AND they're on sale 3 for $10?? Which is down from 6 bucks apiece?? Goodness. That's a far cry from the $1 per four-pack at local nurseries. Granted those are the smaller, less impressive 6-inch plants. ;)

I think these are 1 gallon pots. Now, I do have some of my starts in that size pot (started them too early - mid March, and potted up 3 weeks later in Espoma, didn't have enough room under lights and Dad didn't rotate them while I as on vacation so they got leggy). But mine don't have trunks instead of stems (maybe the diameter of a pencil instead of a head of broccoli), and definitely no flowers forming yet. So I still have a chance of them taking off once I can get them in the ground - maybe Tuesday?

Next year I won't start so many so I have room under the lights, and I'll wait until the end of March or even April 1, considering the ones I started March 25 are also starting to get close to a foot tall - except for the determinate hybrids, Black Krim and Cherokee Purple also are a little shorter and stockier than the cherry tomatoes.

But even the peppers are begging to be hardened off (6 inches tall), it's just been too cold to think about it, we will have a frost and possibly even a freeze here tomorrow night.

I wonder how HD's plants will look by Monday?

Yeah, yet another example of "creative marketing" that serves the seller only and not the consumer.

There's the Topsy Tuvey with 50 equally ripe tomatoes glued to the plant, the MG Gro-ables Seed Pods - "An entire garden in one simple kit. Just plant your Seed Podsâ¢, water, and enjoy!", the Giant tree Tomato "Guaranteed to produce over 500 lbs. of delicious tomatoes from one plant!", to name only a few.

Who cares if the claims are true or not? Not ad agencies. They figure that's the buyers problem.

Dave

Now we're supposed to get 20-30mph winds Sat -Sun instead of 15-20mph. I take it back about those trunks standing up to wind better. If anyone planted those around here, they'd be snapped off even if they survived the wind chill.

ajsmama: "Next year I won't start so many" reminds me of my first year. I took my 36 little seedlings out and put them into the ground thinking I'd lose a number of them due to the cold. Imagine my surprise when every one of them but two made it in the rather small space allotted. It was hilarious trying to get in there to pluck those giant Big Boys. Good eats, though.

"Harvest sooner with extra large, more mature plants"

The difference in harvesting between a 1gal. plant and one in 4 inch pot (of the same exact variety), when the warm weather kicks in, at the most could be two weeks.

So I think that Dave's description for an ideal size transplant ( 6 to 8 ") is correct. Smaller seedlings can adapt to their environment much better and can take off and grow faster once they grab the soil.

MKSinSA - last year I experimented with the nctomatoman's dense seeding method where you pick out the seedlings and put them in individual cells/pots instead of snipping off all but 1. I started about 500 tomatoes! Sold some, gave a lot away, planted about 150 but the last 50 didn't get out til the end of June and hastily-prepped bed, didn't do anything. Maybe b/c I didn't bother to water them as much as my main beds - I put them in trenches where they had drowned in 2011 but still not enough rain for them (though the volunteers in the chicken manure compost pit in the same general area did great without any watering!

This year I started about half that number - tried about 24 seeds of each variety but more cherry tomatoes and Brandwines (cherry seeds are small, and I have a lot of demand for Brandywines). Got really good germination on almost all, though I did lose a few with Dad taking care of them for 10 days. I hate to give up on any though (which is why I decided to try this method instead of snipping), so I've got some that it looks like the growing point died from underwatering, but a sucker took over, others I broke potting up ad I buried deep and are doing great, some more larger plants that get bent/broken when my storm window windbreak fell on them, I put those deep in 1 gal pots. I know I'll end up composting them or giving them away, but you know how some people rescue stray animals? I feel compelled to rescue injured plants (though I stay away from anything that looks diseased).

Next year if I want 100 tomatoes, I'll start no more than 150 seeds, I swear! Even if they're tiny and stuck together (though I'm running low on cherry tomato seeds, maybe I'll just buy starts of those to resist the temptation to start so many).

Then again, with this horrible weather, it may be another loss this year and I may give up on marketing, only plant 40-50 tomatoes for our own use next year.

Oh, if buying these "more mature" plants would really give me 2 weeks' earlier harvest it would be worth it.

This post was edited by ajsmama on Sat, May 25, 13 at 7:11

I decided to start from seed this year and got carried away. Then we had a hot spell in early May and I jumped to start hardening off. Learned that lesson fast enough. Weather has been dreadful, cold and rainy in Montreal. Some of my plants are about 10" tall. I just hope I can get these babies outside by the first week of June. I tried the dense method also, but then I feel compelled to transplant too many like you ajsmama. It's too much temptation. I'm cutting back on varieties once I see which ones produce.
Sharon