Thanks for starting the pt. 2, I was just thinking I needed to do that. I think this will extend to pt 3 & 4 eventually, as everyone's crops come in during the summer.

Yea, I imagine there will be at least 4-5 parts...lol...I love browsing people's pics & watching their tomato progression. :)

here are my pics combined to show the plants progression
First pic is 7 days after plant out

5 week update!
Well the last few days have been warn and beautiful. Lows 70's, and my plants are really taking off. Almost getting out of control.
I started another thread, but I think I need to pot up and unfortunatley sacrafice some of them as I am simply running out of room :(
If anyone in the Bay Area wants to come over, you can have some of my seedlings as it makes me sick to let them die.
I have extra, Red Brandywine, Ch Purple, Big Beef, Lemon Boy, Supersteak, Better boy, Celebrity, Early Girl and Sungold

perhaps everyone should stick to a slightly smaller .jpeg
size... it wouldn't take as long to show of the maters, and even dial up users could use the room.

That would be good for slow connections or fast loading, but it would sacrifice image quality. Personally I like larger images for detail...I could make clickable thumbnails of my images that would be linked to a full sized version that would open in a separate window...just a thought.

Here are my seedlings at 3 weeks! I just moved the lights up a level, as some of the leaves were touching the bulbs.All of them are in MG Organic Potting Mix.

Several of them are really tall, and there is room in the cup to add more potting mix, would that be a good idea?

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wow ragtimegal! 3 weeks old? what are you feeding these monsters?! the stems are so strong and thick looking? do you have a greenhouse you are planning to move them out to?

when do most (who have a gh) move from under the lights to out in the gh?

Looks like everyone has some great plants going this year !
Here's a pic of my group started from seed on 2/14 and potted up on 3/3. It was taken last Fri. on 3/20. I began hardening them off on 3/12 (no more lights) and some show a little leggyness from being under the trees and getting filtered sun. Today their out there in full sun and will be planted out this weekend. Happy growing all! Rob

Nice pics everyone...my seedlings that are in a 4:5 mixture of MG Organic and regular potting mix aren't doing very well. Everything else that is potted in 100% regular MG potting mix is doing very well. I'm going to get a big bag of regular mix and re-pot all 30 of my seedlings that are in the organic/regular mix.

Thanks, Jaime! I started them in peat pellets and potted up pretty early, just under two weeks. Some had their first set of true leaves and others barely had them peeking out. I potted them up into MG Organic Potting Mix. They've been in my unheated garage under the lights (24/7) since they germinated, and we go in and out of the garage, so they get frequent breezes from the constant opening of the garage door. On the warmer days I have left the garage door open purposely to allow the breeze in. I have only watered them once, which was when I potted them up, so they have been a week now without additional watering. (The mix is still surprisingly moist!)

I have to admit, the urge to fertilize with some fish emulsion or seaweed extract (which is what I have on hand) has been strong, but I'm trying to fight it since they should have the nutrients they need in the MG Organic Mix. I plan on planting them individually in 18 gallon containers and am going to use a soil-less mix similar to what Al recommends in the container gardening forum.

I don't have a greenhouse (but would like one!), so I can't offer any advice on that topic. I live in Southern California, so my last frost date is 3/30. It will be plenty safe to plant them outside once they have been hardened off.

BTW- my first seedlings that I started (on 2/9)...before reading anything and having ANY clue about growing tomatoes were pathetic! They are still not even 1/4 the size of these seedlings that were planted almost a month later. Today, I sent them to the big tomato garden in the sky...Oh, and I am happy to post pics of my failures if anyone wants to see them...along with everything NOT to do when starting from seed...:)

RTG

Oops! I meant that I have only watered them once since potting up. I watered them when I sowed the seeds in the pellets, and then once again before potting up into the cups in the MG Organic Mix.

Your look great ragtimegal!!!!
I am getting excited to start hardening my babies off in the next few week or so :)
Although I'm getting wet feet about the weather....should I wait another wee past my planned date of 4/10....hmmmm

Here is a Brandywine I set out today. I am burying it fairly deep and using the part I had leftover from the homemade self watering container (Earth**x) as a way to make a raised bed. As it grows I am considering placing more potting soil in and letting it continue to pot up as it grows up. Any idea if that will work? At any rate, you can see the early girl with the gallon jugs around it I posted earlier poking her head out to see what is going on.

Here we have a husky Cherry Red and a Sungold. yes the Huskly Cherry red is older that the Sungold.

Here is my progress report. First bed is planted and getting warmed very nicely with a plastic tarp on top of the soil, this has worked great. Planted in the bed is Hungarian Heart, Anna Russian, Olena Ukrainian, Paul Robeson, Ukrainian Heart and Red Brandywine. Potatoes, broccoli, carrots are planted and doing well too.

Damon

Update on my Cherry tomatoes...only 2 weeks old in these pics! :) Other require potting up (I need to go buy mix), so I don't have much of an update on them as they're not too much bigger. Only one pic, so as not to overload those with slow connections.

Six week update.
Getting out of hand, must plant soon :-)
I had to kick my peppers out to make room
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If weather doesn't permit planting bdobs collect some 1/2 gal milk, juice cartons and cut out the top and bottom and cut on one side and use duct tape to keep bottom on and side closed. When ready to transplant just cut duct tape and remove plant.

George