Saturday, March 27, 2010

Tomatoes and tender annuals.

The forecast called for 34 degrees last night. At 4am, it's 39 degrees. At 7am, it will drop a few degrees before rising again. I hope we make it without a frost. Just in case, I covered my seed rack containing the tender annuals that have been sprouting all week. There's a lot of pineapple sage out there.



The tomatoes and all my overwintered plants are in the basement. I forgot the fern and the tropicals on the front porch. Que sera, sera. The sprouting tomatoes are inside. This is my second batch. I'm using the wintersown method this time.



Possibly our last cold night, the 10 day forecast looks positively wonderful.



It's now 36 degrees.

4 comments:

Kris said...

Tom, can you give us an estimate on the % of germination you get when you WS vegs like tomatoes? Or do you have to oversow a lot just to get the number of plants you want? Sometimes I only have maybe 4-5 gift seeds and stick to starting them under lights so I can get at least 2-3 plants out of them.

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

Kris, almost all of my tomatoes have germinated so far. I haven't done any other veggies aside from cabbage and they all seem to have germinated. My other summer veggies are direct sown. I don't bother starting beans or squash in containers since they don't transplant well. I do wait until the end of April to sow those, once the soil is warm to at least 55 degrees. It's better if it's even warmer.

gld said...

I had an elderly neighbor many years ago that started her tomato plants in a clump at the end of a row after it was warm enough. She just pulled up a handful, separated and planted them out. They were already hardened off. I keep meaning to try a few.

Maybe this year I will remember.

Corner Gardener Sue said...

Hi Tom,
I hope your weather is warming up. We are finally supposed to get some 70s next week. I am so excited. I didn't get any seeds planted yet, and don't know if I will inside.

I am enjoying my new kitchen. I'm almost finished cleaning out the other rooms where I had things I didn't know what to do with. I am having to do some sorting.