.

I bought the tomato plants for my early containers the following week, after the stores received another shipment of plants to replace the frozen, dead ones.

Those container plants of mine, though, still come in during the night and go back outside during the day.

All the stores here now have pretty much all their seedlings out except peppers, and I haven't seen pepper plants here (but I haven't been looking either).

George, Sometimes I wonder about people's common sense. I guess they think if the stores have the plants, it must be warm enough to plant them. Of course, we know better. I also get aggravated at big box stores and nurseries who sell zone 9 or zone 10 ornamental plants in zone 7 or 8 and portray them as perennials because they aren't perennial when grown in zones 7 or 8. To me, that is unconscionable, but it happens all the time.

Scott, did you buy any????

Dawn

Don't you hate it when you read back your original post and see the word "there" where it should have been "their". That never happened before I turned 40.

I didn't buy any yet. My local place had only put about 3/4 of theirs into individual containers. The others were still all together in an open flat.(In fact, I walked around the folks in the back greenhouses who were potting them from the flats.) I'll let them take care of them for another week or two before I buy them (especially peppers). Only a handful of tomato varieties are to the size I like to buy so far, but they do have a great selection coming up.

If anyone is going to be on the south side of Tulsa and is looking for specific varieties, ask me and I will tell you if they have them. I went through all their greenhouses and made a complete list. They have a lot of varieties that you will not find around much, such as ornamental peppers and colorful tomatoes. Belgium Giant, Pink Girl, Jubilee Golden, and Mr. Stripey are some that I saw and had to go home and research.

By my calculations, I will be buying at least 36 more three-packs plus some ornamentals from them to go with what I started at home. Now if it would stay dry long enough to get more garden space prepared.

I saw a nursery advertising they would have plants out and ready to buy in 7-10 days. Went on to say that you shouldn't plant them for 4-6 weeks. I agree with the latter. Not sure why they are encouraging people to buy them this early. They should have a better place to keep them than most at home. My guess is they started a lot of early plants for some reason and now want to move them to make room. That is strictly a guess. Jay

Jay,

I think maybe there are folks like me who buy early and pot up a few in containers. I'm not sure though.

There's a guy up the road a couple of miles who buys them early, puts them in the ground soon after buying them, and puts either 1 gallon black pots with the bottom cut out around them as a windshield or white 5-gallon pots around them in the same manner. On cold nights he throws a blanket over all of them. Personally, I don't think the early planting pays off. His plants are not going to grow well with the soil temps we have....so they just sit there a few weeks until the soil warms up. And, not that it is a contest.....but he doesn't seem to get fruit earlier than those of us who plant several weeks later.

Scott,

Where are you going to put all those plants?

We're too wet here to do anything too. I'd like three bright, clear sunshiney days to dry up the mud....we'll see if we get them.

Dawn

About the attempts to get the earliest possible ripe tomatoes: I don't try to pick up the biggest ones I can find in Feb and put them in pots just because of the expense and the fact that I don't appreciate the differences in tomato tastes as much as some people do, but I WOULD really like to get some early peppers. Maybe I should try that.

Dawn, I put in five new 8' by 16' beds and one new 4' by 16' bed to go along with my other 9 4' by 16' beds. Those will be used almost entirely for tomatoes and peppers. My other area is a bed about 60' by 20' for everything else. realistically, I will likely end up with about 100 to 120 tomato plants and about 50 pepper plants in the garden. The small amounts of freezing I did with peppers last year opened up a whole new world to me and I am pretty excited about this year. I eat almost nothing now without peppers on it - at least until I ran out of everything.

I was in Lowes yesterday and saw herbs that I know you don't put in the ground yet. Very confusing and discouraging when the plant fails for very rookie gardeners such as myself.

Scott,

It sounds like you're going to have a nice big garden this year.

I overwinter a couple of peppers in the garage every winter. This year I overwintered two sweet bell pepper plants. One of them frozen on the night we went down to six degrees, but the other one survived and now has a couple of small peppers on it. So, I think early peppers in pots likely would work out well.

Ezzirah, Yep. The stores put them out very early in the year. So far, down here in southern OK, I've only seen the ones that have some degree of cold-hardiness like rosemary and lavender but there may be other herbs out now because I haven't looked at the plants the last couple of weeks.

Once I found and purchased my early tomatoes, I stopped checking out the new transplant arrivals in the stores since I grow pretty much everything else from seed.

Dawn

[IMG]http://i45.tinypic.com/jkad5s.jpg[/IMG]
I'm just getting started, that is peppers and tomatoes.

having a little troublr posting

Busy1,

The greenhouse looks great....looks like spring is coming! I have wanted a greenhouse since we moved here eleven years ago and seeing the photo of yours just makes me want one even more. I think I'm getting closer to having one though. Maybe in the next year or two.

I suppose this is one of your busier times of the year.

When you get seedlings ready to sell, be sure to let us know so we can refer people to you if they're in your part of the state.

With this week's weather being so nice, it is beginning to feel like spring may be on its way. I won't really relax though until after the Easter freeze.

Happy growing!

Dawn

The greenhouse looks great. I want one, but sure don't need one.

Oh, come on now Scott, you know you need one! You could keep the kids busy in the greenhouse all winter long.

You know, I might have to seriously consider it. My problem is that I am so involved with basketball Dec. through February that I barely have time for my dormant-season pecan work and I am afraid I would let the greenhouse get away from me.

Atwoods here now has a lot of tomato plants out. Not many of the three-packs, but lots of singles.

Scott,

I went by there in a rush a week or so ago, but I didn't get a chance to check the tomatoes out. Did you happen to notice if he has any Rose Quartz, Scarlet Red, or Mountain Princess? I just love to buy things there...not that I need any more tomatoes but you know how that is.

Thanks,
Jill

Jill,

He didn't have any of those, but he did have Mountain Fresh and Mountain Glory. I have no idea of those are similar to Mtn Princess.

He has about 40 varieties of tomatoes by my last count. I wrote every one of them down, so feel free to ask about any other specific ones. He even planted some Brandy Boy and 4th of July after I asked about them.

Jill,

A lot of us are in that 'don't need any more tomatoes, but..." category with you. I have to stop and look at every display of tomato plants I see even though I don't even have room for all the seedlings I'm raising.

Scott,

FYI....Mountain Princess is an heirloom from the Monagahela National Forest region of West Virginia. It is determinate and produces very, very early. For me it is earlier than Early Girl, Glacier and Sophie's Choice. The fruit are fairly small, about 4 to 6 oz., are red and are fairly 'hard' so they can be transported to Farmer's Markets, etc. fairly well. Mountain Princess did really well for me last year.

Mountain Fresh and Mountain Glory came out of NCSU's breeding program and were bred by Dr. Randy Gardner, who recently retired. They're the typical hybrid....they look really nice and have lots of disease resistance, with pretty good flavor and good production. I think Randy has released 22 hybrids from his breeding program over the years and most of them have the word 'Mountain' in the name....Mountain Spring, Mountain Pride, Mountain Glory, Mountain Fresh, etc.

Dawn

Oasis in Stillwater won't put plants out until it is time to plant them, & gets complaints from people every year, because if Lowe's has plants out they think she should too...but that's one reason I buy from her.

I winter sowed 72 tomatoes and have several sprouts out there in this snow!!! My first time to winter sow, we'll see.