Starting Tomatoes From Direct Seed

Monday, June 2, 2008

As if 24 tomato plants pictured below wasn't enough.....


Despite my early success, this was not a good year for us when it came to the subject of starting from seed. Oh sure, we started off with good intentions. We even reserved a spare bedroom for our seed starting efforts last February. And, true to my wife's green thumb, everything we planted, sprouted.

But, all good things must come to an end, and our party ended when we put our plants outdoors. I failed to harden them off correctly, and in the space of a day, everything we started from seed last February, about 95% of it, died. It was like a Stalinist Purge had hit our starters. Very few survived.

However, we did not give up. We still had a few seeds leftover from our February efforts, and we direct seeded into the planter cups you see above. These varieties include Black Cherry, Zapotec Pleated and Druzba. Not pictured are Kellogg's Breakfast and The Shriver. Direct seed is very easy. Just fill up a plastic cup with planter mix -- plant seed -- water and wait. In two weeks, VOILA! Tomato plant starters for your garden.

Unfortunately, the main garden doesn't have the room for additional plants, and since some of these are very rare, I must construct a new box to hold the new plants.

And that should make this gentleman to the left, extremely happy. Pinkston is doing his best Superman impression in this photo. But his other love is joining with his brothers and sisters in digging through the planter beds to "take care of business."


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