So Texans, Where do you Stand on Tomatoes?

[karstopography]

@PlainJane yes, I am and no, I have not.

[karstopography]

As it is now, I have, including cherry/saladette/grape types, six pinks, six reds, four darks, three yellows, two bicolor, and one each of white, green while ripe, and orange. Days to maturity range from 55 (Matt’s wild cherry) to 90 (Lillian’s Yellow). I’m planning on keeping the overall number I eventually grow to fruiting under what I did last year (29) and to give each plant a little more growing space once they get in their raised beds. Four are hybrids (Beefmaster x2, Big Zac, and Sungold).

The idea is to get an abundance of quality and varied tomatoes to eat fresh, give away, dry or freeze starting from end of April or May and lasting into the year as long as possible. We had our final fresh Beefmaster yesterday on a ham sandwich. Nine months straight with fresh garden tomatoes was my best effort yet. Maybe this year I can get even luckier and get to ten months or beyond.

[karstopography]

75288A14-9C68-4B3B-B958-46D42A2B891F.jpeg

24 tomatoes and 48 peppers starts ready for the grow lights. I did the math and measurements and I should still be able to fit all 72 under the lights once they go to bigger 4” starter containers.

[karstopography]

2C89B1FD-4B99-49FA-9BC9-F4970541F544.jpeg

The roster as of January 4th.

[karstopography]

Thinking about adding another orange tomato besides Sungold. It will probably be Kellogg’s Breakfast from seed I saved from last year’s crop. Might add another dark one too. True Black Brandywine or Black Krim, it’s hard to decide between the two and even tougher to tougher to stay under 25 plants, my pre-season ceiling.

I figure something won’t sprout or there’s going to be an accident or two, better to have some spares.

[karstopography]

62B92CF9-4B21-490C-8DB8-A67A9BA51017.jpeg

Added six more to the list and each have been planted as of this morning in starter containers.
New additions, pink- dester, dark -true black Brandywine, black Krim, and rosella, orange- persimmon and Kellogg’s Breakfast,

Underline means potato leaf (except Sungold, forgot to change that one) bold and italics means small fruited. Numbers next to variety, some published source on days to maturity.

Figure there will be causalities between now and going into the raised bed time, better plant some spares.

[SpookyShoe]

This year I'm going to be buying my tomato starts from various local nurseries instead of growing them from seed. I always seem to be able to cobble together a great variety. I'll be planting around the 1st of March, weather permitting.

[AlittleSalt]

Where do you stand on tomatoes? I see 2-year-old 5 gallon buckets of MG and Pro Mix still in place after giving up in 2020. There's seed starting mix from 2020 and 2021, and seeds from trades years ago. Not telling gardening truth is like lying to your doctor.

[Harry Cabluck]

Hope to start heirloom seeds indoors before Jan. 15 for transplanting into the garden here in south Austin. Hope to start Maxifort rootstock seeds about a week later. Last year was such a bust, refuse to believe that 2023 would be worse. Wishing all a great new year.

[karstopography]

Planted on January 2nd, have two up today, Sungold and Pruden’s Purple. They might have been up yesterday, but I wasn’t around to see. Expect many more up tomorrow.

[Harry Cabluck]

Spooky!!!! Thanks for chiming in. Hope that you and yours are doing well.

[karstopography]

Looks like 11 seeds have sprouted as of 6pm today.

[karstopography]

13BF84AA-D3D0-467D-9E04-D164EFAC0557.jpeg

I counted 11 sprouts, not counting multiples.

[AlittleSalt]

I got delayed. I had 3 days of getting stuff done, but I fell on the third day, I'm getting better 4 days later. I'm hoping to find some blue seeds, some PWR, and who knows. I haven't looked yet.

[Harry Cabluck]

Seed start.jpg

Sown today, Jan. 11, 2023. Heirlooms and hybrids, three seeds in each of 18 cups. Favorite variety is "Sioux," followed by "Mr. Blackstone's Cherokee," "J.D.'s Super C-Tex," "Jaune Flamee," "Charley's June Bug" and others, including "Celebrity," to be on the safe-side. Wishing everyone a successful 2023 season.

[karstopography]

F4C901A2-6F99-4AB6-A3C6-0E60377B6D43.jpeg

16DFA3F7-1A79-491F-BABF-EA505475309F.jpeg

Everything tomato wise seeded on January 2nd is up except Polish and Aunt Ruby’s German Green. Most cells I put two seeds occasionally three or four might have been seeded. Hoy and Kellogg’s Breakfast both came up and that’s from seed I saved myself from 2022 so evidently I know how to save tomato seed. The tray with the six was seeded a few days later, maybe the 5th.

It’s sunny and in the sixties today but windy as sin so I’m leaving them outside for now. They are somewhat protected from the wind. I might move them into the lee of the wood pile to add more wind protection. I will have to bring them in tonight as we are due for 40° or so.

[karstopography]

6FED181B-3BEB-4581-AF33-3BCFE6DB9F66.jpeg

A little too chilly outside today for the seedlings. Something like 40 tomatoes up and growing and planted a few seeds more three or four days ago. I’ll shuffle these around some in hopes that they all get the light they need.

Been unusual this season as the mild weather has allowed for them to be outside more than inside. Pruden’s Purple, Bear Creek, and Gold Medal are the most robust seedling so far, but most every one else is looking good. Really don’t know at this point which ones will end up in the beds, but it is nice to have options.

[SpookyShoe]

Mild weather, yes. One neighbor has a blooming tulip magnolia and I have a blooming Carolina jessamine.
The nun's orchid are sending up bloomstalks and some green leaflets are sprouting on crepe myrtles. If Spring is indeed coming it's coming fast.

[karstopography]

7644EB73-F2E3-476E-A167-267154CC1A83.jpeg

43CF5D8E-0FB6-4CF1-A4AD-427996B65B3F.jpeg

I had to divide up the seedlings. A few now are in the garage. More will be later. I’m getting another grow light today. I have roughly 50 tomato seedlings and about 80 peppers. I’m going to see if I can keep most of them going. Some need to be divided and put into bigger containers. The garage contingent will soon swell in numbers. I’ll likely put most of the tomatoes out there as it is a little cooler than the house.

Maybe I’ll actually plant 20 or so tomatoes into the garden and twice the number of peppers. Whatever is surplus on the seedlings will be insurance against a late freeze or giveaways.

Anyway, I’m going to find out how viable the garage fitted with grow lights is for these types of seedlings. I’ll get a feel for how many seedlings I can support.

I planted Mega Marv, Leachko German, Domingo, Red Penna, and Portuguese Monster from the MMMM swap. The oldest seeds were Red Penna from 2017 and I believe I planted 5 seeds with three germinating. Not too shabby for five year old plus seeds.

[karstopography]

Upsized the tomato sets today to their bigger containers. Next stop will likely be the garden, hopefully in a month or so.

6AFC5781-4CE2-4C28-A52A-8801858B4E23.jpeg

I believe I counted 34 tomato sets in total, plus the five MMMM tiny seedlings I had planted two or three weeks after the others. Some of those five are multiples, so I might have 40 plus when all said and done.
I doubt I’ll plant all 40 or even 34 into the garden, but who knows, I don’t, what the final number will be.

With the bright sun filtered through a thin high cloud cover I thought that would be a good opportunity to get these sets into bigger containers. It might be borderline warm enough at 60°, but the copper fire ring adds a few degrees so I decided to leave them out there in the sun, especially since I doused them in weak fish emulsion.

Pretty pleased with the results on the sets so far. No sign of dampening off or anything ugly like that going on. I expect these will be pretty robust when it’s time to get planted, but hopefully not too big to manage.