the plants you mentioned do not transplant well I would direct sow

Jim, If you have a small space against a south facing outside wall to start tomatoes in a seed bed, then you have room to build a small coldframe. Just get some concrete blocks or salvaged lumber and assemble a little rectangular box about 24 inches tall and with dimensions that will fit an old window frame or salvaged storm window or glass storm door as a lid. Tilt the frame toward the south, you know, build in on a slope away from the house foundation so the lid allows more exposure to sunlight for the sprouts. This also will facilitate drainage away from the house foundation when you water the plants and keep the interior of the box from getting soggy or saturated. Mulch up around the outside of the frame with bark landscape mulch or straw to insulate it during March and April, then not so critical in late April or early May. Just a bit of insurance, you know, to keep the little plants cozy at night. You can also drape an old blanket over he frame at night or on cold, cloudy days or in case of a late spring snow. Actually, you should plan on propping the lid open on many a sunny March or April day because a coldframe like this will heat up more than you think and your tomato babies might get heat stroke. No joke. Just remember to lower the lid in the late afternoon to keep them snug at night. If you notice the plants in the front of the box are lagging behind the plants toward the rear of the box, that's natural. The ones in the back are getting more sunlight. Just rotate plant position occasionally. You may want to employ a thermometer since you really don't want your plants growing in temps over 75*F because they will grow TOO fast, get leggy and outgrow your coldframe. And temps like 55 - 65*F will retard (good thing) their growth and make stockier, healthier plants. Yes, you are correct. There is no substitute for natural sunlight and more natural, outside open or sheltered outside locations to start tomato plants. Bill

Rick, I did send her an email with a photo earlier today. Mark, there is no permit required, unless you are a large commercial importer. Rinoa and Ko take care of everything from their end. Both seeds and plants arrived in one week.

The simplistic explanation is called climate adaptation (among other labels) - the seeds Mother Nature planted had time to adapt to their environment and maybe 1 in 100 adapted and survived to germinate and of those maybe 1 in 50 live a normal life. The seeds we plant have had no such adaptation time and we plant far less seeds and expect near 100% germination of healthy long=lived plants. And we often get it simply because we waited when Mom didn't. Mother nature is really a lousy mother when it comes to taking care of her kids. She's the "Good Luck, Kid. You're on your own." kind of mother. But that really is overly -simplistic and much of the confusion results from mis-interpretation or mis-applicationof guidelines. For example: guidelines are written in broad generalities in the hopes of applying to most situations and to provide the best odds for success. So "Plants started too early outside will end up less vigorous than plants started when warmer." is referring to seeds direct seeded outdoors when warmer, not to transplants - seeds and transplants are two very different things - and is very true simply because the seedling once germinated under ideal conditions will be less stressed, less damaged, more healthy than the seed that germinates under less than ideal conditions. Plus the folks that write these guidelines know that we always want to rush the spring planting season - to our own detriment - so they say anything they can to try to slow us down. It seldom works. ;-) Dave