Thursday, February 11, 2010

Tomato germination


Annndddd, they're off! We've got tomato germination, friends.

Last year, I started seeds at the very end of January. This year, I held off till February 2. A friend who lives "in the valley" made me wonder if I'm behind...she started hers the 2nd week of January! The only varieties that haven't germinated yet are Sungold F3 and Paul Robeson. I actually talked to them last night, in an effort to persuade them to sprout. It's a scientifically valid method, especially as I am female, or so I hear.

I'm planning on growing 18 plants, but I started 24. Six are alternates. In case one of my "first string" plants has a problem/injury, I'll put in alternate who is sitting "on the bench".

Here is a list of my varieties for this year. If I'm growing > 1, there will be a number in parenthesis:

amish gold (4)
black cherry
black zebra
camp joy
costoluto genovese
green zebra
japanese black triefle
lahman pink
paul robeson (2)
poland II (2)
principe borghese
sungold F3 (2)

8 comments:

Stefaneener said...

I didn't plant Principe Borghese this year because I was so overwhelmed. And I just started my tomatoes, so I feel very restrained. I've got to get some paste seeds, though. I don't want to do Amish Paste again.

Muhammad khabbab said...

hoa, you are growing lots of tomato varieties. Women talking to them makes them grow faster???? That is interesting.

Jackie said...

Stefaneener, so you didn't like Amish Paste? That doesn't bode well for Amish Gold...and I planted 4 of them! Did you not like Principe Borghese last year either? Or did you just have too many varieties to choose from?

Muhammad, talking to the tomatoes was (mostly) a joke for me :)

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

Congratulations on the sprouts Jackie! We're a bit behind this year, only just planting ours now. We decided to skip the Amish Gold this year and fell back to just plain Sungold (the only hybrid we're growing this year). We won't have a shortage though, and we are growing a couple of oxheart tomato varieties this year for something new. Have you tried growing any oxhearts here on the Central Coast? I hope they do well. I'll have to post a tomato update when I get back from conference next week!

Jackie said...

CVF, so you didn't like Amish Gold, either? I thought it would really be a great-tasting paste tomato... I haven't tried any oxheart varieties - best of luck with yours!

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

We've never grown it, but might try Amish Gold next year. We rather chickened out. We're growing a number of varieties that we've never grown before...and I needed the comfort of knowing we'd have one reliable performer we could count on that's proven itself here before. Space is a little tight here...and narrowing down Tomatofest's selections from 600 to 8 was challenging enough!

Town Mouse said...

Oh, congratulations! Now I hope nothing bad will happen... and there will be lots of tomatoes this summer. Enjoy!

Dirty Girl Gardening said...

nice... can't wait to see them produce!