Growing Tomatoes From Seed

This year I started planting my tomato seeds in January. (Our last frost date is May 24.) As you can probably estimate, January is way too early for most folks here. I got excited about all the tomatoes I want to grow. I got carried away looking at my big seed stash and had to plant. I am just too impatient to be a farmer.

I knew it was early and they would get leggy and be too thin to do well in the windowsill in February, so I bought a couple of very cheap flourescent lamps, little ones, old desk lamps at a second-hand store. I put these in the very wide south windowsill where I grow my seedlings. Every morning when I get up, around 5 am, I turn them on and make sure the tomatoes are under them until the sun is up and shining in the window, then I turn the lights off. I turn them back on at dinner time where they shine on the tomatoes until I go to bed at night, when I turn them off again.

This gives the tomatoes the amount of daylight they need. They do ok with 12 hours, 14 is even better. Twelve hours is enough, so this means that I can rotate seedlings under the lights. 12 hours for one set and 12 hours for the next set of seedlings. This way I only need lights for half the growing seedlings at a time.


I started them in little newspaper pots setting in cookie and roast chicken trays and anything else I had saved for planting. You can read about the newspaper pots in a previous post here.

I like these types of trays for this purpose because you get a lid with it.

As soon as they start to pop up, the lids comes off. These tomato seeds sprouted in just a few days! They were so fast!

As the tomato plants grew tall, I transplated them into larger containers, planting them as deeply as possible each time. Tomatoes like to be planted deep with only a couple of leaves showing at the top. They will grow new roots all along the stem, giving them a good supporting root system for later.

This also helps to keep them from getting leggy when planted indoors too early in the winter.


They were soon too tall for the little paper pots.

When they got that tall, I transplanted them deeper in the same containers and took away the paper pots.

These are the tomatoes after transplanting the first time.

They took about three weeks to get too tall for that container.

I took them out and replanted them into the same container. This time I layed the root mass sideways in the bottom of the container with just a couple of top leaves showing. They have been growing like that for a couple of weeks. I had hoped they would take longer to get too big for those containers, but that wasn't to be. This is what they look like this morning.


The time has come to give these babies a very large, more permanent home, at least until they go into the garden.

Today I transplanted them into tall ice cream containers that I had saved. I left a bit of the top showing. The root mass sits solidly on the bottom of the container but I think they will have lots of room to grow much taller.


These tomatoes consist of three types that I have been asked to grow as a 'CSI' project. They are 'Cowlick', 'Spudakee' and 'Indian Spripe'. I think the last ones are also called 'Cherokee Stripe'. I am taking detailed notes on the plants as they grow. I will need notes on soil, dates, temps, weather, taste tests, seed saving info, etc. etc.
(I don't really know what CSI stands for but I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with forensic investigation. )


Some of the tomatoes are for my own use. I planted a large, heirloom beef heart type from Portugal. I don't have a specific variety name for it but it did very well last year and we liked them. I got the seeds years ago in a trade from someone who's ancestor brought them over from Portugal. This is our "Portugal" tomato.


I also planted "Matt's Wild Cherry". (No, I don't know who Matt is but have wondered that myself. I don't know who Pete is either, but catch myself saying "for Pete's sake" often enough that I really should find that out.) Some of these plants are grape tomatoes, grown from seed that I saved from the actual grape tomatoes I bought at the grocery store. These are probably a hybrid so I don't know if I will get grape tomatoes from them or not. Its an experiment. (I love surprise gardening!) I am planning to also plant 'San Marzano' tomatoes. These are Italian and are suppose to be the best paste tomatoes in the world. We grew these last year but didn't make paste from them. This year I am going to. I have a lot of seed saved from last year's tomatoes.

We LOVE tomatoes and put them in just about everything we cook. This year I will start using my waterbath canner and actually can some of these tomatoes. Right now it is being used as our "ash pot" beside the wood stove. It's multi-tasking!

I am thrilled with the results of my tomato growth so far. They are strong and healthy. I have peppers and other things growing now too, in the new greenhouses I found on sale in my previous post! I have two of them set up at the back door that faces south in the kitchen.

Primulas

I love primulas, also called primrose or polyanthus. They are one of my favourite flowers in the garden. One reason I like them so much is because they are so hardy! They stay green under the snow all winter. They bloom in the early spring and late autumn, even in the snow. They can be grown on a windowsill as a houseplant and do very well outside in the shade. They are an excellent shade garden plant that flowers.

Primulas like to be kept slightly moist and do not tolerate drying out completely. They do best in shade and like cool temperatures. A truly northern flower. They like slightly acid, humousy soil. (Is hymousy a word?) Sounds like a good peat bog plant.

I grew my first primulas from seed and had those plants for a decade. I continued to divide them as they grew and spread them around the edge of the flowerbed.

They are very low to the ground and make an excellet edging. You will want to keep them in the front of the bed as they don't get more than about 6-8" tall.

There are a lot of newer varieties of primulas. Some are taller with blooms on a stalk and they come in a rainbow of colours.


I bought these marked down to .25 each at the grocery store. They were almost dead when I brought them home. All they needed was a drink but they are in very light, poor soil so have to be constantly watered. I think I will replant them into potting soil until the ground thaws. Then they will go directly into the shade garden.

My Painted Boxes

This is one of several painted boxes that I did years ago. I plan to do many more with various designs and colours, using paint and stain. Multi media boxes also look very good. I might try some with other materials.

Rooting Herbs From The Grocery Store

Spring is almost here and we are having spring like weather!! I am busy planning my garden space, old and new, for this coming season. One thing I want to grow this year are a lot of fresh herbs. I do grow thyme, oregano, sage and chives. This year I am going to add several more to this list.

I have seeds for basils, cilantro, rosemary, dill and a few more that I cannot remember at the moment. These things will grow from seed but it is a slow process, especially for the perennials, so I am attempting to root new plants from fresh pieces I purchased at the grocery store for the cost of a package of seeds.



Today I bought rosemary and last week I bought and planted terragon cuttings.



When I look through the packages of fresh herbs at the grocery store, I look for pieces that have tiny bits of root still attached. These will need less time to continue rooting and start growing. I am not sure this is root. It could be a piece of the stem that didn't break away cleanly but I will leave it there, just in case it is a root piece.

I don't know for certain that rosemary stems will root but I will try it anyway. I am not losing anything, as I will still have the pile of leaves that I stripped from the stems. I can continue to cook with those.


The first thing I did was fill a small container with light potting soil. I buy the inexpensive stuff from Walmart for this. It is better for rooting and seeding if you mix it with perlite, but I am not going to at this point. Mainly because I don't have any at the moment.

I use all kinds of containers to plant in. This is the bottom half of a vegetable juice cocktail jug with holes in the bottom. The aluminum foil is to catch the water that runs through when I water it. Dampen the soil with warm water before starting.

I use rooting hormone gel for this. I put a tiny bit in the corner of a throw away plastic thingie (its and industry term ;-). I keep my rooting hormone gel in the fridge. I have read that this gives it a longer life span. I don't know this from my own experience, but well, it can't hurt and it doesn't take up much room in the fridge.

Lay out the branches of the fresh herb. Remove all but a few leaves at the top. One piece with long enough for me to make two rooting pieces out of it with a few leaves left at the top of each one. When this is done, recut the bottoms of all except the pieces with a slight root still attached. Leave that alone.



Dip the end of each piece in the bit of rooting hormone. Poke a small hole in the damp soil and insert the end. Fill in the soil around it.

I plant all pieces in one container together. It takes up less room that way and it will be awhile before they are so big that they need a pot of their own. I am hoping they can go into the cold frame, or even the ground, by that time.

These are the terragon cuttings I rooted a few days ago. They wilted at first but seem to be perking up now. I did not cover these with anything but I am going to put a bag over the rosemary to help keep them moist while they root. Put the cuttings in a light place but not in direct sunlight until you see real, new leaf growth.

I am looking forward to using these fresh herbs from my garden this year. I use them to make soap, as well as cook with them. One thing I want to make this year is a lot of pesto! I might also make myself some herbal bath oil, hand lotion and hair rinse.