"Pat Kiewicz" wrote in message
...
Dr. said:

Ah... another question. I read that you should sow tomato seeds 6-8 weeks
early when starting them indoors. At the 6th week, the plants were
gigantic,
and it was still too cold to plant. They weren't leggy.. just HUGE, with
the
roots growing through the sides of the 3" diameter peat pots.

Don't start them any earlier than 6 weeks before...unless you have a
greenhouse and plans to pot them up into bigger containers.

No greenhouse as of yet... though I've been pondering the idea. Next year
I'll start them 6 weeks early. Considering how large those plants were, I'm
surprised how well they're doing. I was planning for the worse, and started
a 2nd batch with 3 weeks left to planting. Those ones are doing ok, though
they haven't caught up to the first batch. I couldn't manage to give away
quite all the extras, and I couldn't bring myself to snuff them, so they're
a little crowded.


I think I may know what I did wrong. I started them in my basement, which
is
kinda cool.. as basements tend to be. I left them on the heat mat the
entire
time. I'm thinking those seedlings may have grooved a little too much on
all
that heat. The light was always withing a couple inches of the top of the
seedlings. They just got happy.

Next year, should I remove the heat mat right after they germinate?

Yes. And run a fan (or fans) on them to give them a little movement.
Toughens
the stems.

That I'll do also. The larger seedlings had a tough time standing up on
their own.


Planning for potting them up bigger at least once might also be in order.

I've been picking SunSugar and 4th of July for a couple of weeks. Also
Ruby
(which I like to dry).

Thanks, I'll check those out.


Also had my first hornworm in years. YUCK! It was bigger than my index
finger
and I have pretty big hands.

I'd never seen one of those before, but looked it up. Nasty looking critter.

So far I've been lucky. The only insect problem I've noticed so far with my
tomatoes is ants, which I had last year. So far this year, I haven't seen
any.

Last year I had a rabbit get in and destroy my 4 Roma seedlings, which I
started. At least it was just the Romas, and not something like my 1884s,
which I couldn't buy a replacement for. The rabbits can't get in the garden
anymore. In retaliation, it seems they've decided to trash my wife's flowers
in the front of the house.

Gary


--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)