How many tomato seeds do you prefer to start? (ratio)
mlissca
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
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digdirt2
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Seed starting setup, how do you plug it all in?
Comments (6)RG, I agree with Cynthia and Karyn. Except that I use 32-watt Philips cool white T8 bulbs instead of the 40-watt T12 bulbs. The T8 bulbs are more efficient. "Should I buy another timer and 2 surge protector power strips? Is that too much power on one outlet? Should it be on a designated outlet?" Your circuit breakers will answer that question for you. However, the timer and the surge protector power strips draw a negligible amount of current by themselves. "...so I went to Wal-Mart and bought three plastic 5-shelf shelving units..." My recommendation would have been a chrome wire adjustable shelf cart from Northern Tool. I have three of these units, and I use two of them as plant stands. (The other is used for storage, especially kitchen storage by my wife.) Northern Tool has free shipping on these items during certain periods of the year, and I have timed all three purchases to take advantage of that. Incidentally, you can position the shelves anywhere you want (in one-inch increments) on the steel posts. The pictured unit shows the bottom shelf very high from the floor, but I put my bottom shelves in the lowest position, just an inch above the big casters. That gives me the maximum space for my plants and fluorescent lights. In the past I have had disappointing experiences with plastic shelves. They have rather low strength and rigidity, and have become very "sway-backed" under load over time. The chrome steel Northern Tool shelves are very strong, and are rated for 1000 pounds total with the rubber casters. The big roller bearing casters let you move the loaded unit very easily. That's handy when you want to temporarily move the unit to access plants on the far side. I mount four 2-bulb shop lights over each shelf, which puts eight T8 bulbs over each shelf. It is convenient to hang the shop-light chains from the wires of the shelf above. I overdrive my fluorescents, to get 50% more light per bulb, which gives me the light-equivalent of 12 bulbs per shelf. That lets me grow extra large plants before setting them into the garden. Our short Maine growing season needs all the head start it can get. MM...See MoreTomatoe seed saving. How many days do you soak?
Comments (14)Hi all - my method is pretty much like Maryliz's - courtesy of Organic Gardening magazine several years back..... I squeeze out the gel & seeds from the tomatoes I want to save seed from - into a clear glass custard cup, juice glass or small jar, add some water & cover loosely w/ a piece of foil & set it on my kitchen windowsill, over the sink & watch it until a scummy mold forms on top & most of the seeds sink to the bottom.This takes several days or a week, depending on how warm it is.When it's ready, I peel off the 'skin' & dump the rest into a fine mesh sieve & rinse well under the tap, then drain & knock the seeds off onto a china saucer & spread them out to dry.I usually put a little scrap of paper w/ the variety name on the plate too. I let them dry (inside, in a corner of my 'dining room')for a week or 2 & then store in labelled & dated pill bottles or mini zip bags....See MoreFor every ten seeds you start - how many mature fruit bearing
Comments (27)What hasn't been mentioned here is that those of you who buy seeds or receive them in a trade usually have no idea of what the seed age is, and all things being equal as to how you sow your seeds in what artificial mix, when and how you transplant them after they have 1-2 true leaves, what you transplant them to, how you grow them on, any amendment used, etc. there WILL be differences in germination percentages, count on it, based on seed age alone. One example. I used to make seed offers here at GW and offered several hundred varieties at a time. And I asked for feedback on germination percentages. These were my own saved seeds so I knew exactly what year the seed was produced. Well I remember that I made a seed offer here in late Fall of 2004 and I was offering seeds with ages from 1995 and up, having offered seeds from 1991 to 1994 in a previous seed offer. Let's say variety X was offered, seed fresh from the summer of 2004 and germinated the very next Spring. For a single variety I got back reports where folks got from 100% germination down to zero, that's right, zero germination, with most being in the 80-90% range. Which says that if 10 folks sow seeds of the same variety from the same supplier with the same packed for date, or even known seed age, there could be a HUGE range of results. And the packed for date only tells you when the seeds were packed, not when they were produced. The only place I know of where ALL tomato seeds sold are less than 2 yo is Sandhill Preservation. Seeds being sold by commercial places will have different seed ages for different varieties as they rotate out and replace seed as needed and some but not all places do germination tests before they sell the seeds. So I agree with the others who have posted about the fact that there's no way to know how many seeds will germinate or how many will grow into great plants in the garden and bear well. But when it comes to seed starting I tend to agree with Randy that you should oversow. He says 4 seeds to get one good seedling, and I agree. I usually sow 5 seeds for each variety to get two good plants to the garden. There are just so many variables that enter into all of this that it makes no sense to me to skimp on how many seeds/variety one sows. Is oversowing, as some define it, wasteful? I dunno, I don't 'think so as all of us sit in front of our not cheap computers with added software, etc, and spend on this and that,etc., but do have priorities when it comes to how we spend our money. I don't buy tomato seed b'c it comes to me, and I won't trade tomato seed either, except for certain situations, but I know, knowing me, that oversowing a few seeds for anything I don't consider to be wasteful and that's because gardening is my life and my love. And if it's considered wasteful to use more seeds than some think necessary then save your own seeds. Go to the top of this first page, click on the FAQ link and scroll down to the excellent article on how to prevent Cross pollination. Whether it's a waste of money to try and ensure that you have enough good transplants to set out that you hope the critters and diseases and all else don't get them is, I think, a decision that each person has to make depending on what their goals and expectations are for growing tomatoes. Carolyn, who gulps at the prices of some seeds these days but she wants her Savor F1 melons and will pay the price. She does think that some sources for tomato seed have prices she would never ever pay, as in too expensive, and here I speak of OP, not F1 hybrid varieties, but again,it really is a personal choice what one pays for seeds/plants of anything. And a personal choice as to how many seeds of anything are to be planted. With experience some of these questions are answered, so it pays to get older and wiser re gardening in terms of experience. Yes, I'm on the downside of the life cycle, but still hanging in there.LOL...See MoreHow many tomatoes do you grow?
Comments (42)Here are most of what I have in my garden this year. Each name on the list is at least a slightly different strain, though the names may be similar, and represents 1 to 6 plants. My biggest problem is I have so many different types of tomatoes growing from crosses going back over a decade, in some cases, that I just don't have room for all of them. MOST of the crosses I have aren't even represented in this year's crop, because I can only work on a few dozen every year. Obviously, some of those I list here are also commercial hybrids, OP varieties or Heirlooms. I grow them either because I LIKE them, and I want something standard, or I want something to compare to what I am growing, to see how mine stack up. I generally do it that way every year. One problem I find in growing out the crosses is that sometimes you will go along with a 'new' strain that looks promising, growing it for several years, and then the next year it changes (as you bring out recessive traits) and takes a step back in color, size, flavor, or some other characteristic, and I need to go back to seeds from a previous year and try to again bring out the traits I liked. As you can see, among other things, this year I am emphasizing some EARLY strains and some cherry tomatoes, trying to see how they stack up. 4th of July Amber Sweet (a cherry I am developing) Andalusia H 4B1-2 (From tomatoes I got in Spain) ARGG Black Krim X Galinas red S4-G (in development) Black Krim X Galinas (Red H) (in development) Black Krim X Galinas Red 3B5-6 Black Magic (in development) Box Car Willie Brandy X Polish M5-S Brandy X Polish F3A H Brandy X Stupice Brandywine Cherry Brandywine OTV Brandywine X Kotlas Brandywine X Polish H. PL 5A3-4 Brandywine X Polish PL 5A7-8 Brandywine X Stupice Capitan H Cherokee Chocolate Cherokee Green Cherry Master (in development) Comandante Zero (in development) Dulcinea Med Red (in development) Dulcita Small Red F4 (Smaller seeds than Dulcinea) H 4A7-8 Early Goliath Early Wonder Galinas X Black Krim Yellow (in development) Galinas X Black Krim Yellow (strain #5) Garden H 4B5-6 Green Zebra Isis Candy Islas Canarias (from tomatoes I got in Spain) Kotlas Little Lucky Lucky Cross Lucky Cross Pink Marianas Cross F4 Lg Red Cherry Marianna's Peace More Capitan 1 5B5-6 New Black Plums (F3 growout) New Yellow Cherry Oh My Pink Heck (Medium) (in development) Orange H (in development) Orange Meaty medium sized tomato from Mariann's Peace and Jaune Flamme cross. Purple Russian Racimo de Espana (another one from Spain) RED Beef F3 Red H (in development) Red Large Beefy (in development) Rescue H 5B3-4 Rose Quartz Small Black Cherry (from 2010 cross) Sunfire? H Super Sweet 100s Super Sweet Yellow Pear (in development) Super Sweet Yellow Pear F3A (from 2012) Super Sweet Yellow Pear F3B (from 2012) Sweet Orange Golf Ball (from crosses I made) Sweet Yellow Gold F4 (From Galinas x Black Krim H 4A5-6) Yellow H (in development)...See Morekeith100_gw
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