How awesome is that? 64 varieties =:)

My seed packets say 6-8 weeks. I think you've got a greenhouse, right?

Do you suppose if I started some soon, I'd be O.K., or would they end up too big and dislike being inside?

NAF, I started mine inside at the end of March last year, and they were about right. When I planted them out they were about 8" tall and bushy because I had been pinching them out.

LJP - wow lots of tomatoes!!

Planning on starting mine later today and tomorrow. Not sure how many varieties this year, I have been paring down to only the ones that produce quickly. Shooting for about a hundred plants, that way when the wind and kids and dogs and chickens do away with some I still have lots.

Wow, that's sure a lot of varieties of tomatoes to start, I think the most I've ever grown at one time is 5 or 6 different types. Please let us know what turn out to be your most productive and best flavored :)

Wow...we have some early birds. I think I'm going to start mine this weekend. I'm still adding to my grow list, but will be starting at least 100 different varieties this year.

Very happy that my peppers are doing extremely well under the grow lights. Started those at the beginning of february and most are about 4 inches tall now with lots of healthy leaves and a good thick stock. The superhots are still a little small, but they'll pick up if I keep singing to them I'm sure :)

I'm starting earlier this year because a lot of the late season tomatoes I'm growing wouldn't have given me a ripe tomato if we didn't have a late frost. I am planning on using the green house starting in early April. I'm hoping I won't have to provide heat for many nights.

64 is easy to get to -- plants from last year and 5 or 6 trades. I won't have many more plants than last year because I planted 3 seeds of each. I'm going to try and sell some on kijji to recover costs. I've been giving plants away; but when you get over a 100 the costs for potting soil etc. starts to add up.

nuts,

I'm planning on potting up at least twice -- starts to 2*4 inch to 4*6 inch to ? The plants should be about 24" when they go in the garden ($10-15 at the garden centre) How soon you start them depends on how much light and space you have.

Got 50 plants done yesterday, 14 varieties. Have a couple more to do, just need to get at the pots they are buried behind a snow drift. At least that should melt today or tomorrow, come on spring.

Ha-ha...snow will melt today or tomorrow? Lucky you. I am presently having to buy lots of things I already have, as we have so much snow this year that there is no way I can get to either the greenhouse or the shed to get stuff out.

This year, I'm eager to grow 'Defiant' ... in 2010, late blight completely destroyed my entire crop of tomatoes and last year it struck just as the tomatoes were pretty much ready for harvest, so at least most of the entire crop was salvageable. 'Defiant' is both late and early blight resistant, so that's a load off my mind not having to worry about them succumbing to the dreaded disease. The variety is also said to be both productive and having very good flavor ... I guess, I'll be finding out for myself.

Wow, that'a a lot of varieties. I'd love to hang around with a salt shaker on tasting day :) My dad used to like trying a lot of different tomato varieties and we sure enjoyed those taste tests.

I'm trying only 2 new varieties this year - Lunchbox paste and Veeroma paste. Hopefully those tomatoes along with a good pepper, onion and herb crop will provide me with all the sauce I can manage.

I am in awe of you tomato fanatics! Here is hoping for a great tomato growing season 8-)
Jean

I've got peppers on the go, but no tomatoes yet. Friends of ours went to Italy a few weeks ago and brought me back some San Marzano 3 seeds. :)

Got my last two varieties planted. And I have three up on the ones I planted last week. Love this time of year. C

I got mine done now too. I'm a little scared, these are my grandpa's heirloom tomatoes and I've been neglectful in saving seed these past several years so the newest ones I could find were 1998. Eek. Hopefully one germinates at least so I can beef up the collection.

My hot peppers are coming along really nicely too. I threw out the ones that didn't germinate from January, and planted banana peppers from the box of seeds and Portuguese hot peppers from Stokes. 100% germination in both of those. :)

I hadn't planned on starting peppers or tomatoes until closer to the end of the month, but you guys are making me feel like i should do it now!

I started almost a month earlier than last year because I'm growing late season varieties that need the extra time. Also, I plan to have them in a greenhouse come April.

Don't use my start as a prod to plant.

In my experience peppers take longer than tomatoes. Hot peppers seem to be even slower than the less hot ones.

I don't have a greenhouse... Maybe i'll start the peppers on the weekend. I do most of them for the Horticultural Society Plant Sale.

The last couple days I have germination in all 4 varieties of tomatoes I sowed. Tiny Tims were the first followed by Ultra Girls and Better Boys..the Patio tomatoes were the last...Jean

Well, it turns out I have more tomatoes started. The hot peppers I planted from the seed exchange grew into tomato plants. Oh well! The more the merrier, and I have too many hot pepper plants anyway.

I had planted the peppers three weeks earlier this year, they need an extra head start due to the often cool Edmonton summers. The tomatoes were put in yesterday, all mere five or six varieties in comparison to others here :)

Back in January, we had been discussing the weather with a gal at Wallymart when she mentioned of already having started her tomatoes and them being 3 inches tall! ... such due to the then very mild weather she had fully expected a most early spring and looked at me so as to say get with it also! Well, I imagine she'll be picking indoor tomatoes long before she'll be planting them out, lol ... in comparison mine should just be breaking the surface in a few days.

55 varieties sprouted. I moved them to the greenhouse and potted them up over the last two days, ~140 plants. I replanted some of the duds and they are coming up. I don't know why they didn't grow the first time.

Most of the plants were taller than the pots. So, I wound the stem around the pot until I could place the growing tip at the surface. Hopefully, I will get root development along the stem and I was able to use smaller pots.

Now I have three to four weeks to find 150 larger pots.

Eek ! All you wonderful tomato growers, I need your advice.

I just finally got time to plant 6 varieties of tomatoes and some leeks. I'll do more things tomorrow.

My problem may be.........my soil mixture may be too wet. I'm certain that if I squeezed it, water would come out. If I leave the pots uncovered overnight and maybe tomorrow, do you suppose they'll dry enough, or is there a possibility that I'll end up rotting my seeds?

I think you will be ok. I have planted many seeds in soaked peat pellets with just the excess water poured off. :)

Ginny

Whew !

Let's hope I have the same luck you do.

Thanks!

Nuts,

Unless you have a greenhouse or excellent lighting, it's way too early to start tomatoes. I'm planting this early as an experiment. I want to try larger plants even though there are quite a few forum posters who claim there is no advantage to doing so. I did the small plant experiment when I wintersowed some tomatoes. The smaller plants did catch up; but they were a month later developing. I have a hard time accepting plant size at plant out doesn't affect days to maturity.

I'm trying to find a technique that allows growing 80-90 DTM tomatoes in our short season. And I have the greenhouse. :) Last year I got one or two tomatoes from many of my tomatoes and that was because the late fall allowed an extra 30 days of growth.

ljpother, I have a good setup in the basement with lights, timer, and a fan that I used last year. Each year I see and hear of people who started earlier than I did, and they always end up with the year that has weather that cooperates. So, "come hell or high water" I'm going to do whatever it takes this year to have a good crop ( I hope ). I have row covers, windows, etc., for later when I put them out in the garden, and I'm almost prepared to sleep with them outside for warmth if I have to, LOL ! But.......if I could borrow part of your greenhouse it would help =:)

NAF..I love your dedication to your tomatoes...lol. Sometimes I think I am crazy staying up to midnight to stoke the green house stove and then up at 5am to do it again. I cant wait to have some frost free nights so I can take a break from zombieland....Jean

I'm happy to report that I now have lovely little green tomato sprouts that didn't drown or rot.

I think I got about 150% germination as the pots are full of little babies. I think I overdid it. So much for my fear of using last year's seeds. Not to worry though, I found homes for them even before I planted this year.

Yay!!! New babies! Tomato seeds last a long time. I've planted 8 year old seeds just as an experiment. They grew!

I have started only 4 kinds so far but I will start more after this weekend. :)

Ginny

They sure do last a long time. I'm growing some that my deceased grandmother saved in 1991 and 4/5 seeds of one variety sprouted! The other variety didn't germinate though. Now I have a problem though because Grandma was terrible at labelling, and one variety was "beefsteak" and the other was "pink tomatoes - I hope". I don't feel confident that I'm carrying on the family heirloom tomatoes so I'm really hoping my great uncle sends me the seeds he said he was going to. :/

I potted mine up and have them in the greenhouse. They are looking good. There are one or two that are a bit limp or dying. Whether from the transplant or cold, I'm not sure. The temperature got down to 0.9C one night. During the recent cold nights, forced the electric heater on and turned on my heat lamps. That got me a 7-8 degrees vs -5C outside. Last night I just used the heater and the temperature held at 7C vs -4C. I'm not sure if I want to play with the temperature setting on the heater. I don't want big electric bills and I want the plants to survive.

Actually, last night the green house went down to 5C.

My tomatoes look healthy; but, I haven't seen a lot of growth. The nights are still cool, 8C with the heat on and 4-5C without.

OMG !

I feel like the house has been overtaken by tomatoes! I've managed to ask almost everyone I know to keep containers, and I've transplanted 73 plants. I have about 60 more that need to be potted up. That's a total of about 80 more than I really need. My marigolds are doing really poorly, and I think it's because they feel they don't belong, LOL!

Back to the tomatoes. Some are turning purple under the leaves, which I understand is probably a phosphorus deficiency that will correct itself? Anyone have any comments regarding this? Thanks!

It looks like 3 days of 5C in the greenhouse set back my tomatoes. A couple of the smaller ones have died. They handled overnight lows without a problem -- persistent cold seems to be a negative.

All the tomatoes are in the ground or gone to good homes. After I decided not to pot up, they put on about a foot of growth on average. So, I used the trench method of planting. I found a couple cut off about three inches under the surface. The tips look too far gone to survive; but, I stuck them back in the ground. Then I dug up the buried stem until I had a couple of branches showing. (I don't rip the buried stems off.) We'll see what happens.

I watered as well. My hose is vicious and evil. But that is another rant.

Thanks Larry.:) One good home with Puff guarding them.

And the Dirt Devil holding down the dirt and thinking he is helping me plant tomatoes.....

A bit of a later start but they look really good. Another 20 or so in pots. Doing an experiment with beefsteak and early girl since I had extras this year. Growing in ground vs growing in pots.

Come on sunshine!

Ginny

Ginny, I'm doing the same experiment.

We'll have to report back at the end of the season.

The Dirt Devil is just so cute !

Lynn

Come on now, Lynn. :) You can tell us the truth here. You had too many tomatoes and that handy little guy who digs new garden plots for us while we are sleeping missed your house too. :)

I would have grown more cherry types to hide that god aweful fence but I got 4 cherry types from Larry. That bed only has 2 repeat varieties in it. The locals have nicnamed me the salsa queen already. :)

I am bound and determined to keep notes this year on all these different varieties.My dad was such a good gardener but he always grew the same tomatoes. He tells me I'm a wild one.:)

And that Painter Man just loves to get in the garden cause he knows he is not suopposed to be in there. The minute that little fence is down or the gate is open, in "they" go. He just got in there first and staked his claim to the dirt before the other dogs did. When Dad (Painter) speaks, no one talks back.

Are you in Saskatchewan, Lynn?

Ginny