Tomato Blogging 2006 Season Kickoff
It's that time of year again. Time to stop thinking about wonderful garden fresh tomatoes this summer and to start doing something to bring them about. That's right, today is the official Bogus Gold kickoff for tomato season. The seeds were sewn today, a good 6-8 weeks before they'll be transplanted into the outdoor garden.
If you're someone who has never started your own tomatoes from seed before, I'd encourage you to give it a try. It's not terribly difficult, nor expensive. In fact, if you grow a lot of tomatoes you'll easily save money over buying your plants at a garden store. Here's a handy online guide.
Here's the garden so far:
Not much to look at, obviously. Just wanted to note that I use Jiffy Pellets to start my tomato seeds. They're clean, easy, and I've always had good luck with them. Four seeds to one pellet, so you're looking at a potential 100 plants there (though not all will successfully germinate). A couple of weeks after they sprout I'll transplant them into 3" containers. And, depending on the weather outlook, they'll go into the garden around Memorial Day.
As many of you know I was bitten by the heirloom tomato bug a few years back, so many of the varieties I grow are ones you're unlikely to find at a typical garden center. Here's the list of tomato varieties I'm growing this year (believe it or not, it's scaled back from the last year, which was scaled back from the year before).
The last four are new to me this year. The rest are all varieties I've grown and liked in the past.
Happy Spring!
If you're someone who has never started your own tomatoes from seed before, I'd encourage you to give it a try. It's not terribly difficult, nor expensive. In fact, if you grow a lot of tomatoes you'll easily save money over buying your plants at a garden store. Here's a handy online guide.
Here's the garden so far:
Not much to look at, obviously. Just wanted to note that I use Jiffy Pellets to start my tomato seeds. They're clean, easy, and I've always had good luck with them. Four seeds to one pellet, so you're looking at a potential 100 plants there (though not all will successfully germinate). A couple of weeks after they sprout I'll transplant them into 3" containers. And, depending on the weather outlook, they'll go into the garden around Memorial Day.
As many of you know I was bitten by the heirloom tomato bug a few years back, so many of the varieties I grow are ones you're unlikely to find at a typical garden center. Here's the list of tomato varieties I'm growing this year (believe it or not, it's scaled back from the last year, which was scaled back from the year before).
Sun Gold
Neves Azorean Red
Black Cherry
Mr. Stripey (Tigerella)
Azoychka
Eva Purple Ball
Jaune Flammé
Green Zebra
Black Krim
Cherokee Purple
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Anna Russian
Brandywine OTV
Early Wonder
Marianna's Peace
Aunt Ginny's Purple
Gregori's Altai
Costoluto Genovese
Persimmon
The last four are new to me this year. The rest are all varieties I've grown and liked in the past.
Happy Spring!
Posted by Doug Williams on
Saturday April 1, 2006 at 4:53pm
