We are going to be starting a lot more of our own plants this year after seeing the prices last year. A lot of times I could buy plants at the farmers market for a very reasonable price, but last year it seemed I couldn't find all the ones I wanted.
I found this box of pellet starters at a thrift store for .50 and saved the plastic containers from deli purchases. They make great seed starters!
I bought this seed starter for $5 at Walmart. I was going to just buy some more of the pellets but they were almost as expensive as buying the whole thing.
Since we are growing several different varieties, I used a marker to label each row. Here's what we are growing:
Row 1 & 2: Homestead- det bush; likes hot humid condition, great for slicing/canning
Row 3 & 4: Rutgers- great for slicing or canning
Row 5: Siberian-det extra early
Row 6: Red Alert-det early heavy cropper, sweet, great salad tomato
Row 7: New Big Dwarf-det, dwarf pink beefsteak
Row 8: Sausage-ind, extra long paste, prolific, meaty, great for sauce or salad
Row 9: Money Maker-ind, likes hot humid conditions, heavy cropper
Row 10: Arkansas Traveler-ind, likes hot humid conditions, pink heavy cropper
Row 11: Ponderosa Pink-ind, huge pink beefsteak
Row 12: Monster-ind, huge red
All the seeds except for Homestead and Rutgers were received from a friend and cost me postage for her to mail them to me. The Homestead and Rutgers were .33 a pack.
All have germinated, now if I can keep them alive and growing until they are planted into the garden!
They're looking good. Last year we started some tomatoes from seed and we didn't think they were going to do very well at first, but then they did great.
ReplyDeleteWe are trying to start everything from seed this year except onions, garlic and, of course, potatoes. We figure that seeds are cheap enough to take the chance. If they grow, great. If not, then we'll buy plants if we have to.
Annie that's exactly what we are thinking too. If I dont get the seed to grow, I'll buy a few plants, even though I usually cant find the varities I prefer.
ReplyDeleteI don't use pellets but use carton cups instead - and reuse them since I don't tear it down but push the seedlings out without damaging cups. love your variety of tomatoes! we don't have such a long list of choices so I stick to beefsteak, brandywine, black krim and plum types. what else are you planting?
ReplyDeleteThose are looking great! We ran into the same problems last year, so hard to find the plants we wanted at the nurseries.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to get things started for this year! Come on Spring!
Blessings,
Jill
Jenny We want to plant okra, cucumbers, cantaloupe, a few different peppers (sweet & spicy), potatoes, onions, zuccini, pumpkins and watermelons. We will see how my time is now that I am back to working full time with an hour commute every day. It's been years since I have been away from the home for 10 hours a day and it's taking some adjusting to get used to it and get everything done.
ReplyDeleteJill Daylight savings time is this weekend for us. Move the clocks forward one hour, so that always helps kick spring off around here. lol