Not sure where you are in WA. I'm in Vancouver, WA and have had success with tomatoes without using a green house. I don't mess with planting seeds for tomatoes so I always get starts form a local nursery I choose the smaller types like the Early Girl, Oregon Spring, Yellow Pear, Green Zebra and also throw in a Brandywine and Romas. You can't mess around with the location. Must be full sun all day. Last year I used chicken manure in the planting beds for the first time and it was fabulous. If planting now be sure to watch out for a few more frosty nights and make sure to protect them.

I live in the South Puget Sound(University Place,I usually get ripe tomatoes. What I do is plant the seedlings in a large pot. I have built cages that are 6" in diameter larger than the pots. I cover each cage with 4 mil clear plastic using 4" cable ties When the weather gets warmer towards the end of June I remove the plastic from the side and leave the top on until the plant exceeds the cage height which will be from 48-84 inches depending on plant height. This year,for the first time ever the Mrs is allowing me access to the raised garden I made. I have plants in the Garden under Tunnel Covers at this time. When they outgrow that they will get a plastic covered cage. With this system I can enjoy,other than early season varieties,as well.
Jim

I'm in North Seattle. I'd like to grow a few Romas, and a Cherokee Purple. I'm planning to grow them in 5-gallon pots.

dawiff
IMO 5 gallon Pots are way to small for cherokee Purple.I have no experience with Roma's. Give yourself a chance at success by going to Walmart and purchase some of the larger clothes baskets. I like the ones with Rope handles as they are easier to move. They only cost 5-6 dollars and last a long time. I've used some of mine for 10 years. Dont forget to drill holes in the bottom for drainage.

Jim

The later you plant tomatoes the better they do. Wait until after Mother's day at least to plant them outdoors. Cold sets them back. Trick is to keep them actively growing from the start.

That's excellent advice, muddydogs. If the weather isn't consistently warm by the first week in June, wait some more!
(keep them inside overnight, 55+ degrees)
Tomatoes usually don't take off until July 4 anyway.

Home-grown tomatoes are so superior to other sources that people have a hard time being patient. In many years tomatoes "come on" in September. You have until mid-October, that's a long time. If they're gourd-green in mid-August, start pruning off new growth, prune off small tomatoes, stress the plant.

I used to start tomatoes Feb. 15 and plant them out starting April 15 under tunnels, but I now start them more like Jan. 20 and start setting them out April 1-7. I presently have 35 tomatoes outside. I usually get great crops, and some longer season tomatoes, but last year was so cold the tomatoes were about a month slow ripening, so I'm considering getting 6 mil 4 year greenhouse plastic and putting it over some of the plants to give them more heat, and also late summer rain protection to keep them from getting late blight. I could also put down some black plastic mulch. I hope the cold temperatures are not a trend. I'm in SW Washington so get more heat than Seattle. Having them in a black plastic pot does heat up the roots a lot. I have to grow peppers and eggplants in pots to get any fruit, since they like more heat than tomatoes. I don't have really large pots, but may try a few container tomatoes this year too.

I did a small greenhouse for the first time last year, and had most of my stuff growing outside. The difference was incredible. Because I couldn't control the conditions outside the greenhouse (although I suppose I could have done more), the cold and excessive water from rain early on really inhibited my plants. Inside the greenhouse (which was only 20'x9') I had explosive growth in tomatoes and cucumbers. Peppers were a problem as they got infected by aphids and it was a while before I realized it.

My greenhouse cost very little to make. I bought 5'x16' hog fencing panels (about $25 per I think). I drove t-posts into the ground in a rectangle, then bowed the panels between the t-posts to make something like an airplane hanger. I connected the panels together with plastic zip ties, and used cedar boards around the base to which I stapled/anchored greenhouse film. I bought greenhouse film from Farmtek (online). I covered with the greenhouse film and reinforced it with clear duct tape.
I think I paid about $250 in materials.

We had tomatoes into December, long after everything outside had died. I'm near completing a new 45x25 greenhouse for this year--that tells you how much I liked having one.

I just planted my massive crop of seven tomato plants outside in the ground under a tunnel which is covered with cheap 4 mil plastic; what is called a "tunnel cloche" and in essence a very small greenhouse. This is what Steve Solomon suggests in his book about growing in the PNW. We also put many 2L bottles of water next to the plants, so if it finally decides to be sunny again, they should absorb heat from sunlight and release it at night.

Also, the tunnel cloche is pretty easy to make; I think it was about $6 for three 10' lengths of 1/2' pvc pipe, $6 for six 2' rebar sections (these are hammered into the ground, and the PVC slips on top of them), and the cheap plastic which I think was around $5 or so. You could cover 8' of row space, and to make it longer would only cost a few dollars more.

I have in the past simply transplanted tomatoes to the ground later in the year (late May). I figure that the worse that could happen this time is that the tomatoes get a little cold and slow down for a couple of weeks, meaning they do about as well as if I had just waited until late May and put them out without a cloche. If it works as well as I hope it will, we might get ripe tomatoes a few weeks earlier than we did before we used the tunnel cloche. Crossing my fingers...

Cool damp nights at the beginning and the end of the season really affect the potential. Spring starts in February here but takes until the Fourth of July to end. After celebrations on that day get rained on, then the climate is satisfied that it is OK to heat up. July ends up being hot and dry, with the same summer conditions extending into August - although even then it starts to get a little rainy again...

Once the nights go back to being cool and damp in late summer or early fall late blight can come on and spoil unprotected tomato plants. By October it is starting to get cold, by November - the stormiest month of the year here - winter roars in.

What great ideas here!!!: I wonder if anyone can post pics of what you have built so we can see.It would be helpful to see a picture.So many wonderful gardeners here. Would love to see a picture of :
1.plantslayer:
2. gardinator:
YOU both have very interesting ideas and if possible please post a picture of what you have built.
Will check in few days for your pics.
Many thanks from: scarleta

You don't need a greenhouse. I have a small cold frame on my west-facing patio that I use for starting tomatoes and other heat-loving plants.

I buy 4" tomatoes in April or May, pot them up in gallon pots and keep them in the cold frame until _Father's_ Day (not Mother's Day), unless it is unusually warm in May and June. Then I plant them out in next to a south facing wall, in the warmest, sunniest micro-climate I have.

Often I have a few cherry tomatoes by the 4th of July, and I always have plenty by August and they continue on until the end of September.

I've never used a greenhouse to grow tomatoes and mine always seem to ripen satisfactorily :-) But I don't grow them in them in the ground - I prefer to use containers that can be moved easily and placed where they will receive the maximum amount of sunlight and reflected heat, usually from concrete or another paved surface. And I select well-developed starts of short harvest cultivars that perform well in our cooler temps and I don't plant them until late May at the earliest....weather depending, that could stretch well into June.

Extension used to recommend June 1 planting here and may still do so. Watch out for chilled plants (with telltale yellowish growing points between the bases of the uppermost leaves) at outlets; it may be necessary to start your own or snap up plants as soon as they come in (too early) and grow them on yourself under cover until it warms up enough to set them out.

Same goes for basil and other tender crops.

Any kind of a setup that provides additional warmth and also produces a barrier between the tops of the plants and damp air will improve results.

Friend in Shoreline who grows vegetables part of the year under cover planted his melon plants yesterday. He starts them himself from seed, grows them under plastic with a ventilation system that circulates the air warmed by the plastic cover through the soil around the plants.

So, if you want to get fancy you can even grow melons here. He's using frames, not walk-in greenhouses. The frames and coverings are put away when not needed. Not the same kind of investment as putting up and maintaining a greenhouse, yet he is enabled to grow tender crops - and have cool season produce like lettuce right through the winter.

Here are pictures of my greenhouse from last year. You may not see so many ripe tomatoes because they were picked! Cut and paste into your browser URL to see.

http://inherent.ipower.com//Greenhouse_1.JPG
http://inherent.ipower.com//Greenhouse_2.JPG
http://inherent.ipower.com//Greenhouse_3.JPG
http://inherent.ipower.com//Greenhouse_4.JPG
http://inherent.ipower.com//Greenhouse_5.JPG
http://inherent.ipower.com//Greenhouse_6.JPG

I'd like to know where in Massachusetts you were living.

The average hi where I live is only 76F in June, 81F in July, and 79F in Aug.

So far this year we've had one day in the 80's. It was 81F at the peak of the day.

You are right about getting the tomatoes started early.

I keep mine in pots up until June 15th or so... after the last few nights below 50F or so. This year backfired of course when night time temperatures plummeted into the low 40's early in July.

The same thing I do with eggplants.

It hasn't gone below 60 at night here in Portland for weeks; seeing some red tomatoes here and there.

I always grow sauce tomatoes outside (Romas and Marzanos) and slicers inside a small greenhouse (this year its Wyches Yellow, Paul Robson, and Black Krim). Full sun is essential for any tomato growing outside in this climate. Also, mine seem to ripen quicker when they are watered far less than anything else. I usually get a big crop of sauce tomatoes. Romas, especially are quite early setters.

Before I got my greenhouse, success varied way too much from year to year here on San Juan Island with its cold summer nights. Tomatoes are too important a crop for us, which was one of the main reasons we finally got a greenhouse. We use it entirely for tomatoes, eggplants and melons. Plus starting things in spring, and lettuce all winter.

This morning I picked an ice cream bucket full of ripe tomatoes. They are all grown outside in the ground with no protection. I bought 4 starts in the spring and planted them out when the weather warmed up. I thought I had left too much space between the little plants but now these 4 plants now look like a jungle covering an area 10 ft X 10 ft. The variety that is ripe is Saltspring Sunrise. My Romas and patio tomatoes are still green. I haven't been watering them a lot and in the past I have almost totally stopped watering them to get them to ripen.

I started getting tomatoes July 16, a couple of Principe Borghese, then the next day Mormon World's Earliest. These were from a block planted out March 31 under tunnel covers Right 2 rows in 1st photo. I'm getting some from the block planted April 15 now too, Left 2 rows in first photo. The plants were sown Jan 24-27 and set out in order according to when they reached the lights on my grow shelves. When people claim cold will set tomatoes back and it's better to wait, I have to think they have no experience with tunnel covers, which remarkably raise the temperature underneath them. The order of ripening of tomatoes in my beds, planted out over 2+ months, is according to when they are planted out, so the cold is not setting them back or causing them to be delayed in fruiting in comparison with those planted out later.

Plants set out in April, many green, some orange, red tomatoes-

Planted in May, many green tomatoes-

Planted in June- most flowering, last plants still short, some green tomatoes-

Verna's Orange Oxheart, probably around 1 lb, more than 1-

Heidi, loaded with tomatoes-

I still want to get greenhouse plastic to cover them in late summer and fall when the rains start.

Hemnancy, what was your tunnel cover like? I planted tomatoes out around 4/20 this year in Seattle under a plastic tunnel, with lots of 2L soda bottles filled with water inside, and I definitely got tomatoes much earlier, but it wasn't as if they tomatoes was early by as much time as I planted them out early, if that makes sense.

One thing I noticed is that the tent I had was very steamy inside. We only had a couple of small vents in the plastic, because I was afraid of the plants getting too cold. It the Cosmonaut Volkovs I planted are doing great, but I don't think they set fruit very well in there- we are only just now about to have ripe tomatoes. I am not sure if it being too humid for pollination was the problem, it seemed like they simply grow very many blossoms for a long time. I was surprised because I thought a Russian tomato like this one would handle cold well.

THe Siletz I planted set fruit well, but they are a parthenocrapic variety, meaning that the blossoms set fruit without needing pollenation.

So did you keep your tunnels vented out? Also, do you think some varieties do better in the tunnels or in cold weather than others? It looks like you have a great crop there.

plantslayer- my tunnels are TunLCovers. I get them now from Gurney when they have an offer to buy $50 and get $25 off in February. My original tunnels were local and I was worried about venting so I cut slashes in the sides. I'm still using them. They get water in between the layers. So I don't cut them anymore, I haven't noticed damage from heat, usually the plants love it, including the weeds. You can push the plastic up the ribs for ventilation if you want. If its going to be unusually hot I can just take them off, too. I have to take them off to water anyways. They are double-walled plastic, which might make some difference. Also they are only 18" tall so by the time the tomatoes are big enough to start blooming I usually have had to take them off. I guess I thought most tomatoes were self-fertile, and flicking would help pollination? Some PL have trickier pollination, I think I've heard, because of the shape of the blossom. I haven't grown Cosmonaut Volkov. Someone on the tomato forum would know. It seems a lot of tomatoes don't set fruit as much as they bloom. I have too many plants to notice much about individual ones. I'm still in a trialing mode, someday I guess I will grow fewer plants and try to get more fruit per plant. At least that is what I tell myself when I am starting too many plants again, I like too many different tomatoes.:-P

I get great results setting squash and cucumbers out early with them too. The squash plants really love them.

That sounds similar to what I did, but our cover was quite a bit taller. So does Gurneys have this sale every year? Sounds like a good deal; I think it probably cost around $20 to make the thing we did, and probably took a bit more work. Maybe I'll just use my old plans next year, but double layer the plastic or something.

We did an ad-hoc version of the tunl cover basically by using some galvanized wire (pretty cheap, maybe 5 dollars for 50 ft), then we made those into very small arches and laid clear landscaping plastic on top. We used this to sow beans, and it worked very well. But when I tried it for squash and cucumbers (sowing, not transplants), we had very bad germination. Did you start your squash and cukes inside and transplant, or did they sprout from seed under the plastic.

I also found that small squash transplants grow well inside Walls of Water if it is a little chilly outside.

Thanks for the info!

plantslayer- I don't know if Gurney's has the offer online or only through their catalog, or if they will repeat it. The advantage of the tunLCover is being double-walled. They are not very big. They are also very easy to move around, and I use them where I want to plant to dry out the soil a couple of weeks in advance, as rain can't get under them.

I start seeds indoors. I hang 2 4' fluorescent fixtures on the undersides of the upper 2 of 3 tiered metal shelves, 2 levels of grow area. The 10x20" black plastic flats for starting seeds just barely fit across, 2 per shelf, = 4 flats. I have some special rose pots that are 2 1/4" square and fit 36 to a flat = 4 x 36 = 144 seedlings. I got so carried away this year because of doing a new seed sprouting method that proved too successful, starting seeds on damp paper towel inside small ziplock bags from Michael's. Cucumber seeds that hadn't come up for me for several years that I considered dead had near 100% germination- I foolishly started ALL of three packs of seeds. I also tried a bunch of really old tomato seeds I wanted to clear out. I had to add 7 flats to deal with all the seedlings. I used all my other indoor shelves temporarily plus made some. I started cukes and squash 4/3, planted out under tunnels 5/8 and 5/16, started picking cukes 7/11 and squash 7/23. It is amazing how fast squash grow under the tunnels.

Unfortunately, I also tried tunnels over pea and fava bean seedlings, in an area I had grown pole beans for a couple of years. I guess it had built up a big vole population. I pulled up the tunnels to check on germination and the ground was just churned with vole tunnels going up and down the entire bed, only about 3 peas managed to come up. I tried setting mouse and rat traps, caught a few then none. Maybe the used traps smell bad. The strange part was that the things I caught didn't look like the voles I've seen, they looked more like an Old World mouse or baby rat. I still haven't figured that one out. I did manage to finally plant some pole beans there, I just made small holes for the seeds, dumped cayenne pepper on them, and put a 4" galvanized nail in by each seed. Gardening can be such a lot of work. Some of the beans are nearing the top of the trellis. I hope they make it.

OTOH my runner bean experiment in an area not used for vegetables before had 100% germination and hit the top of the trellis a couple of weeks ago, and is yielding beans already. I think I've really "bean" overlooking runner beans, in favor of regular pole beans, but runner beans may be a lot better adapted to our cool nights and summers. I tend to wait too long to pick but have been making myself pick them rather small and they have been tender, and taste good. They beat out Contender, my fav early bush bean, by a few days.

Nancy

Here is a link that might be useful: TunLCover photo

That sounds pretty creepy with the voles... I wonder if they didn't gravitate towards that spot because the tunnels and ground under them were so warm.

That's good information about squash and cucumbers; all the books and online advice you read says they don't transplant well, but I have found that starting them in a timely fashion doesn't work well around here, but I've always thought there must be an effective way to start them early.

On Sunday I planted my beloved tomato plants under a low tunnel in my NE Seattle plot. It's been four days since they went in the ground... and they look great! Another plant I planted in a wall 'o water with some row cover material capping the top is also looking quite healthy.

If someone tells you that you absolutely _must_ wait until Mother's Day to transplant tomatoes or use a greenhouse... don't believe them.

That is all. :)

Sure you can plant tomatoes outside before Mother's Day under cover if your soil is not too wet and cold (better if you have raised bed)
I did it several years, they stayed healthy, grew without problems and produced (if summer was right), but then i bought greenhouse and like it for tomatoes very much.
At first, i don't need to keep my tomatoes seedlings inside till end of April. I move them earlier in my unheated GH.
At second, tomatoes in GH start to produce much earlier then outside.
At third, i plant some tomato seedlings in containers and keep them in GH till warm days come (moving them outside on sunny days and moving back for nights). These plants gave me the very first tomatoes.
And last, if spring is too cold and my seedlings are big, i can translate them to bigger containers and keep in GH waiting for warm days to come.