Thanks for all the congrats! I certainly was excited. I decided to sow several more heirloom tomato varieties I recently got in from Sand Hill Preservation. Thorndancer: It's certainly not too late in zone 6! It seems things are just beginning to kick into high gear, so you should see some green very soon. Vera, I was a bit nervous about doing toms, since that last hard April freeze. My little yellow pear sprout made it through freezing temps last night :), so they can take quite a bit. However, if it's projected to get in the teens again like last April, I will bring the tom sprouts inside. Margie, I live in southern Missouri, so I imagine it's a bit warmer here. Have you had much flooding near you? We're fine, but some in our area had damage, and a few roads are still under water in spots. I was surprised about the lemon grass sprouts ... I guess they are a perennial in some zones. I saved a few seeds back just in case, although it may not have been necessary. We'll see.

Here is my list. I already have my seed. I will be starting them mid/late March, and investing in wall-o-water cold protectors so I can set them out a bit early. I may leave out one of the glacier/manitoba/moskovich varieties, but we'll see. Beefsteak Aunt Ruby's German Green * (cutworms got my plant last year) Big Rainbow Black Krim Black Sea Man * Brandywine, Sudduth's Strain Cherokee Purple Kellogg's Breakfast Northern Lights Striped German Sunset's Red Horizon Medium Black Prince Black Zebra * (cutworms got my plant last year) Druzba Earl of Edgecombe * Eva's Purple Ball Flammé Glacier Green Zebra Japanese Black Trifele * Manitoba Moskovich New Girl * Peche Jaune Pink Ping Pong Purple Calabash Shimmeig Striped Hollow Stupice Valencia Cherries Black Cherry Green Grape Principe Borghese Cherry Tomato Sun Gold Washington Cherry * White Cherry * Plum/Paste Andes * Debarao * Opalka * Orange Roma Purple Russian * Russian Big Roma * San Marzano Wonder Light * New to me this year

Morning all...thanks for your posts, Hi Earthworm...yes, I do seem to get asked that a lot! Hi Sumilea...I tried hard this year to keep the tomatoes pruned to a single stem. However, I found that my plants did not set any fruit clusters until about 2 feet up the stem so I quit pruning the suckers after that and let them go. I'm not sure whether it's the varieties I'm growing (mostly large beefsteaks-73 to 80 days) or what but I'm going to do it a bit differently next year. I'm now planting two plants per 18 gallon box just as I did last year. The plants still seem to thrive and I get good production but it does cause me problems digging through all that foliage to check on the fruit, and it does get kind of "messy" after a bit. Next year I think just one plant per box along with a change to my trellis system. I think I'll build a box trellis that encloses the whole row of boxes on both sides. I'll use twine (a Florida weave) wrapped around the PCV cage to support the plants. So next year I am not planning on pruning at all, nor will I train them up the vertical string like I've done the past two years. You need to ask TIMMY1 how he does it...he's the expert and grows in a greenhouse. Search for TIMMY1 for some of his posts...beautiful PICS!! Hi Mockapple...it's not really even a good picture of him, but yes..he is adorable, at least to me. Don't have a wife or kids so he and "Lil Puddin" are my family...and no one loves me like they do!! Will have to send you a picture of his daughter "Puddin". She's just as cute! Hey Timmy...I'm really impressed with the Big Beef although only two of my seedlings survived. The BB has the most fruit set and the nicest shaped fruit of any of my varieties. Think I'll make it one of my staples for next year. Am jealous you already have ripe fruit. Bet the BLT was great. I have a couple just turning but still a week or so away. SEND PICS SOON! cheers all Bing

Joytwo1839, Try not to post two large pictures next to each other, so the page doesn't distort and pull out all the text horizontally. When you create a post, there is a preview page before final posting, so you can see how your creation will look like, and you can make changes to fix it, if you see mistakes like that. Great tomato display by the way... You must have a lot of friends. :o) Yellow Pears in the making Sun Gold ripening Sun Gold just before being devoured