Ahhh, I understand. Seeds aren't plants, but they will become plants. Garlic cloves aren't seeds, they are bulbils which grow and produce more bulbils. Some garlics will produce topsets which can be broken apart and planted like bulbils, and some produce genuine seed which you can germinate like any allium. Seed forming garlic can become pesky if you don't deadhead it. Your own garlic hasn't been treated with a sprouting inhibitor, that's why your own cloves produce bigger bulbs--they start their growth when they are planted. Garlic that you purchase for planting has been cleaned, sorted and stored. It is usually sprayed with a low-intensity (non-premanent) growth inhibitor to keep it from sprouting before it goes back into the ground. It can take several weeks with sufficient rain or watering to cycle the inhibitor from the garlic before it can start growing. You can use the Winter Sowing Method for starting your tomato seeds to provide natural, acclimated germination which will have them growing in tune to your local climate. I won't start my tom seeds any other way. T

Those are actually tomatoes, not peppers! I grew them in 7-gallon nursery containers, hand-mixing dirt, potting mix, leaves (green and brown) and finished compost, along with Tomato-tone fertilizer. (And got into a huge debate in the container growing section over my methods). The containers were buried in the ground which helped keep them from drying out. I staked them when they were smaller and then wove string around those metal poles. Now to come clean: I got very few ripe toms - but I learned more in six months than I had in 50 years! 1) - No matter what you hope and anticipate, Cincinnati is going to experience a drought of sunlight from mid-December to mid-February. I had a two-week period that had a total of four hours (probably less) of sunlight. Makes for some leggy plants. 2) - Unless you plan on babysitting the GH all day, every day, be sure to install an automatic vent. One day in either very late winter or very early spring, the weather forecast called for mostly cloudy skies and high temps of 48. It was 42 when I left and though I turned the heaters off, I did not open the door. The weather turned out to be very sunny with a high near 60. When I left I had hundreds of blooms and dozens of very small (pea to marble size) fruits. When I returned, I had a couple dozen blooms and dozens of fried, brown tomatoes. When I left, it was 55 in the GH, when I returned it was 125 - and that was at a foot off the ground. At the top of the plants, probably 5-10 degrees warmer. 3 - don't underestimate the way whiteflies can proliferate in a GH lacking natural predators. A few bugs here and there can turn into hundreds of thousands that are almost impossible to eradicate unless one wants to use chemicals that means the fruit will not be edible. That said, if I can afford to replace the plastic roof with twin-wall GH panels and upgrade the wiring, I will give it another try next fall/winter. Use lights to replace the sun, but run them mostly at night to also provide heat. Plus, by using the panels, I'll be able to cover them and the windows with bubble wrap - an excellent way to prevent heat loss. I'll also install an automatic, hydraulically-operated vent. I can fit maybe 70 plants inside, using either a drip or DWC hydro system (or if I get real ambitious this summer, super amend the ground and grow them directly in dirt). That's potentially 1500 pounds of maters I could sell at $3/lb. Mike

pepperdude@live.com should work. I put the email address in my message. It's not in my profile if that's where you looked...sorry for the confusion if so.

It is a strange year, isn't it? On my cabinet I have a stack of yard long beans, three overground cucumbers, several (undergrown) tomatoes, and a dozen peppers. LOL I guess the tomatoes aren't undergrown, but they are just all little tomatoes like Sungold, Santorini, Cluster Goliath, Tess's Land Race, etc. I haven't yet had one slicer. I have some large tomatoes in the garden, but not a lot. The vines are covered with blooms and have been for weeks but just don't seem to set much fruit. I know I planted a lot of small tomatoes, but there's got to be some big ones out there also. LOL Some of my vines already seem to be weakening and they haven't yet done their work.