Tomatoes Started

Maybe because it plunged to -15 Fahrenheit, before adding in the wind chill, last night here at Steepmeadow, it seemed like time to start some tomatoes. 

This is slightly at variance with the plans for the beds (which are now complete for the spring). The original plan was to start tomato seedlings on April 24th, which is last hard frost date [May 11] minus six weeks. 

But I reasoned that last year our tomato plants didn't start giving us tomatoes until later in July. They were still going strong when the first killer frost hit. So if the seedlings get a running start this year, so much the better. 

We didn't go all-in yet, and only planted about half of what we intend to plant. We used toilet paper rolls to make sure that (lesson learned from last year) the roots of the seedlings don't get tangled in each other. I made a tube out of office paper, and dropped shovels full of seedling starter soil into them. I gently firmed them in, then gave them a good soak. Only then did the seeds go in.

There are five varieties started: 

• 12 Wisconsin Chief (These were our best tomatoes last year. Soft, medium sized, and super red and tasty. These are a heritage variety that we got from Seed Savers exchange last year. These came from the same seed packet as last year's crop. Hopefully they're still good.)
• 9 Red cherry tomatoes (These come from our Pure Pollinator survival seeds. They worked great last year. In fact, there are still a few sacks of them in the freezer.)
• 6 Cherokee Purple tomatoes. These are an experiment.
• 6 Yellow Pear tomatoes
• 5 Black Krim tomatoes. These sound somewhat ominous.

 

Zipper assisted.

We shall see whether this was a good move or not. My biggest worry is that the seedlings will get too big and then they won't fit on the shelves in the greenhouse and the lights will be too low and they'll need to be transplanted to bigger pots because they get root-bound. 

We'll burn that bridge when we come to it.