Got 'em planted!

For years now I've started my tomato and pepper seeds indoors on March 15 (today), with the seedlings to be transplanted into the garden 6 or 7 weeks later during the first week of May. Our average date of the last killing frost here is April 15.

I use Carolyn's seed-starting method, sowing seeds into damp Jiffy Mix and using no fertilizer. I cut the halves of foam egg cartons apart and super-glue the two halves onto a board for easy handling. There's a small drain hole in each egg cell. This gives me 24 cells on each board and I've planted one board with tomatoes and one with peppers this year. I don't mix tomatoes and peppers on the same board because tomatoes will come up first and need to be moved under lights before the peppers. I sow three seeds in each cell in a triangle pattern, so if they all come up I'll have 72 tomato seedlings and 72 pepper seedlings this season. I should actually get pretty close to that.

Yes, I know my O.C.D. is kicking in, but I number the egg cells and do a spreadsheet list of what's planted where. Works for me! Right after planting these boards go on top of the water heater in our furnace closet - the temperature stays at 76 to 78 degrees in there, so I've never needed to use heat mats.

This season my tomatoes are: Sweet Ozark Orange, Big Brandy Hybrid, Genuwine Hybrid, Rutgers (indeterminate), Sungold Hybrid, Ozark Pink Hybrid, and Big Beef Hybrid. Peppers are: Carmen, Italian Pepperoncini, Jimmy Nardello, TAM Jalapeno, Yummy Orange, Mariachi, Ljubov Dlan, Slonovo Uho, Kurtovska Kapija, Ekstaza, Holy Mole, and NuMex Joe E. Parker. For me, winter is over now and this is the first day of the new growing season!

I just up my tomato seedlings to pots today. I'm ready to really grow some vegs now.

Sam, what's with all the hybrid tomato varieties you sowed seed for?

That's not the Sam I've known for so many years. LOL

Carolyn, who is just finishing up sending out seeds to her seed producers for seed production this summer and nary a hybrid included, of course. And who also has seeds for Missouri Rose if that impresses you.

Carolyn, I may have to beg some Missouri Rose seeds from you for next season. :>)

Those hybrids just snuck up on me this year. All the advertising hype from Park Seeds and their related mega-suppliers got to me, and I ordered Big Brandy and Genuwine seeds. Those are two new hybrids made by crossing Big Dwarf and Costuluto Genovese, respectively, with Brandywine (though they don't specify which strain of Brandywine). What can I say - it was mid-winter, snowing sideways, and they sent me seed catalogs with pretty pictures. I was weak and vulnerable. LOL

Then, I've got to have a Sungold plant or two - they're for flavorful snacking while I'm working in the garden! Ozark Pink, well, the University of Arkansas created it for this area and it does real well here - I found some old seeds in my shop and got 100% germination from them. Gotta have a couple of Big Beef plants in every garden, too, so that's that story. My heart is still with the OP varieties.

Speaking of OP tomatoes, I just discovered that Tatiana grew my Sweet Ozark Orange variety last year, took a bunch of pictures, noted the "excellent sweet flavor", and is offering the seeds in her database and online catalog, here:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Sweet_Ozark_Orange

She got the seeds from your January, 2014 annual seed offer. Thanks!

Ozark,
I do use a heat mat to get my 'mater seedlings started, but always keep them in some kind of container for when they drain. Where does the liquid from your egg cartons drain?

I just moved all my seedlings to a covered area on my deck for the first time this season - I couldn't stand them in the den and kitchen anymore. I hope I don't kill or damage them. I don't want to have to start from seed outdoors. We are using straw bales for the first time this year and are using homemade earth-boxes as usual.

Lily

Done deal Sam, you get Missouri Rose seeds in exchange for anothe Carrot cake from that place in Asheville. LOL

Just joking since when I saw what you paid I had visions of you and family living on bread and water. LOL

Carolyn, who just sent out yesterday the Missouri Rose seeds to the person doing the seed production this summer.

"Where does the liquid from your egg cartons drain?" - Lily
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The egg cartons are glued, in pairs, to pieces of plywood for easy handling. I put a drop of superglue on the outside bottom of each egg cell, then turned 'em over on the plywood side-by-side. I drilled a small hole in the bottom of each egg cell, off-center, for drainage.

To water, I just move these under an almost-turned-off kitchen faucet to water each cell. I'm pretty careful and don't over-flood them, so there's little if any drainage needed.

Ozark,
Ah-ha! Now I see. Thanks.
Lily

I transplanted 66 tomato seedlings up from egg cartons to nursery flats with 2.25" x 2.5" x 3" deep cells yesterday. These were transplanted into a mixture of 2/3 MiracleGro Potting Mix and 1/3 rich-in-compost garden soil. A good-size spoon is perfect for scooping out the Jiffy Mix and three seedlings, intact, from each egg cell.

Experience in past years has shown me that mixing good garden soil in with the Potting Mix greatly improves the quality of the seedlings I'll grow. I've done them both ways, side by side, and the ones grown in a mixture containing some garden dirt will be sturdier, stronger, greener, etc.

I know there are nutrients in the soil, but I suspect the benefits mostly come from micro-organisms in this well-composted dirt. My pepper seedlings are going to have to live in the egg cartons for awhile yet - they're far behind the tomatoes and some peppers are still just coming up!

Hmmm. My post, just above, dropped the pictures. Don't know why.

I just put my tomato and pepper seedlings outside on our deck to harden off for a week or so - I ended up with 66 tomatoes and 42 peppers = 108 plants = 3 flats of 36 plants each.

This next week, we're predicted to have nighttime temps as low as 42 degrees and highs in the 60's. Cool temps will be good - I let my tomato seedlings get too big this year (mixed in too much rich garden soil) and need to slow their growth before planting them in the ground.

The protective wire mesh is because of my wife's outdoor cats - they think they have to lay on anything new. :>)

Ozark, I had 2 seeds left, planted them both, and neither one germinated. Is this normal? I have never grown your seeds before. Someone gave them to me in a trade. I am so disappointed, 'cause I have been wanting to try your tomatoes for years. Oh well, maybe another time. Jen

"I had 2 seeds left, planted them both, and neither one germinated"
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No, fortunately, that's not at all normal. I planted 12 seeds and got 12 plants - gave away 7 and I'm raising 5. Most other people have had close to 100% germination too, but a few have reported poor results like you experienced. Why? About all we can say is that seed-starting is an uncertain business with lots of variables, and that's no one's fault.

I searched the list of those I've sent seeds to in Washington State (there are quite a few) and couldn't come up with your address - sorry. Give it to me again and I'll send you a pack of seeds you'll have on hand for next season. :>)

I planted two SOO seeds in March. Both germinated quickly on a heat mat. I planted those two beautiful SOO plants to their permanent home yesterday. I am excited about the first fruit from them. All of my tomato plants grew bigger and taller and stronger than ever before. Baring any disasters, I should have a great tomato year. I will take pictures of them soon.

Sam!

I have a SOO tomato on the vine! Finally, after almost two years of trying to get it together, LOL!

I've got my eye on that tomato!

Linda

Linda, if I lived next door to you I'd sneak over and pick it in the night, I swear! Congrats on success after your two-year effort, though. :>)

Here's a picture of a young SOO plant a gardener in SC just posted on another website. Isn't it a dandy?

This message was edited May 13, 2015 8:21 AM

It sure is! It actually looks like a twin to my New Big Dwarf plant!

I had good germination on the SOO seeds I saved from 2013. They have been in the ground a while, but no tomatoes yet. The garden has been getting frequent rain the past couple of weeks, so they've had natural rainwater rather than hose-end water. The plants are looking pretty good.

David R

That is a dandy SOO plant. Looks like mine, only larger. I have bloom buds that haven't opened yet. That's a pretty little blossom.

Ozark, planted 6 seeds of the seeds you sent me of your Orange tomato, but not germinated.
Will try planting the rest of the seeds and see what happens.
I so wanted to try your tomato's.

Sam, I have to ask how is the Big Brandy hybrid coming along?

Lisa, I think my Big Brandy hybrid plants would be good if it'd quit raining here every day. They're planted at the downhill end of my garden, which in other years has been my best growing area because the soil stays wetter there.

But this year has been too doggone wet, and plants in that row at the bottom are spindly, yellowish, and waterlogged. There are a few green tomatoes on the Big Brandy plants and they're round, but not very big.

We've got more thunderstorms predicted for tonight and for every one of the next five days! If we ever dry out I think plants will recover quickly, but that's not happening yet. I know how to water a garden, but I don't know how to take water out when there's too much!

Good thing, though - I planted Sweet Ozark Orange in a row all their own at the TOP of the garden, to isolate them from other tomato varieties for seed collecting. They're not sitting in mud, and they're all thriving!

That's too bad but I understand about the rain. I could grow rice.

Too bad we can't send some of these rainstorms to California, where they need it. We just got back from a 10 day visit with our daughter there, and their drought is no joke - it's bad.

The storm last night alone dumped another 3 1/2 inches of rain here and washed our FULL trash barrel about 200 feet down the road, spilling the contents the whole way. Grrrr.

But it ain't all bad. I harvested our first 'cukes and a few ripe Sungold cherry tomatoes today! Beets and 'taters are already dug and being enjoyed. I'm growing an heirloom Italian zucchini variety this year, and they're so good I could happily live on those alone - sliced and grilled on the BBQ with olive oil, garlic, basil, and oregano. :>)

LOL about the trash can bc it happened to you and not me. All of my family is in CA I was in SoCal in April and like you said the drought is terrible.