Some Stores Have Tomato Plants Now

10 years ago

Over the weekend, I found tomato plants (from Bonnie Plants) at the Wal-Mart in Gainesville, TX. They were not the big ones in 5 or 6" peat pots that I have found in years past. These were smaller ones in about 3" peat pots. They only had a handful of varieties--Early Girl, Park's Whopper, Big Boy, Tami G (a grape type), Celebrity and maybe 1 or 2 others.

Today, I noticed that the Lowe's in Ardmore also had its first shipment of small tomato plants in stock on the Bonnie Plants display rack. Theirs were in small 4 packs and the tomato plants were about half the size of those in the 3" peat pots from the Gainesville Store. They had about the same varieties--Early Girl, Park's Whopper, Big Boy, Tami G, Celebrity and Red Beefsteak (if this is the same Red Beefsteak they've sold in previous years, it is very similar to Red Ponderosa and may be identical to RP).

So, if anyone down here is looking for some small tomato plants to pot up into containers or to grow inside a greenhouse or sunroom, the first round of plants is in the stores now.

If you are new to growing tomatoes, please understand that just because the plants are in the stores now, that does not mean it is time to put them in the ground. The OSU-recommended planting dates for tomato plants in OK are April 10-30. I often cheat and put the plants in the ground near the end of March if the soil temps are warm enough and if I feel like I'll be able to cover them up well enough to protect them from freezing temperatures. At our house this morning, it was a frosty 28 degrees, so I'm not in a hurry to put tomatoes in the ground, but I've got a few in the sunroom.

Dawn

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Comments (5)

mksmth zone 7a Tulsa Oklahoma
10 years ago
Pretty cool! Not seeing Tomatoes here in Tulsa yet. Cabbage onions lettuce and some herbs are available now. Also Lowes got fruit trees today. I picked up a couple tonight so I could get the best ones :)

Mike
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
10 years ago
Mike,

Some stores even had peppers...I think the Gainesville Wal-Mart was one of them, and it is way too cold to even think about pepper plants here, unless someone is going to pot them up and grow them on in a greenhouse. All the cool-season stuff has been in stores a long time now down here and some of it is looking too big to transplant well.

I'm glad you found the fruit trees. You can get them in the ground and all settled in before the cold weather returns next week to remind us that it is still winter, even though tomorrow's winds will make us feel like is surely must be March.

Dawn
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chickencoupe
10 years ago
Thanks for that, Dawn. Really hard to be patient. I'll go talk to my cauliflower seedlings, now.....
mulberryknob
10 years ago
Stopped at the Lowe's in Siloam Springs yesterday and saw cool stuff in 6 packs. Lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, swiss chard, plus bundles of onions. I looked and walked on by thinking it is too early. Then today I went to check my cool stuff in the greenhouse and in the two days I've been away from home, the Bok Choy stretched out and put on buds. So I picked most of it and find that I have a spot now where I could have transplanted swiss chard if I had bought swiss chard. I have swiss chard, seeded in Oct. that I've been picking small leaves from for two months, but it didn't grow nearly as big this winter as it did last by this time.
joshuakdean
10 years ago
Check your local farm stores like Orchelands (sp?) Atwoods, Tractor Supply, Menards....they are getting a lot of early spring fruits and vegetables (i.e. strawberries, onions, collards, ect...) on sale... I got strawberries at atwoods for .79 (Oklahoma grown at Red Dirt Nursery in Guthrie) in Shawnee (but now they're .99) but still cheaper than the Bonnie Plants for the same size...Also found Beefsteak at Lowes in Shawnee as well...Also check out Sprouts (one in Norman) they usually have herbs fairly reasonable...