Tomatoes Temperatures and weather

I was wondering how the early season temperatures are doing , How spring is moving North , Mostly the home garden thing more than greenhouse or indoor growing .
Last year I started the Tomatoes very early , This years will be much later , next week , week after ,,
From what I have been watching and reading the changes are already sounding difficult for guessing . Only looking to make a good guess with information . Usual frost free is April 15 here , (an Average guess of info)

So how are Temperatures compared to your usual season where you all are at ?,
The Tomato plants that are growing ? when do you all plan to set them outside , (those who have not done so already ?

Spring is not moving north here.
The tomatoes are just germinating and will be under lights into May.
Our usual frost free date is around May 23 and occasionally into June.
My windows and light shelves are full of seedlings of all kinds.
Caroline

frost free date for me is set on may 13th according to the frost / freeze date finder here on DG.

tomatoes already a couple of inches high here, moved them into cups so that they have the proper root room. Pepper seeds are just showing signs of life, although the first one to come up has the seed pod stuck to it so badly that its just a "seed on a stick" right now, really gotta work on getting the proper planting depth down i guess. (btw, the marbles are my own cheapo version of plant markers, lol!)


This message was edited Mar 31, 2014 6:55 PM

The marbles are a good plant marker.
Do you use different colours for different varieties?
I use colored plastic tooth picks to mark plants.

Spring hasn't moved to Montreal either. CL, we have about the same frost date. I might actually start some more seeds as I'm worried about a few being somewhat leggy. But I've read if I pot them up and really bury them, they should be ok. They aren't flopping over, but they kind of shot up. I didn't use a heating mat but they were in a warm room.
Sharon

yep, i color coordinated according to variety. green marble is green zebra, red marble is paul robeson, red / white swirl is german johnson, the speckled one in back is Bull horn pepper, and although you cant see the marbles on the tomatoes in the back, those are Great White

This message was edited Apr 1, 2014 1:16 PM

This message was edited Apr 1, 2014 1:17 PM

Sharon, if you plant them deep, they will grow more roots on the stem that is underground, and they won't be leggy..they should be just fine.

It looks as tho spring may actually be here highs in the 80s at least for a couple of days, not sure how long it will hold. I need to pot up my tomatoes, which doing today and tomorrow. They should be ready to go out by the middle-end of April. This is about the regular time for me, last year I planted out earlier and they just sat there. I keep forgetting that I can still sow seeds for other veggies before I plant the tomatoes. Lol

Thanks Lisa! I also read that if they are a bit leggy I should transplant into their separate containers even if the first true leaves haven't started. It's so exciting until I realize this is only the beginning, lol!

I don't pot mine up any sooner then normal but I don't think it could hurt. I always suggest that everybody plant all their tomato plants as deep as possible each time they replant them. That's what I was always told. What kind of lights do you have?

I transplant my seedlings into 16 oz. cups but fill the cup only half full. The seedlings are buried up to their "necks". As the tomato continues to grow I add more soil so it develops a really strong stem with roots. Then when I transplant it into the ground the plant is ready for anything!

Our last frost date is whacky. It can't make up it's mind. Blackberry winter always leaves a light frost which is the "end "of April---1st of May but our last frost date is suppose to be April 1st but always have frost mid April. I don't feel comfortable setting tomato plants out until May 1st. I have early plants growing in pots in an unheated greenhouse right now. Have several growing in 6 inch pots waiting to transplant to larger pots for a normal frost free planting date. Then I have some growing in a 3 inch pots for a later planting date.
I never grow enough tomatoes.

Our last frost date is March 15th, but that was a joke this year. It has been in the high 70's for the past week (yesterday hit a high of 82), but we have been under severe thunderstorm watches each afternoon. Nothing has come of this but those east and a bit north of us have had nasty storms. So I guess we can say that spring has sprung here. Supposed to be in the 60's this weekend, so let's say spring with a slinky affect.

We're in the unstable, unpredictable part of springtime here. I wouldn't dare put anything outside that freezes.

About a week ago we had a couple of nights with lows in the teens. Today our high was 77, then thunderstorms and a cold front came through. 51 degrees tomorrow, 29 tomorrow night.

Our average date of last frost is April 15, but I never put tomatoes and peppers in the ground until the first week of May. You can see why.

Ozark, didn't you also have hail? We still have lots of snow. I just transplanted some seedlings into 4" Potts that we're getting leggy. Buried them deeply and only filled up have the pot so I can keep adding potting soil. So far so good. I'm using compact fluorescent lights, full spectrum. They are grow lights and they are in they are in a bright room. I just learned on another forum that's I could have transplanted into 2" pots then into the 4" but I didn't over water so it's a rest of time .....

I might try putting black plastic over the ground where I'm going to plant my tomatoes to warm it up. Haven't done that before. I even bought a few Walls of Water that I didn't like years ago. Lots of people use them here.They are a pain to fill and I had some of them fall over on the tomato and ruin them. Someone told me it is easier to fill them if you turn a bucket upside down and put the Wall of Water around it while you fill the chambers. I might try that. I also think I kept the top closed too much and probably boiled the plants on warmer days.

We usually don't dare plant anything that is frost tender until Memorial Day.

My peas have been in the ground for a couple of weeks, but then we had several snow storms. I think they will survive

This message was edited Apr 8, 2014 12:54 PM

The black plastic does work, Linda. I know people who swear by those Walls of Water. I'm just too clumsy and end up with a mess and I, too, have broken off plants trying to fill them.

I have about 30 of the walls, though I won't be using them this year. To fill, I use one of those in line shutoff valves on the end of the hose and another short bit of hose connected the valve. I always fill the wall beside the plant. Stick the short bit of hose down into the tubes on the wall and fill slowly. Once it is full you can pick it up with two hands and set over the plant. Pull the bottom out to make the top more narrow, scoot it in to open the top more widely. Add more water to finish filling if needed.

DR

I have tomato seedlings in one bedroom under lights, and several in the greenhouse. We live in Central Oregon. Last week we had snow. Today it was 60 degrees, and next week we will see 70's. I am planting all my tomatoes in containers, as I did last year, with approximately 6 hrs of sun. My tomatoes are never successful in my raised beds with over 10 hrs of sun, and they do poorly in my greenhouse because it becomes extremely hot, even though we have fans and an exhaust fan running. So, hopefully I can put them out in mid May, but I will have to watch them carefully. It has been known to snow here on July 4th before.

Hi yall.

About the tomatoes....

Will you clarify about planting deeper ?

I knew about putting established *as having) at least
the second set of leaves) being transplanted with
stem as deep as possible.

But it "sounds" like you re also saying plant the seed
as deeply as possible ?

Not sure if that is right ?

tks, Becky

Becky - No, tomato seeds (like all seeds so far as I know) should be planted to a depth about three times the diameter of the seed. With tomatoes, that's about 1/4 of an inch, I guess.

Tomato seedlings should be transplanted into a hole as deep as possible, removing all side branches except the top two and keeping those branches a couple of inches above ground level. That's because tomatoes will grow new roots all along any portion of the main stem that's in the ground, and more roots make the plant stronger.

Weather caused me to delay transplanting seedlings into the ground this spring, and by the time I was able to put them out my tomatoes were a lot taller than I like them to be. Some folks lay tomato seedlings down sideways in a trench to get the stems underground, but I like to plant them DEEP instead. I had to use a post-hole digger and it was more work, but planting deep was real good for them.

Now my plants will grow lots of extra roots, they'll be more drought resistant, and those deep roots will be down in the cool soil further from the heat of summer.

I like to trench my tomato when I transplant them outside.
I transplanted my tomatoes mid February. I just trench them maybe 3-4" under the soil line.
If I go deeper they will just root. In fact at that time of the year the soil is too cold and wet down deep.
We all live in different climate and it is amazing all the different things we have to do, but at the end we will all have a great season.
Good luck

Oz I take off the bottom leaves and plant deep as well. On the seed depth I used to just lay the seed on top. In nature the seed falls to the ground and the tomato rots leaving just the seed. Some folks claim this is a better way . These days I plant about a quarter inch or so because that's the way my local green House does it. Easier to keep the seed moist when it is buried.

This message was edited May 25, 2014 3:04 PM

Drthor did you mean this.? If I go deeper they will just root or did you mean ( rot )?

sorry for my bad English.
I think I mean Rot = turning black and dye

I surface sow my tomato seeds and plant the plants deep when they go in the ground.

My granddad grew Abraham Lincoln variety tomatoes to sell to local food markets, and he surface-sowed his tomatoes in the fall when he took the old plants out after the first freeze in October.

What he actually did was pick all the ripe, damaged, spoiled tomatoes off the old plants and set them aside. (He'd already picked all the green tomatoes before the freeze for frying.) Then he'd pull and burn the plants and till and rake the soil. I think he tilled in some granular fertilizer at that time, too.

Then he'd lay the ripe, spoiled tomatoes on the ground in the rows he intended to grow the next spring, and he'd walk on them with his boots. He mashed them flat, right into the ground. Next spring volunteer tomato plants would come up by the hundreds, right in the rows he wanted. All he had to do was thin them out and maybe transplant a few to fill gaps.

I know now that he was using soil bacteria to ferment the coating off the seeds the way nature intended, with the squashed pulp and juice feeding the cultures. A good way to plant, but it wouldn't work with hybrids, of course - and the fact that he was growing only one OP variety simplified things too.