Beginner Gardening: Tomato Plants Now, 1 by Gymgirl

Gymgirl wrote:
Hey, Susan, et all! Welcome Aboard!

Just an update and to answer some questions that have been posted:
►I bought seed starter and plug mix last weekend. Sunshine brand, but any good sterilized seed starter mix should work. A word of warning. I bought some kind of Professional Mix midway last season, and will never use it again -- gets hard as concrete...

►Because I'm into the "heat" thing, I did an unnecessary step. The seed starter mix could've been used "as is", but I wanted to heat it up. So, the night before sowing, I filled a 5-gallon bucket 2/3 full of the mix, poured about 2 gallons of hot water into the bucket, and covered it for the night. The mix soaked up the water, so I wouldn't have to do this in the morning and wait for it. Then, I followed my regular sterilizing process outlined in the link below. This was the unnecessary step, since the mix is already sterilized. But, I did it for the heat.

http://allthingsplants.com/blogs/entry/136/

►On Monday 01/02/12, I sowed 6 different varieties of seeds. I started with the tomato plants that have the longest DsTM (days to maturity from sowing seed), since they would be going out the earliest, and growing the longest time before fruiting.

►I totally forgot I was gonna start the seeds off in the 4" pots to avoid having to pot up all those seedlings, and sowed them in community flats! I sowed more sparingly, and spaced more evenly than I have in the past, so I wouldn't have a tangle of roots when I pot up, averaging no more than 25 seeds per tray.

►I used some cheapy, (99 cent store) aluminum bake pans that come with lids, and some kitty litter pans (also from the cheapy store...)

►I should've quickly reviewed my own blog, because I didn't tie up the ends of the bags like in the pic on the blog, so I've lost some of my built-up heat and humidity. And, I didn't put any vinyl labels inside to prop up the bags, so I have to keep propping them up (a pain).
But, they're sown, and we shall see how long it takes for them to declare. Last January they popped in 6 days...Will do better with the next wave of sowing...

►I placed the flats on the floor in the warm room as usual, and have had to crank up the heat a bit in the house to keep the ambient room temperature on the warm side (I have no clue as to how warm that room really is -- but, I've been sweating in the house...LOL!)

►I don't have the flats under the lights, yet. I put them under as soon as the first seedling pops. Some other growers start them out under the lights, and maybe I'll try an experiment with the second wave of seeds sown this weekend.

►I purchased all my tomato seeds from Tomato Growers Supply, except as noted. I'll be growing the following, based on my taste buds and my growing season:
►Kimberly
►Mule Team
►Eva Purple Ball
►Black Krim
►Costoluto Genovese (these were acquired from another DGer in a trade)
►Galina
►Perfect Purple
►Russian Rose
►Beauty (these were acquired from another DGer in a trade)
►Momotaro
►Sioux (NOT Super Sioux...)
►Virginia Sweets

SusanKC,
Thanks for the Weather Channel link. I've bookmarked it!

I continue to check the flats daily for any signs of "peeping".

Hugs!

Linda ^^









This message was edited Jan 5, 2012 12:49 PM

This message was edited Jan 6, 2012 10:16 AM