Hmmm, not sure where to even begin, Barry. :)

Peat pots? Starting now? Sunny window? Planted 12 inches apart? Planted the end of March???

Glad this approach works for you but it doesn't work for all so you might want to be a bit more specific. Lots of good reading available here on alternative approaches.

I see you just joined today so for starters, how about just a welcome to the forum and tell us where you live or garden. :)

Dave

Well dave I have grown tomatoes for over 30 years And yes from washington state to texas where I now live with my wonderful wife. the close planting of the tomatoes serves two purposes it holds in the days heat through the evening and night hours and provides support to each plant. Yes I am new to this forum and felt like sharing my years of expertise I have grown gardens that have produced enough food to feed a family of 7 in an area the size of about 30 by 15 feet from desert soils to the clay soil here in texas to the richer loam soils in washington state. So I know a little bit about what I am talking about. I specialize in heirloom tomatoes corns and squash I also raise honeydew melons rubarb and raspberries. I'm in the point of startig a new garden this year in my new home including fruit trees and nut trees. I was taught by three farmers how to grow anything any where and how to make the ground your friend. If I sound arrogant I don't mean to so please don't take it as that. But I do know what I'm doing. Thank you for your welcoming me to the forum.

Not arrogant, no. Just that much of what you advocated so strongly goes against conventional wisdom and has often been discussed here in great detail in the past. You'll find that there are a number of regulars here, growers both professional and amateur, that have just as many decades of experience.

For example, in Texas it may well be time to start your seeds but it is far too early for many of us, especially for those in the northern zones who can't plant out until late May. So without including, as we all do here, your location or at least gardening zone in your original post inexperienced gardeners reading it could be mis-led.

Further, advocating 12 inch spacing and the use of peat pots are both highly controversial with a great deal of documentation, both scientific and anecdotal, here against both. Personally, I would never advocate the use of peat pots and if they must be used for some reason then the pot needs to be stripped from the root ball before planting. And if I were to plant using 12" spacing then I would lose hundreds of plants to foliar diseases because of the high humidity here and the poor air circulation in among the plants. If I pruned them to a single stem to make that spacing work then I'd lose half my crop to sun-scald.

Bottom line, we have all learned that there is no one-right-way to grow tomatoes. There are simply too many variables in experience and in growing conditions. So we try to keep in mind that no matter how experienced we may be and no matter how well our particular methods work for us in our gardens, they won't work for all. We can all always learn something new.

Dave

Welcome to the forum Barry. We love advice and also love to give it here. So ---- here is mine. WAAAAY too early for starting tomatoes in Z5 unless you plan to transplant your very leggy specimens several times before they can be put in the ground the end of May (or even early June since we often have good frosts in May.)

Having said that, I started 'Tiny Tim' , 'Red Robin', and 'Hams Gelbe' (all cherry type dwarf plants) a month ago and because they only grow to a couple of feet, they will probably not get leggy before transplant time. BUT I did this as an experiment and don't know what the result will be. Just hoping to get real early cherry tomatoes. (BTW, early might be end of June if I'm really lucky.)

Take it easy on giving advice unless you have personally experienced what you are saying.

Welcome to GW, Barry!

I'm glad your method is successful for you.

I'll start my seeds in a week or so. I vividly remember the Easter freeze that killed everything in 07: second weekend of April. It got down into the teens. Killed most things; no apples that year.

In northern Illinois I used to set the tomatoes out in late May; maybe I could have done it week or two earlier, but grandparental tradition was to plant on Memorial Day.

Peat pots are an invention of the devil, I assure you.

I'm not sure what "pods" are ... don't they use them in those AeroGarden thingies? Aha: looks like it's another name for peat pellets! I've had good luck with peat pellets in the past, but use seed-starting mix now in a 10-20 set-up. (But your mentioning "pods" reminds me that I have daylily seeds I should do something with. There can never be too many daylilies.)

Alas, I have no sunlit window, warm or otherwise. The Previous Owners only put in one dinky south window, under the carport. South is a) too hot; and b) the direction the golf balls attack from; and c) no room for another window anyway. The only decent-sized window in the whole house is under a 3' overhang that shades the west side of the house -- and it has no sill! I start my seedlings in the basement under fluorescent lights.

I can't imagine how planting 12" apart would work unless you removed all the suckers. I was brought up to do that, but I realized long ago that it severely limited the crop. So I plant mine 3-4' apart, depending. Luckily there's plenty of room. (The year I planted them 2' apart, Late Blight hit in early July and provided a vivid lesson of how fungal diseases thrive in crowded and/or damp conditions.) Of course, I grow on a trellis rather than in cages; maybe with cages I could plant closer, but I have no interest in using cages.

Way too early here to in NE Ohio! I plant my seedlings around mid March earliest and don't plant outside until mid April to end of April.

Also planting them too close together means some of them won't be getting all the sun they need here.

Let me give my grandfather's method for planting tomatoes. I think this would work in any part of the country. PaPaw Hierholzer started with a clothes dryer drum. Cut out the very bottom. Then, drill holes in the sides (bottom half) for drainage. Sink it in the ground by 1/2 or 3/4.

Start your transplants (or seeds) in the very bottom. Yes, you will have to reach WAAAY down when getting started. You can plant early, and when a freeze comes, just cover the top of the drum. As the plant grows, pinch off the leaves closest to the soil line and keep adding dirt. Stop pinching and adding dirt when you get about 1/3 from the top of the container.

No underground pests (gophers!) can get to your plants, fertilizer and water is well-utilized, and your tomatoes have an unbelievable root system! The following years, simply improve the soil in this durable container and you are ready to get started. This method works and it has doubled my yield.

Wow TexGal -- I Luuuuv you! Yep, we all got that old dryer drum hangin round and didn't what to do with it till now!!! Talk about recyclin! Yeh I love that. We can grow out maters and be green also.

Just in case you all don't have a dryer drum hangin round, you can start your tomatoes like I do. It is the same idea but you start them in 16oz. beer cups indoors. Just put a couple of inches of dirt in the bottom, plant your seeds (2-3 to a cup) and fill up the dirt as the plant grows. The great thing about this way is that you can see the roots fill out in the clear cup (can't with that ole dryer drum) and once the soil is warm outdoors you can plant the baby. (be sure to harden it off though.)

Thanks Barry/aka TexGal.

I am in 6b and I get the tomatoes going in the first 2 weeks of March, little by little, in trays with seedstarting mix. I transplant them into WHATEVER containers I have saved up over the year once they are large enough. I keep them in the light on an unheated enclosed porch and bring them in if there is a hard frost or blow an electric heater all night. I pay close attention to sun, wind, and temperature and get the plants outside as much as I can as long as conditions won't harm them. I use pop-up cold frames here and there and I just "seat of my pants" the whole operation until early May when I plant them out with protection and also sell hundreds to gardeners in the area. It's a lot of "focus" but it's very enjoyable.. Lots of ways to approach this!

If I use my sunny window, I have leggy seedlings that are pest magnets. If I plant in late March, I will heave dead frozen plants, zero tomatoes for the year. If I plant 12" apart, they'll be sick plants by August. I've made all these mistakes, and would advise anyone in the coastal northeast/mid-atlantic to not do any of those things. If I still lived in LA, it would be great.

I plant mine close more like 18' apart mostly because I have limited garden space and just love tomatoes and trying as many new varieties as I can. I suspect that I probably have lower yeilds per plant because of it but I am not sure if I have lower overall yeilds because of the higher number of plants. I suppose the only way to find out would be to try spacing them out and see. I do end up with a tangled mess and I am sure that plants compete for light and soil resources. However, by late spring, I don't have any more weeding because the ground is shaded out. So tradeoffs....

An old gardener in AR I know plants his tomatoes in garden boxes and plants them every 2 inches direct in the soil in the spring. Then he lets them fight it out. He supports them with A frames made of cattle paneling. His theory is that if there are no room for weeds then he won't have to pull them. His crops do well, but since he uses boxes he has better control of his growing substrate, which is a 50/50 mix of cow manure and pete moss of which he adds a couple of inches each year. By the end I think he shoots for the square foot concept and has one plant every 12 inches.

I would say that for cold weather folks we try to start our seeds 6-8 weeks before average last frost. Though because it's an average, we realize that there could be frosts weeks after that date. For me, it's about May 6 which puts my planting dates back more like end of March.

Too early for us up here! Not unless you plan on transplanting them into huge containers.

I do have a few hundred going that are up 2" or so. But the bulk will not go in till St. Patricks day and even April 1st for memorial day sales.

for those of you who seem to mis understand the use of peat pots or pods they are for the germination process and will be transplanted from them later on they are not a permanent pot. they are not ment for any other reason.

as to having leggy plants your planting in too large a pot transplanting from smaller pots to larger pots is ideally better as this contains the root system in a root ball yes you will still occasionally have some varieties that prefer being leggy but they are usually in your newer varieties.

Your yields can be brought up by adding small amounts of B-12 to your soils and as for your having sick plants that is usually caused from trying to over water due to the close proximatey of the plants or due to watering other than way early morning or late evening. peat is the most important water retention mechanism in gardening as is inriching your soils with steermanure or aged horse manure.

ok and now to the late freeze issue....
They do happen and in some areas as late as june this taken into account is ho you handle that issue in your garden. go to your local hardware store pick up a roll of heavy opaque plastic and cover your plants at night when you know or suspect there may be a freeze. it's called tenting by doing so you keep your plants warm enough to not freeze. if your freeze lasts more than a day go put a lamp under the tent and let it's heat keep your plants safe until the freeze has past.

TxGal youre paw paw was quite right in planting inside that container your yields are better cause your root system is always kept warm for you northern folks those old tires you have laying around do the same thing because they are black rubber they retain even better heat from the day and as TxGall pointed out by covering the top with plastic durring a freeze the heat from the tires will protect the whole plant.
And reysereyse if you had read my previuose statement in this forum with thirty years of farming and gardening experiance in costal, mid-plains, high dessert, and high - plains. and in minnesota areas I kinda have some experiance. so please don't think I am not using that experiance. Yes we had 19.1 inches of snow here this monday and sure love the extra moisture.
Thank you all for the welcomes to the site though.
there is one other thing I needed to add as well science brought about many of our new hybrid plants being passed off as heirlooms and I just wanted to ask some questions and would like to hear your input about them.
first question is what are the tolerances of these new plants?
second what do you like about them and last what do you not like?
I don't grow them but was curiouse to know more from some who have.

Thanks for mentioning my grandpa, Barry! The local newspaper came several times to take pictures of his tomato plants. By the end of the season, he literally picked tomatoes from overhead. They were healthy, vital, and productive. He always planted Better Big and Big Boy, which I also seem to have the best luck with here in East Texas.

Our temps got down into the low 30's last night, but my baby plants were snug as a bug deep inside of their "well". Once we get into the hot summer temps, I think PaPaw's dryer drum worked for another reason -- good water retention. It's oh, so easy, to throw a hose over into the drum and walk away for about 30 minutes. I only have to water (deeply) about twice a week -- and that's with temps hovering around 100 degrees in the good old Texas summertime.

I'm new to GardenWeb and I am so impressed with the expertise represented here. Thank you, each and every one, for sharing your gardening wisdom.

I can understand the sentiment of coming to a forum like barry has and dictating out advice, but you should realize that probably 100+ people here have even more experience than yourself.

It's a community where people give and accept new ideas and ways of growing a sleu of things.

There are people here that own farms that grow thousands and thousands of plants, tomatoes and others alike.

There are also people from across the u.s and outside of the u.s.

I guess forum etiquette has to be acquired, but it's better, as digdirt said, to introduce yourself as a person first and foremost if you want positive feedback and most importantly if you want people to listen to anything you have to say.

Nitram please take note I have introduced myself and the fact that i'm using my own personal experiances combined with over three hundred years of experiance in the farming and gardening world. I did not make any statement that said anything but that it was time to start your plants and where for many generations my family has done so with great yields. I did not dictate that it must be done just my way. Just that it was time to start your plants. if you or any one wishes to take offence to that it seems to me to be your problem not mine. I am generous to a fault with my knowledge and know that many folks have found faults in many areas of old fashioned growing as science has found better ways. and newer hardier plants so long as you grow in thier time periods, or under thier strict guide lines. I grow gardens from true experiance not a book. So I'm sure that my methods seem arcaic at best to you but they have worked for me in many areas of this country and continue to prosper in my techiques every year. so please if all you have are snide remarks to justify yourself then please don't make them. i have more important things in life than to read or reply to them.

strange thread...

I'll be Winter Sowing mine this coming week, while it's still freaking cold at night. Brrrrr.

sorry you had to read a thread that started to be no more than a suggested time to plant your tomatos that turned into a pissing match by those who haven't the cooth to use proper ediqute or take what they said as a part of thier own actions. but for those of you who do use a decorum of true open mindedness to things including the respect of someones opinions in this field I appluade you. to those who think they have the only answers cause science says so and some book they read says so has not the knowledge to tell me one thimbles worth of their expertise. I am fifty years old and have been taught by generations of farmers and gardeners for my first 18 years and since have used those same methods of growing crops and gardens with the same results. science can make a tomatoe that tastes like your favorite fruit dose it make that tomatoe better? or dose it alter the true structure of the tomatoe it's self? the truth is the last true heirloom tomatoe was grown in venice in 1809 a small pearl heirloom tomato called a currant you can get seeds for them but they are always new and improved for higher yields. as to most this may be a shock an heirloom is not the plant but the generations of that seed and the methods it was grown by. be it a small cherry tomatoe a giant beefsteak or a succulent cherokee or any other. the seed was past down through generations as was the techniques to grow it science can't ever duplicate it. it is but the same with every plant in your garden or your field undeniably. So stop trying to use me as your patsy and go eat your oatmeal.

Strange thread indeed, but that just makes it fun! Now to serious advice. Please don't use plastic to cover your tomato (or any other) plants during a freeze. They will definitely freeze because of the condensation formed under the plastic. Use blankets or sheets!

Next, I could be wrong here but any scientific enhancement of a heirloom tomato makes it a hybrid. Isn't that correct? A heirloom is that because it hasn't been changed since the beginning and also is open-pollinated. Once it becomes a hybrid, you can't count on the seeds coming true.

you're partially right About the Plastic ryse_ryse if you have the plastic against your plant instead of giving it at least 10 - 12 inches of space giving your plant a barrier of open air a blanket is also a good Idea it too should be draped over your plants leaving an open airspace around the plants and so that it drapes to the ground.
As to the plant being an heirloom you are also partialy right
an heirloom is a seed passed from generation to generation and can be traced to the plant's original stock through lineage. for it to be an heirloom the seed has to be at least four generations or about 80 to 100 years in documented age. it gets the name of heirloom from being passed down from parent to child or grandchild. thus such as your grandfathers watch is the plant. And yes the plant is open pollinated it is why it is in the case of tomatoes that they be separated from other varieties to temper any crossing of the two. you can't completely stop that issue with out planting your plants on two different sides of the house so usually a separation of about twenty feet will keep the crosspollination to a minimum. Also your seeds should come from the last tomatoes of the season let one or two rippen until they fall then be sure to collect the seeds from those they will be a hardier seed for storage. You did bring an issue to the table earlier about a pest issue when you use a sunny window to start your tomatoes causing issues with your plants. here is a fairly well learned remedy I have found to help with the pests and yes I took several attemps at other methods until I came accrosed this so figured I would share it. I have pets so I have to be very careful using any chemicals to spray in my growing windows. And I don't know if any one else has tried this but it dose work quite well for me. I make a mixture of dish soap and orange extract 1-2 oz of extract and 2 tablespoons of dishsoap to one quart of water. I put that into a spray bottle and spray all the surfaces including the window with it yes I hear every woman cringing right about now lol.do not rinse the area you can squeegee off the window but do not rinse it off. the pests for the most part will clear the area. As to your plants being leggy I personally don't use any potting soils or seed starter I usually use the peat pellets and the soils from the area I plant the plants into I gradually transplant up the plants until they have a root ball that fits comfortably into plastic cups or into a quart size pot my plants stay hardier in the ground soils because they don't have to re acclimate to the new soils. It actually cuts loss of plants to virtually a negligable amount. plant losses do happen and it's not from negligence even in the best of conditions one can expect to lose some plants to unknown reasons. If you don't lose plants then bravo enjoy your bountiful crops.

Wow to your 300 years of experience. I just added up all my experience along with my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews, children and a host of other people who I knew and know.....all of whom grow or have grown tomatoes.......I think I got 873 years of experience (still counting) and that will increase by about 32 years each year. I am 64 years old now but, by the time I am 70, I will have over 1000 years of experience.
How about that?

By that time you guys might listen to me but, by then, your experience might be more than mine so I'll just shut up and do my thing. Fair enough.

Marrullo,
I'm glad you have many years of conjoined experiance in growing your garden and that you use it. But at 64 your additude just shows you can still piss in the wind and get your leg wet.
If you have something to add such as your experiance with different ideas that would add to my knowledge base or that would help others to enjoy the growing of tomatos or even other plants please feel free to put it in here I for one don't mind hearing you thoughts if they are acctually something towards the betterment of knowledge not to the latter issue of your additude.
many of the folks here on this thread have calmed down to the point of actually listening and wanting to hear more than just my opinions but the opinions of a group of intellegent people. if you want to be part of that then please stand up and be counted and actually heard. as for your issues of others listening to your opinions you may find they will better take some of your experiance if you quit taking your additude to these extents.
Even I have to tend to watch my own additudes and some times I bark and regret it later. So take the time to inhale and enjoy the fact that here you can give some advise or share your experiances with your gardening maybe we can all have bigger healthier gardens or crops if we just slow down and listen.

well, you are certainly the Mr. T of postings since you claim some semblance of credibility on this board with 3 posts and without any basis whatsoever except really piss poor spelling skills. I have been reading this board for years and come to respect many regular posters here who have clearly much better advice to give than you (and without the hilarious hubrous you bring as well) Listen, Barry, you are being treated politely thus far but you are the subject of snickers and jokes. Yet you seem immune to it all. Keep it up and you will become the board clown. I await your further silly posts and misspellings.

All hubris and misspellings aside, Barry has a way of planting tomatoes that works for him, and he has taken the time to share his experiences with the rest of us. Would I follow his advice in my area? Not to the tee, but if it works for him, it may work for others. I started my seeds about the time in the year that he started this tread, and I paid for it with fighting disease and a nasty virus (brought on by stress attracting aphids that carried CMV in a terrible spring that was rainy and cold until mid June). Therefore IâÂÂm waiting until mid march to plant those seeds this year.
However, once again, it works for him, and it may well work for others. The rather exuberant refutation of his methods is almost comical. If you have an opinion backed with experience, Barry seems in no way offended by other members sharing it here. So share it, and lets all try not to defend our time honored planting methods by attacking foreign ideas. Isn't that the whole point of a forum? To share opinions and methods that have worked for each of us? Take a breath, and share your opinion, and not attack a fellow gardener who may have a brusque online demeanor. We can disagree without the insults. That's a healthy debate.
As a dyslexic, and a person who earned their college degree (summa cum laude) largely online; I learned how online character can be grossly over analyzed, and how misspellings, and grammatical errors can form opinions in certain peoplesâ minds about a person that are wildly different than they would have had they met that person in person.
I, for one, welcome everyoneâÂÂs opinion. As a younger gardener, I can evolve my methods to achieve the greatest production in my modest plot. And each year I tweak what I do to boost production. Some varieties I cage and space 24 inches apart others I train to double leaders 18 inches apart in rows 40 inches apart. IâÂÂm also trying my hand at grafting onto vigorous rootstock this year. That works for me. What works for you? IâÂÂm here to learn.

Note the poster complaining of poor misspellings spelled hubris "hubrous" - see fingers often can't say what lips intend. No offence, just pointing out what I see.

Marullo, why don't you go read the posts of others that you enjoy and just leave me the hell alone or is it that you are so miserable in your own life you haven't the respect of those others cause they don't listen to your ideas? I happily invited your real opinions about your gardening experiances as I too am willing to try some of them to see if they might just improve my own. But Instead you have taken the road to try and be some kind of gardening bully. well it just so happens this gardener thinks you have only one thing to hold on to and that is that you apparently are the clown here. And for the several years that you have so joyusly been here your log is quite empty not even pics of your wonderful gardens. Yet you boast to the rest about how great your gardens are. I came here to, as Patrick stated previousely, give an opinion based on my personal experiances and what methods I have used and work for me. but it is people like yourself who scoff and laugh at others that shows why people don't listen to you. You May have some great ideas, but no one wants to hear it from a my way or the highway type person such as yourself. you're a bully and I'm about to become your biggest problem. Cause you see this can of worms don't fear you nor will i back down from you. you are nothing short of a joke . And as to my vernacular if you can only come up with the BS you have so far your a weak joke at that.

Patrick TY for attempting to bring some civility to my thread it is appreciated greatly. you may try that spray mix I mentioned before it works for my mother up there in the PNW area and she uses it with excellent results through out the growing season.

http://www.almanac.com/plant/tomatoes

this is the link to the farmers almanac also stating to the same effect as what I have about planting your seeds. your area may have a later frost date by a couple of weeks but in general the almanac also below you can find the almanacs long range weather forcasts

http://www.almanac.com/weather/longrange

you can use these to help you also to temper the time you start your tomatoes.
Yes I do try to be helpful as well as to give my ideas and opinions from my experiances. but for those who believe they are above everyone elses opinions or to bully someone into thier way of thinking here too is the reason I can back up what I say. and by the way marullo that almananc has a combined average of over 3 million years of experiance in every field . just incase you are still counting. just so you might have a little extra knowledge .
So ends my statements of fact or fiction you can either go to those links or to the home page link i have also provided.
it has helpful information for protecting your garden as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Old Farmers Almanac

Weird thread. Much peace, y'all!

âÂÂBetter to remain silent and be thought a fool then to speak out and remove all doubt.âÂÂ

You're right, Barry, I'll simply ignore your posts from now on.
Peace.

I enjoy a little entertainment while waiting for springtime.
Go for it guys.

I'll never cease to be amazed by the level of incivility that can be fostered by the anonymous nature of the internet even on as genteel a forum as Gardenweb. What a better world we could leave to our children and grandchildren if every member of the online community would ask themselves before commenting, Would I really speak such words to another man or woman in an actual, face to face conversation?

I have attempted to allow all to come and speak civily. If I have done nothing else. Yes I can send out what I recieve and I can even take from everyone else the information they give because it dose make for my benefit as well as dose my information for some. If I held every answer in the book I would not have come to this forum or to any other forum to ask questions or to simply make a statement of my experiance, be it with tomatoes or with a tree. As to those un named who simply can not see past thier own actions in conversations. I post for those who want to try and work as a community here through the true exchange of ideas not through arrogance . that hostility towards new or old ideas and methods makes any thread of knowledge mute to others. I have seen over my fifty years thousands of crops and gardens lost to blights late freezes or other factors including droughts. so Is it a gamble every year you plant? you bet ya. but as gardeners and farmers we go out every year and plant our gardens and fields. and we wait and we harvest from our toils. Is my way the only way out there as we can plainly see it is not. dose it make me a better gardener or farmer if I make no effort to allow others to give to me knowledge of some kind towards a different idea in gardening no it dose not.
But to jump up and treat people the way I have been treated by some in this post may amuse some but with it comes the loss to others who really are thirsting for knowledge. to that end for those who really want a civil conversation please feel free to have one. and please do use the almanac to get if not just the basics for those new to gardening but to those here who truely have the ability to give thier views with out malice. because the only thing I learned from most of you here is you have grown too set in your ways to let in information even if it was just part of what was given in total. I was asked to introduce my self several times and did so including where i live and my experiances including in many of the areas of you here in this post. but instead I recieve a continual out pouring of arrogance from those just wanting to see just how far they can push some one. I can bark back or I can set back and listen to ideas and pick up some new methods including those that may infact make me wonder. If the way you grow your crop works for you by all means share it. it may make some one else actually have a crop or garden that has exceptional yields we as gardeners and farmers pray for three things an early spring with out a freeze, plenty of water, and a great harvest season- long and fruitful.
We as a group need to stop the nonsence and try to reach for those goals instead.

Thanks for the reminder to get our tomato starts/seeds planted Barry! Actually - we have to plant a few weeks earlier than you in our area but your post reminded me of some tomato starts for which we didn't have the seeds when we planted in the last week of January. Here is what they looked like the last week of January:

This is what they looked like yesterday when we moved them to 4" pots. They appear to be doing well and should be ready to plant in about 4-6 weeks in our GH. I mean our GH night time temperatures should be warm enough to plant the seedlings in 4-6 weeks - haha

We have a planting calendar but reminders are helpful for us all - we appreciate your and all of the GW posts!

This post was edited by Hudson...WY on Tue, Mar 5, 13 at 11:24

beautiful plants you have there I hope you have a wonderful crop of tomatoes!! love the way you have you GH set up been thinking about a couple different setups like that or with a domed bubble roof for maximizing the sun
so I can start some other plants earlier as well.

I just started all of my tomato and pepper seeds this past Sunday. I live in the High Desert of SoCal, Zone 8.. Last frost date is around April 15th or so, but ive been able to plant between April 1st-5th the last couple of years.

I'm hoping the Early Girls are ready to harvest before the end of May! :-)

I started my seeds on March 20th last year and found it was too soon. The ones I was giving away were way too tall for my liking and made transport difficult. I certainly don't plan to start any sooner. Its tough trying to second guess New England weather, though.

The advantage of planting tomato seeds in January for us is to enjoy tomatoes as early and as long as possible like Chezterr in zone 8 (we are jealous - we have to GH it in zone 3)! With indeterminate tomato plants - the sooner we can plant them the longer our harvest! We had our first ripe tomatoes last year the middle of June. Maybe I shouldn't be posting on this thread because I can't grow tomatoes except in a GH but planting seeds in January gave us tomatoes like this in June.

We had a continual supply of tomatoes on these indeterminate plants through most of October - when cold temperatures terminated our harvest and I cut off the tops of the tomato plants.

I agree with Sue_ct - one has to adjust planting seed time for the desired outcome. We have the advantage of putting our starts (if they get to large) in the GH, in the GH grow box or under grow lights depending on the weather - including the option of heating the GH if we choose - but we do not plant the seeds any earlier than the last week in January because the cost of heating the GH any earlier becomes prohibitive for us.

The right time to plant is the time that is right for the gardner I think - but it was reading post on the GW Forum that got us to try planting earlier - and it was an advantage for us. Ummmm......I'm getting hungry for some garden tomatoes just looking at these photos!

I think for sue in CT, the right time would be April 15th. They will be good and strong but not too leggy and ready to take off once planted outdoors! That is when I plant mine in Z5, NW IL.

Except I planted Tiny Tim, Red Robin and Dwarf Polish on Dec. 12th. They are in 6" pots and doing just great but they won't get over 2' tall fully grown. Right now they are all very compact and I don't have extra lighting other than the south-facing windows. One of the Tiny Tim's has flower buds!

What an awesome setup! Does your planter have a solid bottom or is it contiguous with the ground?

Thanks NZ,
It has a 12" wide x 16" deep with rebar footing all around the perimeter of the GH then contiguous to the ground. The 4x4 posts are buried16" in the ground also. I used threaded rods from the 4x4 to the exterior studs for spacing and strength. The threaded rods are approximately 18" below the soil line so it does not interfere with tilling etc. These indeterminate tomatoes will grow all the way to the ridge beam if I plant them early enough! Awesome producers too - constant supply - always tomatoes ripening on the levels below as new blossoms are developing several levels up - etc etc!

Yes those tomatoes are making me hungry too.
As to posting here it is open to everyone love your set up as well I am getting some positive feed back finally and loving every minute of it. please keep this up as it is helping me as much as many others who do take the time to read this thread. I'm thinking of two different stlyes of
gardens this year raised beds like the ones in your GH or ground level beds. so will be experimenting with both of those this year to see which will be better for me to use.
and yes I have a few tires and found a dryer drum as well for growing tomatoes and some other hill type plants. will let you know how they do as I begin my planting outside this month.