Chandra -

I've got opinions on lots of those questions, but I'll leave that up to the Kings & Queens of our tomatoe world. However, there are 2 I will address.

On labels, even if you don't have any old window blinds, they are very inexpensive at any dollar store or wal-mart. I bought a small one last year, tore it apart and I've still got slats left over from last year even after the labeling I did. I also did a map, but you're correct in that the map is never with you when you need it. I mostly will use that as a reference for crop rotation. I'll probably buy another blind when I start actually planting in case I run out. You can find blinds for less that $5 and I don't know of ANY labels that can be found that cheap!

That "Texas Pot" method sounds like a good idea, but last year DH constructed PVC pipe for watering. GW won't let me find the thread, but I'll send you an e-mail of pics from our project last year....(I'm at work and don't have time to upload to photobucket! shhhh! don't tell anyone! ha!)

OH! One more....I'd plant 2 of each variety. (snuck that one in there!) I'm sure others will come along with some really good advice.

Paula

Chandra, I am sure that Dawn will be along in a minute with some good instructions but until then I would do a little research and find out which ones are determinate and which are indeterminate. Unless you dig up more lawn, you will probably have to part with a few unless you use a lot of containers or you have a lot of plants that stay small. I think that may be her first question.

I am waiting with interest to hear the info on the spacing because that will help me out, too, but I wanted to throw out there that I noticed two sets of vinyl mini-blinds in the garage last weekend, just begging to be cut up into planting ID tags, and I'd be happy to mail you some (or lots and lots!)

Wasn't the advice to cut them into 6 inch strips or something similar? I can definitely do that and will have far more than I can use. We also replace any damaged mini-blinds in our rental property between tenants so I have a practically never-ending source for more.

I have learned so many things about a plethera of gardening ideas by reading this forum so I'll just throw this out. If you know a painter or someone who works in a paint store you can get paint stir sticks that are about 14 or 15 inches long usually just by asking. I've discovered if they hand you 4 or 5 you can always ask for a few more and they always will give you a few more. Do this everytime you are in a Lowes or Home Depot and start collecting them. I started this spring with 268 of them. Use a sharpy or magic marker to write the name of the plant on them. Also, you can get a box of 1000 popsickle sticks from Hobby Lobby to use for labels when planting seeds for 3.99. Just another way to GET UR DONE.

We're having fires here today, so my time is limited and I'll try to type fast to get this done before the pager does off. (Maybe it won't go off again today!)

1. Spacing....I vary the spacing depending on which type they are....dwarf, indeterminate short internode, determinate, indeterminate or wild-and-crazy-indeterminate (like the monster-sized Tess's Land Race Currant). If you have time to list your varieties, I'll tell you which ones I'd give "average" spacing and which ones I'd give wider or more narrow spacing.

2. Two of each if possible. That way, in one dies, you don't have to wait another year to try that variety. One way I've done this in years that I plant "too many tomatoes" is to plant one of each variety in the ground, and then another one of each variety in a container. I use cat litter buckets and 5-gallon buckets for the container plants. The ones in the containers don't get as large, but they do alright for back-up plants. If one of the in-ground plants dies, I transplant the one in the cat litter bucket into its space in the garden. I've even transplanted in June or July. As long as you water the transplanted plant well and keep it shaded the first couple of days, it will recover from being transplanted in very hot weather.

3. I love the mini blind slats because they are indestructible and I use green duct tape to tape them to the stakes I used to stake the tomato cages. Jay uses tree tags (an idea I like and may try one of these days) but you'd likely have to order some and wouldn't have them at planting time. A map is a good idea, but always have a back-up map in case a three-year old decides to paint your map with her watercolors, or the dog eats it or whatever. I keep maps in two separate 3-ring binders. You can buy little labels in the garden section of stores, but they are small and cheaply made and expensive. I'd buy a $5 to $7 mini blind at Wal-Mart and cut up the mini blind slats to use. Standard "permanent" markers really aren't permanent, so I use 'garden markers' I purchase from a seed company when I buy seeds. Some of the so-called permanent garden markers aren't permanent either. You can use 'paint pens' purchased at a craft store like Hobby Lobby. They seem to be permanent. There's one form of industrial type Sharpie that is truly permanent but they are hard to find.

4. We mulch with grass clippings from our own lawn because we are positive they have not been treated with any harmful chemicals that can kill the plants. My second choice would be autumn leaves (in the fall, I collect them, chop and shred them and fill big black plastic trash bags with them so I have them to use in the spring). My third would be alfalfa hay purchased from a feed store or wherever (look on Craig's List if your local stores don't have alfalfa). The choice of alfalfa is a very deliberate one. It is a legume, so the persistent herbicides that kill gardens because their residue remains active for years can be sprayed only on grasses, not legumes. Any other kind of hay or straw you purchase "could be" contaminated with herbicide residues so I avoid them. Fourth? Probably local mulch like that which some cities or counties offer their citizens. That's an economical option but not a guaranteed safe one because some ingredients in the local compost could be herbicide-contaminated. Fifth? I suppose purchased mulch of some sort. You can use whatever you want. I like to purchase "soil conditioner" for mulch in new beds. It is bagged up like top soil and potting soil, but it consists of pine bark fines and humus and it is in very small pieces, so it breaks down quickly (put layers of newspaper or cardboard under it to help keep weeds from popping up in it). Avoid large bark chunks as they wash out of beds in heavy rains....if it ever rains again.

5. Watering? Whatever method works best with the lay of your land and the layout of your garden is what you should use. If you have flat land, the options work equally well. In that instance, I'd use soaker hoses, drip irrigation or PVC pipe irrigation like Paula and others here have. I love the Texas pot method, but the drawback to it is that it involves a whole lot of digging, and you have to obtain one pot to put between every two plants. So, if you don't already have a supply of unused flowers pots or 1-gallon nursery pots, that's an extra expense. On sloping land, I prefer the Texas Pot Method because it carries the moisture down to the root zone, whereas it is often a problem on sloped land that other forms of irrigation run downhill on or near the soil surface instead of penetrating deeply. Another advantage of the Texas Pot Method is that you put your fertilizer in the pot and every time you water, the water carries some of the fertilizer down into the soil. I've linked some info about the Texas Pot method below. If you have Dr. Sam Cotner's book "The Vegetable Book", I believe the Texas Pot Method is shown, complete with illustrations, in either the tomato section of the book or in one of the appendices at the back of the book.

6. If you did not work the fertilizer of your choice into the soil when you built the beds, then work it into the soil before you plant. That will get your plants off to a good start. For a starter solution, I water each newly-transplanted plant with Liquid Seaweed diluted per the bottle directions. If you are using Tomato-Tone, I believe it gives directions on the package for using it at planting time and how to top-dress regularly thereafter.

7. Shade cloth is great. It will keep your plants and soil quite a few degrees cooler during the hot summer months. I don't usually put it up until June. This year, if the heat continues, I may put it up earlier. I don't use shade cloth until the daytime highs are regularly exceeding about 92 or 94 degrees. (I realize some of us are dangerously close to those temps in this abnormally warm April.)

8. Even though you'll want to go right outside on Saturday morning and transplant them, it would be better to transplant them beginning in late afternoon--maybe around 4 o'clock or so. That way, they have the whole night to recover from being transplanted and they'll have a lot less transplant shock than plants transplanted early in the morning that then have to sit in this heat and this wind all day long. I make all my labels and my maps the day before I plant. Then I carry all my supplies out and use the map to guide my planting. That helps me stay organized and keeps me from getting carried away and planting "3 of this variety and 4 of that variety" when I only planned to plant 2.

I hope this info helps. I'd also like to say there's really no right or wrong way to transplant and space your tomato plants. Some folks plant closer and don't mind smaller yields per plant because they have more plants. Others transplant their plants much further away because they've had past issues with foliar diseases that thrive in poor air flow, so they want the best air flow possible. Do what feels right to you. I think most gardeners do just fine if they just follow their gut instinct or intution and do what seems logical to them considering their location, their soil, their exposure to wind and light, etc.

Good luck and have fun, and try to avoid transplanting them on a day with winds gusting into the 30s or higher.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Pot Method of Raising Tomatoes

Figured I'd throw in my two cents on a couple of those questions.

Mulch: Cardboard (from WalMart, grocery stores, furniture stores, etc) covered with leaves, wood chips, etc -- whatever I can get for free. Don't forget shredded paper, too, from all of that junk mail we all get. I shred it all year and save it in totes. Ditto on the other stuff Dawn said.

Another option for labels, my favorite for tomatoes, is to buy colored construction tape. It's like that "crime scene" tape or "police" line tape you see but it's usually orange or pink. It's stupidly cheap. I write the variety names on the tape with a Sharpie and then just tie to onto the tomato cage (or stakes for peppers). Easy peasy.

Diane

Thank you so much for all your wonderful suggestions and tips. All idea sounds good to me, you have provided plenty of choices!

I am growing all vegetables in raised beds, no pots. I have no success in pots as my garden facing west side of the home, pots used to get very hot in summer and plant used burnt or stressed out due to hot pots. Then I started growing in beds only.

I just looked at my tomato list, looks like all are indeterminate types and none of them determinate.

Here is my tomato list 2011

1. Celebrity
2. Jet Star
3. Beef Master
4. Better Boy
5. Brandy Boy
6. Goliath
7. Black Krim
8. Santium
9. Eva's Purple Ball
10. Tess's Land Race
11. Red Pear Franchi
12. Super Sweet 100 Hybrid
13. Baker's Family
14. Rutgers
15. Santorini
16. Paquebot Roma
17. Royal Hillbilly
18. Beefsteak
19. Tommy Toes
20. Sweet Million-Red bite
21. Porter-Pink slice
22. SunGold-Orange bite
23. Russian Persimmon-Orange slice
24. Orange Banana-Orange paste
25. Ildi-Yellow bite
26. Dr. Wyche's Yellow- Yellow slice
27. P20 Blue-Blue bite
28. Cherokee Purple- Purple slice
29. Royal Hillbilly- Purple slice
30. Aunt Ruby's German Green-Green slice
31. Black Cherry- Black slice
32. Snow White- White bite
33. Indian Stripe- BiC- slice

From Gary:
34. Captain Lucky
35. Mala Bishka
36. Cane River Paste
37. Dana�s Dusky Rose (TAT)
38. Cane River Paste
39. Green Zebra Cherry (TAT)
40. Mama Leone (TAT)
41. Serdste Buivola
42. Tsar-Kolokol
43. Texas-Kansas Marketer (TAT)
44. Yellow Boar
45. Wick�s Orange Paste
46. Mama Leone (TAT)
47. Ludmilla�s Red Plum (TAT)
48. Orlov Yellow (TAT)
49. PPP X pp "C"
50. Brandy Boy OP
51. Marizol Korney
52. Strawberry Margurita (TAT)
53. Wis 55 Gold (TAT)

Regards -Chandra

I like the tape idea. I have a two rolls of Surveyor tape, I think I will try it. That is one I have never heard of.

Larry

Another hint for markers that I haven't tried, but I think Diane may have - use womens liner & brow pencils. They're cheap and hold up to moisture and heat. I'm lucky, Dawn gave me a marker at last years Fling! (and you guys thought I did that cuz I'm nice? heheheh!)

Also, Chandra, I've got LOTS of cardboard if you need some and can get LOTS more from DH's job. Since we're neighbors, it'll be easy to obtain for you. Just say the word, ok?

Paula

P.S. - ARE WE REALLY JUST ABOUT TO PLANT???? I'm so excited I'm almost spastic!!!!

Paula, I put my first two tomatoes in the ground today. Wish me luck. LOL

I put 16 tomatoes in the ground yesterday afternoon, and so far mine seem happy. I can already taste them and can't wait. YUM YUM.

I LOVE the Sharpie Industrial pens. Regular Sharpie fades pretty fast, but the industrial ones last much, much longer. Not forever though. I may try a paint pen next.

Jo

OH CAROL!!!! Luck, luck, luck and MORE luck!!! I can't put mine in until I get some dirt...in the new raised beds. But I'll betcha that's going to happen very, very soon! Can't wait to show you what DH built for me this year!!! I'm just hoping the plants look like they're really happy when you see them.

Jo - I SOOOO know what you mean. A taste that's a REAL tomatoe....(and that's why we're all addicts!)

Paula

Dang, toms in the ground already??? I am behind for sure. I am just ready to harden them off.

These are all wonderful tips! I am going to have to save this thread.

Well, the ten day looks good, mine were hardened off and staying out all day and night in their little styrofoam coffee cups. They wanted to stretch their legs!

I wanted to add that I followed all of Dawn's advice last year, including mulching with newspaper topped with grass clippings from my untreated lawn, and it worked like a dream.

Then in the late fall when we were raking up leaves I just threw them on top of my garen beds. They are now a lovely crumbly mulch in their own right that perenials are peeping up through, and I just brush it aside and plant the annuals, then brush it back around them. I am so excited that my soil will be getting better and richer each year.

Jo

Ezzirah,

Relax. You're not "behind". The OSU-recommended planting dates are April 10-20, so no one is behind yet.

Remember that earlier this week, many of us had freezing and near-freezing temperatures in the 20s and 30s and tomato plants freeze at 32 and can suffer frost damage in the upper 30s. At our house we went to 26 degrees and I was really glad I didn't have tomato plants in the ground yet. I can cover them up on cold nights, but with these strong winds which often do not subside much overnight, keeping the floating row covers from blowing away might be a challenge.

Do I think it is safe to plant now? Probably. At this point I think our tomato plants have a better chance of burning up than freezing, but I don't want anyone thinking they're "behind" just because some folks are putting the plants in early.

In this state, there's always the potential of freezing weather or an above-freezing but still damaging frost until early May, so everyone needs to have a game plan in mind for protecting their plants in case a cold night drops in out of nowhere.

Remember too, everyone, that newly transplanted plants are more vulnerable to wind damage as they struggle a little to adjust to being moved from their pots into the ground, so be sure they are well-watered (but not soggy) and be prepared to try to block them from the wind if they start showing signs of windburn on their leaves.

Chandra,

I looked at your list and have a couple of suggestions, but you'll need to tailor them to fit your needs. Remember that plants will perform differently in different soils and in different moisture levels.

I'm basing my recommendations on my soil and my watering regime, which is minimal at best. If you have better soil or water more heavily, your plants may get larger than mine generally do.

DETERMINATES: You do have a couple of determinates. You also have a couple of varieties that have a determinate version and an indeterminate version, so I assume you have the indeterminates, but you might have the determinates.

With determinate tomatoes I generally use 24" spacing except with a couple of the larger determinates that spread out really wide.

Celebrity is a determinate but spreads out really wide, so I give it 30" spacing.

Santium (I assume you mean Santiam) is a determinate from the breeding program at Oregon State University.

Rutgers: If you have Rutgers VFA, it is a determinate. If you have Rutgers Select (sometimes sold only as 'Rutgers'), it is an indeterminate.

Russian Persimmon: If your version of Persimmon is "Russian Persimmon" it is a determnate that gets about 44-48" tall in my garden and 24" spacing is fine for it. If your version of Persimmon is simply "Persimmon", it is indeterminate and needs wider spacing.

INDETERMINATES: Some of these get positively huge, so I break my indeterminates down into two groups. Most years the more vigorous indeterminates get 36" spacing and the more compact indeterminates get 30" spacing. However, one indeterminate tomato, Tess's Land Race Currant, gets positively huge and does best for me with 4' spacing. It probably would do even better with 6' spacing, but I don't have enough room to give any tomato plant that kind of spacing.

More Compact Indeterminates:

These are a bit more compact most years than other indeterminates. In my garden they usually reach 5'-6' in height with a medium spread, so I give them closer spacing:

Black Krim
Porter
Orange Banana
Cherokee Purple
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Indian Stripe
Dr. Wyche's Yellow

More Vigorous Indeterminates: In my garden these tend to get 6'-8' tall with a somewhat wider spread, so I give them 36" spacing.

Jet Star
Beefmaster
Better Boy
Brandy Boy
Goliath
Eva Purple Ball
Rutgers Select
Baker Family
Royal Hillbilly
Beefsteak

I put cherries in their own row away from the others. Most cherry tomato plants are very vigorous and not only get very tall but very wide. I still give them 36" spacing, but I think they'd be happier with 42-48" spacing. I just don't have the room to put that much space in between them, but I often put them at the outer edge of the garden so they can spread out and encroach on non-gardening space.

Supersweet 100
Tommy Toes
Sweet Million
Ildi
Black Cherry
Snow White

If I didn't list a tomato here, like Franchi Red Pear, P-20 Blue or Santorini, it is because I haven't grown it yet, although some of the ones you've listed, like Franchi Red Pear, I am growing this year for the first time. Usually with new ones I haven't grown before, I use 30" spacing unless someone has previously told me that they need the wider 36" spacing.

With Gary's trial tomatoes, I'd use whatever spacing he recommends for tomatoes on his website. I'd give them all the same spacing in order to be growing them in the most uniform conditions since they're trial varieties.

People who give their tomatoes lots of water (whether as naturally-occurring rainfall or irrigation) and who have sandy loam soil probably would need to add 6" to each spacing recommendation above. I, however, have improved red clay and also only do minimal watering, so the spacing I've given works well for me. In a perfect world and if I had endless amounts of improved clay, I'd plant with 4' spacing, but that's never going to happen in my garden because it takes so much organic matter to improve each square foot of red clay soil.

You could use only 24" spacing on the indeterminates and 18" spacing on the determinates if you are willing to prune branches. I don't prune because sunscald (sunburn of the fruit) is common here in our hot climate, particularly on plants that get direct sun from sunrise to sunset and I feel like the plants need all the foliage they have in order to protect the fruit from sunscald. Somebody growing their tomatoes in a part-shade situation might be perfectly happy to prune a lot, especially if their tomatoes only get 6 hours a day or less of direct sun.

I want to mention feeding and watering. I take a minimal approach to both. In an average year when adequate rainfall occurs, if you feed the plants a lot, especially nitrogen, and water them a lot, you'll have huge monster plants with tons and tons of foliage but probably less fruit. Since I'm growing tomatoes for the fruit and not for the foliage, I only give them 1" of water a week in normal weather and 2" a week during the worst heat of the summer. However, 2011 doesn't seem like it will be an average year, so I'll probably have to water more than usual to make up for the almost total lack of rainfall.

I don't fertilize a lot either. I improve my soil before planting by adding organic matter and Tomato Tone plant food, and then I don't feed again unless I think their performance (or lack of such) indicates they need to be fed.

Remember that a tomato (or, for that matter, any other similar veggie that produces fruits which are, essentially egg-filled ovaries) has a biological imperative to produce fruit in order to create seed to perpetuate its species in case in dies. So, a tomato plant kept slightly dry and just slightly underfed often produces better for me (more fruit per plant) than one that is more pampered. The connection is clear....plants that are a bit dry and a bit hungry don't know how long they'll live and, therefore, to ensure their species survives, they set fruit regularly. Plants that are pampered and spoiled have no real reason to get in a hurry and form fruit because they have a cushy life. They often produce a bit later and less fruit per plant amid lots of lush foliage.

Finally, remember that each variety has a sort of pre-determined amount of flavor that it will have under normal conditions. If you give your plants a lot of water, you may get larger fruit but all that water will water down the flavor and the fruit won't be as tasty. My best-tasting tomatoes that I've ever grown were grown in the most severe drought years in the 1990s and 2000s. The best-tasting tomatoes are those grown dryland with no irrigation in a mild climate where rainfall is on the low side of moderate. However, in our climate, it would be hard to grow dryland due to our regular lack of rainfall, so I try to grow them as close to dryland as possible without harming them by keeping them too dry.

In the very wet and flooding year of 2007 (and 2004 was similar, though with less flooding), I had tons of big huge tomatoes because of all the rainfall, but their flavor was poor to nonexistent in May and June when very heavy rainfall was occurring. As we went deeper into summer and the rainfall dropped on some, the flavor got better.

Dawn

Dear Dawn, you are awesome genius! I am sure everyone will agree should be wearing crowns of both Queen and King!

Thanks for all those wonderful tips and suggestions. I am ever struggling hard to remember few names of the varieties and forgot about whther its is det or indet!!! All your points are so useful, its kind of ready-reckoner for transplanting. I will go with your recommendations, as I also very conservative when it comes to watering and fertilizers. I try go grow garden with minimum inputs (expect initial cost of establishment which has been bit expensive for me).

I am so glad to know that I have determinates as well. All most all seeds I got it from swap. Yes that is Santiam. I like the idea of growing cherry tomatoes separately. I will definitely plant Tess's Land Race in corner or near common shared fense so that neighbors kids can harvest some currents.

Thank you again -Chandra

Chandra,

You are welcome.

You are too kind.

I would never presume to wear the crown of Tomato King because it belongs to Jay. It always has and always will. He just doesn't have time to post on here as much as I do.

Also, I would settle for being a Tomato Princess and not the Tomato Queen, because when you are the queen of anything, there's always somebody who wants to chop off your head and take your crown. I'd prefer to keep my head. : )

I forgot to mention that with the sort of extreme drought we're seeing now, it likely wouldn't hurt for you to plant all the plants 6" closer than whatever spacing I said I generally would use. I think that's what I am going to do. I gave the typical spacing I would use in an average year with average rainfall, and this year the rainfall is so far below average that it is simply unbelievable.

Dawn

Paula, this morning our store keeper told me that tons of tons of cardboard are available. I will pick some of them today.

How you apply them as mulch? Do you cut them in to small pieces or lay entire big cardboard on the bed then cut holes where you are planting seedling?

Red tape labels sounds good, I have one aluminum tape bought for closing greenhouse panel ends. I think that will work as well. I figured out that instead of using markers I can write using blunt needle or toothpick on the aluminum tape which create permanent labels!!!

-Chandra

"Set out tomato transplants when the first ladybugs appear" quote from Farmers Almanac

I saw three ladybird beetles on over wintered ornamental cabbage this morning. So it is true, we can go ahead and transplant tomatoes! -Chandra

Since you've been so helpful for chandra, maybe you can help me. Which, if any, of these can I plant in containers? I have some that are about 18-24 inches diameter and at least 3 ft tall, but can get larger if needed. I just don't have the room in my garden for everything.

Paul robeson
Bakers family
Garden peach
Razzleberry
Wins all
Indian stripe
Lillians yellow
Yellow brandywine
Sprite
Isis candy
Rio grande
Lime green

ezzirah - Don't base your planting dates on mine. I am not risking a lot since I have many, many more plants than I can fit into my garden. According to Mesonet, my last freeze date 70 percent of the time is on or before April 10th, so I am pushing the date by just a few days.

jlhart - I'm sure Dawn will answer when she is not in the garden or busy with a fire, but I see two on your list that don't get big for me. Sprite was not large, and Lime Green Salad is more like a patio plant. I grew Baker Family Heirloom last year and it was a rather large vine. I am growing Indian Stripe this year and I expect it to be like Cherokee Purple which in my garden is rather medium size. Dawn will probably know them all.

I second the vote on Sprite staying small. Garden peach as well. Paul Robeson stayed fairly compact for me, too, but I'm basing that on a bad year. Might be bigger in a good year.

Not that it looks like you're all getting ready to have a good year... My sympathies on the drought.

Diane

Thanks. I've got a ways to go before I can plant; they're all still scrawny and pathetic looking. But its good to know I can use containers.

Chandra, I don't know that I'd trust that lady bug thing from the Farmer's Almanac. I've had lady bugs for 3 or 4 weeks now and had frost just a few days ago!

Jhart, I agree with the others on Sprite, Lime Green Salad, Garden Peach and Paul Robeson. Of those 4, Paul Robeson has gottest the tallest--about 4 feet but it just doesn't like me and tends to die before producing ripe fruit. I don't know why. Maybe it is my soil.

Baker Family Heirloom is very large and should grow in the ground.

Razzleberry is a determinate that gets about 4 or 4.5' tall so it could be grown in a large-ish container. By large-ish I mean at least 7-10 gallons.

Winsall did not get as large in my garden as I expected an Indeterminate to grow, but I grew it in a year when we had extreme drought like this year and the other year when I grew it we had excessively heavy rain and all my tomato plants sat in really wet soil for too long and stalled and stunted. I haven't grown it in a 'normal weather year' because I don't think we have those kinds of years here.

For me, Indian Stripe grows like Cherokee Purple--taller than your average determinate but not a huge indeterminate. I usually grow it in the ground, but I've grown it in 20-gallon containers and it did just fine.

I grew Lillian's Yellow in a year we had exceptional drought (the most severe form of drought) and it only got 3 or 4' tall, but I think it would have gotten taller in good moisture.

Yellow Brandywine is a huge monster so I'd only put it in the ground.

Rio Grande is a determinate but I would put it in the ground. It grows very vigorously (wide! thick! full!) and puts out a huge load of fruit. Because paste tomatoes like Rio Grande are prone to blossom end rot, and because moisture is hard to control in containers, and because uneven moisture contributes to blossom end rot, I'd put it in the ground.

Hope that helps.

Y'all. Unless you are going to water like a maniac or are in one of the far NE OK counties that has had plentiful rainfall, expect smaller than usual plants in this year's drought conditions. That will allow you to space them a bit closer than usual (as long as you're NOT using overhead watering) and to grow some Ind. in containers because in these conditions they won't get really huge. Please realize that if we are already in Extreme drought now (as any of you are), the next step "up" is to Exceptional Drought. I find it hard to water enough to keep a garden going in exceptional drought conditions. There's only so much water any of us can afford to pour onto the dry ground. In these conditions, water well early (in April and in May) in an effort to get your plants to grow well and set fruit. However, once fruit are sizing up nicely, you need to be very careful not to water excessively or your fruit will have bland flavor. It is a delicate balancing act.

Dawn

Thanks everyone! As usual you are right, I will be more patient. I lost some BEAUTIFUL artichoke plants because I rushed and you would think I would learn from that....

Patience is not one of my strong points. Gardening sure is helping with that!

Ezzirah,

I have a few tomato plants in the ground now and hope to get the rest of them in the ground today, if the fire pagers don't go off and ruin my plans.

If your 10-day forecast looks good, I think it is safe to plant them now. However, if you look at your forecast for tomorrow and it shows wind gusts of 40 mph or higher, you might want to wait until early next week. High winds are very hard on newly transplanted plants.

Dawn