It's Tomato Starting Day!

[GoDawgs]

Today is Tomato Seed Starting Day! This year I am growing one each of 28 different varieties, mostly new to me. 21 of them are regular size tomatoes and 7 are dwarfs. I'm also doing three 6-packs of Celebrity and a few peppers for a friend.



I'm glad I cleared off the third shelf yesterday!



The shelf unit is about full. As soon as some of the old potted micro tomatoes on a separate light table have finished ripening their current fruit set, out they go. Same thing with the old ones (in white pots) on this shelf unit. Then I can move the new micros to the other table and that will free up space. And here are things on the top shelf that will be transplanted out soon and that will help with space too. As all of these tomatoes start popping up they'll go from the flats to styrofoam trays that will fit better under the lights.



The micro tomato 'Baby' is staying right about 5" tall and is setting fruit. I've added a stake as it was starting to lean. All six micros have set fruit and now it's a race to see whose tomatoes ripen first. They've been a fun winter toy.

[AKgardener]

Oh man I still can’t start yet so jelly!!!
But all my micro have tomatoes now and my baby baby is only 3 inches with about 5 tomatoes per plants yay for mater day !!!

[Setec Astronomy]

I've been able to grow some very nice mold so far...

[MissS]

I've been able to grow some very nice mold so far...

What growing medium and fertilizer are you using? Try getting a fan on them to reduce that mold. A dilute spray of hydrogen peroxide is supposed to help too. I have not had a mold issue since I started using Myco's on my mix. They seem to be a great preventative.

[brownrexx]

What a fun day!

I will resist the temptation and wait until the end of the month to start mine or they will get too big before I can plant them outside.

I did start some head lettuce and bok choy and it is satisfying to see little green plants in the house.

[AKgardener]

Started my tiny totums and siletz today !! Only because I have the room to grow them and are planning to heat my greenhouse so they can go out early couldn’t help it

Also started extreme bush as well for indoors

[rxkeith]

i usually start mine april first.
i do have micros growing already. first wave will be ready for gallon size pots in a couple weeks i think.
i need to go through my bag o seeds, and find the oldest seeds. i start those a bit earlier in the event i
have some failures. yup, pretty soon now.


keith

[Sue_CT]

I wonder if soaking the seeds briefly before planting to help soften the seed coat might help? I also get a few every year, more some years than others and I am successful in removing it a good percentge of the time, but certainly not always. Maybe just soaking the older ones? I use a heat mat set at 80 degrees, which might contribute, but it seems to speed up germination so much I hate to give that up.

[slugworth]

I've been able to grow some very nice mold so far...

one batch of potting "soil" mushrooms popped up that looked like they would kill you just looking at them.
The moskvich seeds popped in 5 days on the warming tray for 25% germination rate so far.
Seeds planted deeper to avoid helmet head.
Friction is your friend; seeds traveling through the soil.
1st time trying moskvich here.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

@slugworth "one batch of potting 'soil' mushrooms popped up that looked like they would kill you just looking at them."

ALL mushrooms are edible...but some of them just once...

The Gotch

[GoDawgs]

It looks like I miscounted. 29 plants, not 28. The first 17 of them popped up yesterday and so far today another 6 have joined the party. No helmets yet. Six more to go.

[Shule]

I'm two or three days late, but I just finished planting my sweet peppers and tomatoes!

[Sue_CT]

Got all mine started today! Well, at least all except for one I am waiting for seeds for and a plant or two I might buy, like a grape tomato. Just haven't been able to find a tasty grape from seed. 13 varieties and an Anaheim pepper. About middle of the road, I have started a few days earlier and a few later.

[GoDawgs]

Update: I'm down to three varieties that refuse to come up so I've done the wet paper towel germination trick on seed of all three. We'll see! I might even add a few drops of blue stuff to the towels.

[Sue_CT]

Now comes the hard part, waiting. Two days. No visible sprouts yet. Today is the first of 8 days off, all of which will be spent chilling, puttering and doing cleaning organizing and whatever projects I feel like starting that I have been procrastinating about for weeks/days/months/years. Now, how many times a day is it reasonable to check for sprouts, lol?

[AKgardener]

27 out of 36 germinated of siletz and all 4 of extreme bush ! Now waiting for them to grow! I have one special one that sprouted with 3 leaves so gonna give it a nickname

[Sue_CT]

An over achiever!

[AKgardener]

83F5E81C-276A-4992-975F-3913497D1F5D.jpeg

Here is my weird plant granted it’s just starting out but has 3 leaves or what ever they are called I say it’s a keeper

[AKgardener]

How’s everyone tomato seedling coming along ? Mine are strong out of the gate

[MissS]

Mine are still trying to see me through their seed packets. LOL