Have you started your tomato seeds yet? I started mine yesterday and let me tell you Bob, I am so excited!
Tomatoes and gardening are kind of synonymous. In fact, a couple people I know {I’m not naming names}, grow tomatoes because they think their garden wouldn’t be a garden without them–they don’t particularly like eating tomatoes, they just feel garden guilt.
I am not a huge fan of growing things we won’t eat, but luckily for me, I love me some homegrown garden fresh tomatoes. I love them fresh, as salsa, turned into pizza sauce--so I plant tons of them.
I have tried SEVERAL different varieties of tomatoes. Hands down, my favorites are the heirloom varieties. Their flavor could stop a tomater-hater in his tracks:
- Cherry Rainbow Blend {perfect for salads}
- Italian Roma {great for sauce}
- Ace {early and uniform}
- Cherokee Purple {the best tomato on the PLANET if you ask me!}
- Better Bush {early and a great slicer}
- Principe Borghese {for roasting and dehydrating}
- Green Zebra {LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one}
- Sun Gold {my daughter’s favorite!}
- Red and Yellow Pear {a classic, I have to grow them}
- Speckled Roman {great for sauce}
- Black Krim {The HH’s favorite}
- Pineapple {beautiful tomato!!}
- Glacier {very cold tolerant}
How to Grow Tomatoes from Seed:
If you can master growing tomatoes and peppers from seeds, pretty much all other seed starting will be a breeze.
It’s not that they are terribly difficult, it’s just that they like to be warm and don’t tolerate much abuse, so if life gets in the way and you neglect your seedlings, they’ll let you know by simply up and dying.
I always start my tomatoes indoors from seed. I like to plant them right around the first part of February–kind of as an early Valentine’s Day gift to myself.
Cheesy? Probably, but this is what happens when you spend significant portions of your day with only a Puggle as a companion. I start them early, and transplant them into larger pots a few times before they actually make it outside.
That way, by the time they are planted in the garden, they are decent sized plants, and ready to start producing.
To start seeds, fill your containers with grow medium. Water the soil in well. Plant 2-3 seeds per container, and push them about 1/8″ deep. Place your grow light about 3″ above the soil.
This will keep the seeds/dirt warm too. I like to cover my tomatoes until the seedlings emerge {I use the tray covers that come with my containers, but you could use plastic wrap with holes poked into it too}.
The cover helps trap the heat. Maintain the 3″ height on the grow light throughout their growth–moving the light up as needed when the plants grow.
When the seedlings are about 2″ tall, go ahead and thin them to one per container. Make sure to water them regularly. They don’t like to dry out much.
When are Tomatoes Ready to Harvest?
The tomatoes are ready to harvest when they have developed a full bright color appropriate to their variety. They will feel firm to the touch, but easily come off the vine with a slight pull.
Random Facts That Will Impress No One:
There are more than 10000 varieties of tomatoes grown around the world–which kind of makes my 13 choices this year seem small.
There is a festival called La Tomatina in Spain that celebrates tomatoes…by having the worlds’ largest tomato fight. People get to chuck 150,000 tomatoes at each other.
According the USDA, Americans eat right around 22-24 pounds of tomatoes each year–half of it comes in the form of ketchup and/or tomato sauce.
What varieties of tomatoes do you grow? How do you use them up?
~Mavis
P.S. For a seriously AMAZING collection of everything Tomato, I highly recommend you check out Tomatomania! It not only walks you through the entire gardening process, but it has 20 recipes for just tomatoes.
Lisa Millar says
That tomato you have in both hands is a monster!! What variety is that one?
The Russian Black is my new favourite, although I have one called “Tigerella” which I bought because the name took my fancy, and the first one is nearly ripe enough to finally taste test.
I do very poorly at starting tomatoes from seed. I think I need to carefully re read your notes above and try again.
Mind you they pop up by themselves and do just fine, and I am a whizz at growing them from laterals… I am just tomato-seed challenged! 🙂
I love the photos of the mix of tomato colours! So beautiful!!
I make tomato sauce, bbq sauce, tomato relish (which doubles as a great pizza base) salads of course, stuffed tomatoes (my fav), soup, mixed with other veg to drape over pasta or mashed potato!! Can’t have too many tomatoes!! I hate the part of the year when we don’t have any. I can’t buy them – they taste…. well… not like a tomato should taste!
Mavis Butterfield says
I’m holding a Purple Cherokee tomato. Russian black is a good one too! 🙂
Daedre says
I live in Michigan and won’t be starting my tomatoes until the last week of April (almost 3 months from now). Unless you live in the extreme south, I can’t imagine starting them this early! But then again, I know you have a greenhouse.
Mavis Butterfield says
You don’t start your tomato seeds until the last week of April? Wow!
Samantha says
Thanks for making a guide! I just moved into my house and was thinking of starting a vegetable garden so I joined a “Seeds of the Month” club…and realized I have no idea what I’m doing. lol. I’d look forward to more guides similar to this with different plants if you could please.
Also, if I don’t have grow lights, is the sunlight from a window enough? I have a feeling I’ll have to invest in some grow lights since I live in MN so it’s cold even by the window and I don’t want my poor little seeds to freeze, but I’m not sure exactly how much I want to invest into this new hobby.
Regardless, love this blog! :]
Mavis Butterfield says
Hi Samantha, I wrote an article about this a few weeks ago… grow lights are best in my opinion. Here’s a link to the article: http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/starting-seedlings-under-grow-lights-vs-natural-light/
Ellen in Clackamas says
I don’t have grow lights so do not start seeds inside. I have a really great nursery close by though where I get my plants the end of May. My favorites (so far) are sun gold, chocolate cherry and yellow pear for small ones and green zebra, mortgage lifter, Indigo Rose and Early girl for regular…I like a lot of variety. Last year was my worst year ever for growing tomatoes. It was just too hot I think…although other folks seemed to do fine.
Mavis Butterfield says
Indigo rose is a fun one to grow. Very pretty!!
Aretha says
I have changed allegiance to Sun Sugar, from Sun Gold. Both have a nice flavor, but the taste of “Sugar” and performance have pleased me.
Mavis Butterfield says
I’ll have to keep my eye out for those seeds.
Sue says
Ok Mavis! A lot of “grow medium” listed, what kind do you use?
Mavis Butterfield says
Miracle grow seed starting mix. I buy it at the Home Depot and it’s around $4.20 a bag for 8 quarts.
Gen says
Normally, we grow San Marzano, Big Boy, and sweet cherry tomatoes. Last year we also grew beaverlodge, they have amazing flavor for an earlier variety, we’ll be growing them again this year. I won’t be starting tomatoes from seed until the end of this month, and I can’t wait! lol
We make fresh & preserved salsas, tomato sauce, soup, pasta & pizza sauces, chopped and crushed tomatoes, etc…love garden fresh tomatoes on salad, burgers, etc…at the end of the growing season we preserve green tomatoes as well – pickled, curried, sliced for fried green tomatoes, and a few other recipes. YUM!
Phyl says
One of my new favorites is Azoychka, a bright yellow 6-8 ounce tomato. Better flavored than most yellow tomatoes and fairly early, around 60 days. I like it just because the color is so pretty when added to red tomatoes. This year I’m growing several determinate which really limits what’s available, Orange King, Black Sea Man, and Clear Pink Early, also Olpaka a paste tomato. I’ve never grown any of these before. Hope at least a couple turn out to be keepers!
Jackie says
Azoychka is one of my favourites as well! I live in zone 2b and it is always amongst the first to ripen. Love it!
Mrs. Chow says
We moved to a new place, so last spring was our first garden here. I planted several varieties, but the ones that did the best and were the tastiest were Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, and the one hybrid I planted, Better Boy. I over-planted last year and I am very glad I did because the soil in some spots is terrible.
Mavis Butterfield says
How are your fruit trees doing?
Mrs. Chow says
So far, so good! Some are doing better than others, and you learn through trial and error. For example, I did not know that I was moving to an area where red cedar rust, which also infects apples, is a problem. Now, I know, and after spraying the poor babies with copper fungicide, I ordered some rust-resistant varieties. I lost 40% of my raspberries, so I will be trying new varietals.
Jen Maldonado says
I have been counting down the days to get my hands in the dirt! This week I will be starting all of my pepper seeds and then tomato’s by the end of the month. We usually plant about 100 tomato and 150 pepper plants in our veggie garden all started by seed under grow lights until it is warm enough to move them to the outdoor greenhouse. I think my favorite variety over the year has been the Pantano Romanesco and Brandywine Pinks. We have had a pretty mild winter here in Central Illinois and I am hoping the groundhog was right this year…I’m ready for spring and unfrozen eggs from the coop!!
Phyl says
Has anyone grown Glacier tomatoes? How is the flavor? Would you recommend them for an early variety or is there something else you like?