paul - where the heck do you put 800 plants??

The county extension has 2- 20X20 greenhouse that they let our master Gardener group use.

The funds we raise are used to fund scholarships and grants to local community gardens.

sounds like a win/win situation to me. good luck

Paul,
Your fund raiser is a great! idea.

Happy Birthday, Paul!

I have been collecting tomatoe seeds,
but need to go through them and choose the ones for this year.

My list for this year is smaller than usual. But I'm hoping to have a good tomato year this year!
The only seeds I bought this year were a few Hybrids listed at the bottom. I had a hard enough time deciding what to grow from my seed box. LOL

Roger's Best Black
Sherrill
Brandyboy (H)
Magnum
Ky Beefsteak
Purple Russian
Black Moor
Brandywine (sudduth's)
Dad's Sunset
Golden Jubilee
KBX
Cherokee Purple
San Marzano
Wes
Black From Tula
German Red Strawberry
Henderson's pink Ponderosa
Earl's Faux
Adelia
Kellogg's Breakfast
Orange King
Sungold (H)
Black Cherry

These Hybrids are New to me this year

Black Pearl, according to burpee better than black cherry... we'll see
Orange Wellington
Porterhouse
Tye-Dye

I am glad that I am not the only one still deciding over which tomatoes to grow.
This week for sure under lights.
This zone 3 doesn't let us plant them out until June.

i'm in zone 6 and i don't them out until june also.

Mine usually go in the ground around Mother's day. Some years earlier, some years later.

Here are some of my plants. The flash on the camera combined with the lights make them look off color.

use your camera without the flash and you will get a perfect picture.

they look great

Yep, I know Frank, but I was in a hurry. ;)

o.k.

My Dad always started hundreds of tomatoes and shared them with family & friends. He seemed to have a real knack for great tomatoes. Since he always gave me a bunch of seedlings, I never started any from seed. Now that he has passed on, I had to start my own tomatoes.

The 1st few years, I tried some Hybrids that were more suited for Northern climates. My neighbor had requested some Heirlooms and wow, did that change things. Now I start over 25 varieties and really enjoy the huge selection.

I start them indoors, in March, starting with the late maturing ones since our growing season is quite short.

Then, after the 2nd set of leaves have formed, they are moved out the the greenhouse

Within a couple of weeks they really take off

By May they are in 1 gallon pots

Our nights are very cool throughout the summer, so I use these water tube insulators around each plant

By the mid July there are tomatoes ripe on the vine

3 months of fresh vine ripened tomatoes