for starters

FOR STARTERS
for years like beekeeping ive have said
i want to start my own tomato seeds
but i just never did it
maybe
because i like to go to the garden center
the natural gardener and forage through all the
tomato plants they have
some ive never heard of
some i planted anyway

within a few days of each other
i got these two magazines in the mail
mother earth news had an article about
experts tips on growing early tomatoes
then
the texas gardener had a lengthy article on
growing tomato transplants

the mother earth news article suggested these
three tomatoes to plant
they do well in norther climates
one the glacier does well in northern climates
especially in canada
the other two are whipperwill and sophies choice

they all are determinate tomatoes
that means they only grow so many tomatoes then thats it
they tend to be like a bush
and
do well in pots
and
they mature quickly in less than 60 days

the problem in texas is that when the weather gets good enough
to plant the tomatoes in the ground
you only have a small window to do it and get them growing
sometimes the heat comes early
and
shuts down the tomato production
so that year you rarely get any tomatoes

so the idea behind this idea of using northern climate tomatoes
is first if you plant them in the ground it wont work
the heat will knock them down
but
if you got them growing early
transplant them into larger pots
then as they grew put them in 3 gallon pots
keep them in a greenhouse under a grow light
but move them outside when the weather was warmer than
60 degrees
remember these are canada northern us tomatoes

then move them back inside at night
that
if it all works well
you will have tomatoes the first of april when most
people are just putting their tomatoes in the ground

so
i ordered the three tomato seeds
got a seed starter tray
filled it with lady bug brand germinator seed starting soil
planted those guys carefully
put them under my florescent light
and
now i am waiting

when they get their first true leaves
thats the second set of leaves after whats showing in the picture
i will transplant them into 4 inch pots like you buy
transplants in the nursery
once they have grown roots well
then
i will transplant them into a 3 gallon pot
filled with lady bug brand vortex potting soil
since it has everything a tomato should want

on nice days say like the 4 or 5 day run we are having
this weekend
i will put them outside in the sunlight
then
move them inside under a grow light for at least 12 hrs of light
each day

hopefully just hopefully in april
i will have pictures of red tomatoes to show you

bon appetitt

the organicgreen doctor