Tomatoes & Peppers: First Transplant, 1 by Ozark

Ozark wrote:
"Do you use the sytofoam egg cartons and/or paper? So how long of a season do you have there in Missouri?"
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Styrofoam egg cartons - the ones that have recesses for the eggs on both the top and bottom. I cut those halves apart, cut the flaps off, and drill a small drain hole near the bottom of each cell. Then I glue those down, two-by-two, to bases of 1/2" plywood - a drop of superglue on the bottom of each egg cell works fine. Using a ballpoint pen, I number the cells in each paired egg carton - A 1-thru-24, B 1-thru-24, and so forth. Then I make a spreadsheet list in Excel of what I planted in each cell. When it's time to transplant up, I carefully scoop all the Jiffy Mix out of each cell with a spoon of the right size, work the seedlings' roots apart, and transplant them all.

Here's a picture of what these looked like a couple of months ago, before my 'taters were even in the ground.

Our average dates of last and first frosts here are April 15 and October 15. This year was so unusually warm I could have transplanted tomatoes and peppers into the garden in late March, and a lot of people did so their gardens are 'way ahead of mine. I didn't take the chance, though, and put warm-season plants out the first week of May as usual.