I find that tomato and pepper plants sell from our first market at the end of April, through to about the beginning of June, and then peter out. It depends a lot on your growing season and timing though. I should think you'd want tomatoes to be at least 6 weeks old to sell, and peppers more like 8-10 weeks, they are so slow, so you'd need to count back from the last date you'd expect people to still be buying them to see when is the last date you'd want to be sowing them. Kevin

I always have good luck starting late tomatoes outside directly seeded into 4-inch square pots, the same ones I used to pot up the earlier tomato seedlings. Starting or maintaining them outside does away with the need for artificial lights, etc. If you do start them outside or pot them up and take them outside, you need to shelter them from heavy rain and harsh sunlight with a transparent screen of some sort like corrugated opaque plastic. Some rabbit protection also might be needed. If you shelter them from rain, then you can hold them in those Rubbermaid tote tubs. 24 4-inch pots to the tote, and bottom water them. If you don't shelter them from rain, a storm will come along, fill the totes half full of rainwater and float the 4-inch pots and waterlog the potting mix while you're gone from home.

Not saying they are but if you buy into the saying, "putting junk in equals getting junk out" then I would hedge my bets and start some new ones too. Without knowing what in your growing methods caused your problems though I'm not sure how much benefit it will be. Hard to believe that it was multiple contaminated seeds in 3 different varieties but I suppose it is possible. I'd bet on the mix. The giant perilte chunks would bother me greatly and make me wonder what else is in that mix and why such poor drainage. And the leggyness - that's light and air temp issues. Dave

daninthedirt, I've found that tomatoes transplanted before it gets too hot in my area seem to do better, too. I live in the north, however, but the summers are still extremely hot (I know not all northern areas are like that, though, but there are at least a few). I've found that the opposite seems to be the case for watermelon, though: they seem to appreciate a later transplant than tomatoes, even if they have protection (which surprised me a little). The earlier spring weather seems to stunt their growth somewhat, and cause other issues (plus, the survival rates don't seem as great). But yeah, I also agree that it's not too late to seed tomatoes. I probably live in a lower hardiness zone than the katiekat2739, and I still did fine seeding tomatoes in my unheated greenhouse in early April, last year (although I tend to think March is better for the greenhouse). Seeding indoor tomatoes should be fine to do right now. If you have growlights, you're even better off (they can grow really fast with growlights, especially if they're close to them).