Hello, hivers and garden lovers!
It has finally reached that time of year for me again, time to start the seeds! I always start the tomato seeds first. I can't normally plant the plants into the garden until the end of May here, but I want to have decent size plants when the time comes. If I were to start them earlier in the year, they would get to big and spindley before I could get them into the garden. Last year, I was able to put the little tomato sprouts out in the greenhouse by the beginning of May, but I don't know about this year. We're having a miserable cold spring this year, last year, it was warmer earlier in the year.
I'm using a seed starter heat mat to start my seeds again this year. Last yer it worked really well with the tomato seeds as well as other seeds. it seems to speed up the germination of most seeds, and also seems to give better results. I placed the heat mat on the same shelf in my room as last year, it's the most convenient spot that I have right now.
Here's the starter tray and pots that I'll be using to start the seeds.
I was going to fill all the pots with starter soil in the house, but we had a sunny day and the greenhouse got warm enough to work out there, so that's where I did it. No sense making the mess in the house if I can do it out in the greenhouse.
This was my set-up.
Filling the pots with the seed starter mix.
After the little pots were all full, I watered all the pots to get the soil ready for the seeds. I brought the tray back into the house and put it on the heat mat to warm up for a day, and then I planted the seeds. I started with 3 different types of tomato, the Amish Paste, Blue Beech, another paste type that I had good luck with last year, and the Amana Orange tomato seeds. I wanted to get the Amana orange seeds started even though they're not a paste type because they're a longer season plant than the others that I grow. Giving them a head start would be good when it comes time to harvest tomatoes. I planted 6 seeds of each type. That way, if they don't all come up, I'll still have some plants.
Now, I just have to wait until the seeds sprout. Last year, it was 3-4 days for them to come up. Once this batch is up, I have to start the next batch of tomato seeds. Some of the seed packets I have are new, and some are from last year. I don't know how well last year's seeds will do, but I hope they're still mostly good. I guess I'll see by how well they sprout.
That's all I have for this post, thanks for checking it out!
I love the soil on this one, they seem to be very fertile.
That looks great!!!
keep us posted to results
Oh I like that warming mat! Great idea. I start my tomatos indoors near a space heater and a UV light, and just yesterday moved the sproutlings outside.
I'm pretty sure that it's going to be at least a couple weeks before I can move my sprouts outside, even just in the daytime. It's good to get them out in the sun when you can.
I've not started my tomatoes yet. I think it's scheduled for next Friday. I see your supervisor was on the job!
Yes, the supervisor tends to frequently be on the job... 😀
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I'm sure the tomatoe seeds will turn out well! Can't believe it is spring time already!