I'm so happy to announce that it is almost time to start seedlings indoors of Tomatoes, Peppers and Eggplants here in Texas.
Here are the best DECEMBER dates to start those seedlings in base of the "Gardening by the moon" calendar:
8th-10th
11th-12th
13th-15th
18th-19th
I will start mine one the first date: December 8th to the 10th.
So exciting !!
Start Seedlings of TOMATOES,PEPPERS and EGGPLANTS soon in TX
Thank you for letting us know, I don't grow vegetables (all taken up with native plants) but for the many who do, this is great.
If we started Tomatoes that early they would be 4' before we were out of frost danger.
Those dates are best for greenhouse sets, but you might delay an xtra month this year before sowing seeds, we seem to be in a 2nd year of delayed zones for ripening and growing plants, also check the calendar first for 2011 Easter date, cuz freezes won't be over until the spring equinox. Later, n luck all.
I have basically given up on tomatoes. Does not matter when I plant they either get disease or suffer from the weather...
C
Yeah, we usually start a little later than that, too. (I actually timed the weather just right last year, then lost most of my transplants to the &%$@# neighbor's cats.)
I think I'm going to emphasize tomatillos and ground cherries this year, but the other half of my household is all jazzed about wacky colored tomatoes and peppers, so I guess that's what packets of seed he will find in his stocking.
Sorry you guys have all those problems.
I have been growing tomatoes for years and I had always started them in mid December inside.
I normally transplant them outside between March 1st to the 15th. I protect them if we have a freeze.
I have millions of fantastic tomatoes starting in May.
I plant the peppers and eggplant at the beginning of April.
Starting the plants in December it allows me to have stronger plants for the spring time.
I don't have a green house, but just a grow light. My plants don't grow huge and faster, they just grow perfect for me. I am lucky if they will get 1'.
Good luck !!
This message was edited Nov 26, 2010 2:42 PM
I grow my tomatoes in raised beds.
very good !
I don't have any trouble growing tomatoes, I start mine in the greenhouse at the end of January and transplant outside around the middle of March. Even then I have a cover I pull over at night. This year we had snow on the cover in late April.
Mine are always plaqued with viruses etc. I guess its the soil and growing conditions. Do you pull the plants when it gets really hot? I have tried both spring and fall tomatoes.
C
Newtonsthirdlaw I am your neighbor in Irving.
I have no problems with Tomatoes. I grow them in raised beds, using new soil and not the gumbo clay that we have here. I invested money in good soil, compost and expanded shales when I built my veggie garden.
Before staring my own seedling I bought tranplants. The only one I had good success were the plants I bought at North Haven Garden (www.nhg.com). I know this nursery is the other side of where you live, but they have amazing seedling and great education programs. In fact I owe to them my success in the vegetable garden.
In the past two years I didn't had good luck with the fall tomatoes and I needed the space to grow fall brassicas, so I give up on fall tomatoes.
I made a raised bed and soon realized the soil I added was very sandy. It is now a native perennial bed with very drought tolerent plants. What varieites of tomatoes do you start from seed. I have been using transplants from Calloways and really only had success one year. Do you have production all summer or do you just get the fruit early in the season?
C
Tomatoes are my best crop. Second is Eggplant.
I truly enjoy gardening in this area, especially vegetable, so please don't give up. Just buy good transplants. North Haven normally will have them available at the beginning of march. Keep visiting their website and go as soon as the transplants will arrive. They sell out so fast.
I do have tomatoes production untill the mid/end of July. Our summer is so hot that the tomatoes will stop producing fruits. But trust me that by the time the plants stop I am "sick" of tomatoes.
The soil I have used here on my raised beds here in Irving is:
1/3 Humax soil
1/3 Cottonbur compost
1/3 Expanded shales (very important in our area)
My beds are 12" deep.
My Most succesfull of tomatoes for DFW are:
Sweet 100
Sun Gold
Sapho (this will produce also in the heat of the summer - only NHG sell it)
Yellow Pear
BHN 444
Celebrity
Gold Nudget
Yellow Pear
Black Krim
So don't give up !! We truly have a good weather for vegetable garden : ALL YEAR AROUND !!!
One more tip:
when I dig the hole for my tomatoes outside I apply WORM CASTING + DE and I put the tomato plant on top.
This mixture not only is making my tomatoes growing amazing, but also is keeping the Tomato Hornworm away !!!
I think they don't like the taste of DE.
I'm getting tomatoes, peppers and eggplant from plants that were put out April 11th and after. I keep them watered thro the summer and production slows but never stops. I have found it is much effective then trying to get seedlings established in the heat of the summer.
I never understood the 2 season thing. Its just as hot in the part of CA I'm from 105*-107* and I never did it there. However, I don't start my seeds for tomatoes until the end of Jan. I have had too many freeze (even tho they were covered) and had to replant. I'm in area that gets extra cold.
Lisa ~ the 'two season' thing comes from being so blessed sick of nursing those ungrateful mater plants thru the scorching summer temps to keep them going for the fall season that I let them die in agony! LOL
Now, where the heck are some of those hot temps??!?
I agree, larger tomato plants will give a jump on the spring crop but it is a gamble and also an effort as Ken said to protect them from frost. Heat/frost/drought/viruses/bugs... why do I love fresh tomatoes so much?
I have heard that DE even though it is not poisonous to humans or pets and works very well on crawling insects by injuring their bodies, it can be absorbed by plants if applied to the roots and thereby renders them deadly to chewing insets, which could include butterfly larva as well as non desirable caterpillars.
I say this because those of us who are trying to raise butterflies and moths should not be adding it to the roots of larval plants or maybe not even to nectar plants.
Josephine
I gave up on tomatoes a while ago but drthor, you have given me hope! Thanks for sharing. Now the questions!
Do you grow them in full sun and do you ever shade your tomatoes ? Never heard of Humax soil. Can I just add humate? I looked on NHG website and they have a lot of very interesting speakers. Thanks again.
We have had good luck with maters the past 2 years. This year, I'm going to start them on New Year's Day, under lights in my spare bedroom. I just have to figure out how to keep the cats out of them! LOL
Early January is when we start tomatoes too. To germinate the seeds, I use an old electric roaster in the sunroom, set as low as it will go. The light may come on just for a few seconds now and then at night, but it keeps the soil at the right temperature. I have to start looking for sprouts about the third day and at least twice a day after that as seedlings will pop out and grow long and leggy without light. Once the seeds have sprouted, I put them in the greenhouse to protect them from the cats and move them from their tiny pots to 4" pots, burying any long stems. They will be wanting gallon size pots by the time we plant them outside at the end of March or in early April.
When the weather turns hot and dry, spider mites can destroy tomato plants quickly. If I remember to start fighting the mites when it turns hot and don't wait for damage to appear, the plants stay healthier and we pick tomatoes until frost. Production slacks off in summer, but if there are lots of little green tomatoes on the plants going into summer, they'll keep ripening a few here and there.
If/When the plants start to die back in mid-summer, we cut back to fresh growth at the base of the plant and let them regrow. It's just too hot in late summer to plant new tomatoes for fall.
Our best performers lately have been Cabernet, which is also a good greenhouse tomato, Early Girl, Jet Setter, Viva Italia, and Pompeii (aka San Remo). I'm trying to get seeds for the dehybridized Merced, a variety that is no longer on the market but one of the best we ever had for setting tomatoes in hot weather.
Newton- watch Calloway, they may not be best for veggies. Have u tried hanging your tomatoes by any chance?
Only when they commit really horrific garden offenses.
You are tooooo funny Cheryl!!!
I checked out the Humax website. Is it the topsoil you use?
wicked sense of humor!
to bananna18 : I bought the Humax soil at NHG ... maybe it has a similar name ... it has been 3 years now. They sell it there. I went to the garden this morning and it is full of Christmas tree.
In the back they have a display vegetable garden with different way to do raised beds.
Keep checking their classes, right now they are slowing down for the holidays but they will start soon with new exciting FREE programs.
Good luck
In the picture, my veggie garden is on the left, edged by the rocks
I have to go to Richardson tomorrow and plan to pass by there. I am interested in raised beds, just saw a square foot garden posted and I liked it. Just trying to figure out the best location. That is why I am wondering if you had it in full sun.
chuckl, I needed the grin, but I am referring to planting tomatoes in buckets-at the bottom of the bucket. Out the bottom of the bucket, I believe would be best put. Then hanging them, say, at the edge of the roof. This isn't new.
Yes my vegetable garden is in full sun. Only one little corner has some hours of shade.
I think sun is the key of a sucessfull vegetable garden and the right soil in our area.
NHG was fantastic. Even though I wasn't looking for Christmas stuff I found some interesting plants and really liked seeing the designs for raised beds.Very knowledgeable and friendly staff too. Wish it wasn't so far but will definitely go out again in the spring.