Getting one or two plants going really early

[tam91]

This year, the nice man who lets me garden on his property bought an Early Girl and Sweet 100 that were several feet tall when planting time came. They did produce earlier, but weren't very exciting, especially the Early Girl. And he said they were expensive. I said I'd try to grow one or two big ones to produce early next year.

I have my little greenhouse, and a heater. Plus if need be, I could move 1 or 2 plants inside at night. Of course, I will still start them inside under the lights, then pot up eventually into a gallon or two size pot.

So my questions are - for regular size transplants, I started the seeds around March 7. How much earlier should I start them, to have 'monster' plants at plant out time?

What varieties would be recommended, that would be very early yet taste good? Probably best to have a red or pink for this one.

How warm would I need to keep them during the day?

[Redbaron]

You say they were earlier? Because I never had much luck getting bigger plants to actually produce any significant amount of time earlier than a 4 or 6 leaf transplant. The only real advantage I ever got was being able to plant deeper with a bigger plant. I like going for that early tomato but never had luck using bigger transplants.

What I have had luck with is making a small portable green house and transplanting early. Even an aquarium turned up side down over the plants or a mini A frame covered with plastic down the row. Or even plastic milk jugs cut in 1/2 over the seedlings to let me transplant early without stunting them. But it only works if the soil is warm enough.

[tam91]

Well they were earlier by a few weeks anyway. I hate to see him have to pay for a plant like that, so I wanted to give it a try myself.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by tam91

I hate to see him have to pay for a plant like that, so I wanted to give it a try myself.

Are you handy enough to make a cold frame? It's like a mini green house for starts. Then you could start 3 or 4 weeks early and when they get big transfer them out side in the cold frame. There are many ways. A friend of mine even did something as simple as sliding a large clear plastic bag over his tomato cages. The seedlings were still in pots though so if it should get really really cold he just brought them in over night.

[tam91]

Well I could build a cold frame. But I have a greenhouse with a heater - while they were still in pots, I was just going to put them there, and bring them inside at night if I needed to.

Is 3-4 earlier weeks soon enough?

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by tam91

Well I could build a cold frame. But I have a greenhouse with a heater - while they were still in pots, I was just going to put them there, and bring them inside at night if I needed to.

Is 3-4 earlier weeks soon enough?

I really don't know to be perfectly honest. I never had a fancy green house. I always had to make do with cheap or nearly free ways to "cheat" for that early tomato. Even when I had plenty of money and room for a real greenhouse I always tried to find home made cheap solutions. I guess I am a cheapskate by nature.

Theoretically you could even start them now though! Depending how huge you want the plants to get. He would end up with greenhouse maters!

One year another friend with expensive grow lights gave me his old winter plants and I pruned them heavily and stuck them in the ground in spring. I did get a few early Maters but several plants ended up dying and they were all stunted. So I never tried it again.

So honestly I don't know. 3-4 weeks was a guess. It's only a seed though. Why not try a few different times and see what works best?

[tam91]

I don't have a fancy expensive greenhouse, just a frame with plastic I put up in the spring, and a little electric heater. Certainly not good enough to manage the Chicago area winters! But it could be put up pretty early in spring.

[Sherry_AK]

Tracy -- If you're able to do it, I'd recommend taking cuttings from this year's plants to winter over. It requires minimal indoor space through the winter, probably a little supplemental lighting (or not, if you have a good south window for them), and can result in ripe tomatoes at least a couple months earlier than new seedlings. And there's practically zero cost to do it this way. I love zero cost!

Sherry

[tam91]

Hmm. Well I don't have a south window, so I'd have to mess around a bit with lights.

How big of a pot? And am I trying to get the thing to actually grow and flower or almost inside?

[Sherry_AK]

What I do is take cuttings toward the end of the season and root them in water (safer for me, since we usually go out of town in the Fall, and I don't worry about them going dry in soil). After they're well-rooted I pot them up to rather small-ish pots ... even as small as 2" diameter, but a little deeper than most pots (I buy the ones called rose pots which are about 2.25" square and I think 3" or so deep). This year I'm planning to use 24 oz. yogurt containers, which are larger, as an experiment. In past years, the first potting was in the smaller pots and then after the first of the year I've potted to the larger containers.

Last year is the first time I've given mine any supplemental light. And it did make a big difference. In other years I've just left them in a window (and we don't get too much light here in the winter). They can look pretty sad by Spring, but then when the days start getting lighter they suddenly perk up and start growing like crazy. That's a good time to pot them to a larger container. When I gave mine light last winter, I just used a shop light and put it about 6" over their tops and had it on only about 6 hrs/day.

I'd say they should at least have blossoms and be of good size in your zone by the time they can go outside. Mine are just moved to the greenhouse and usually have fruits on them by that time.

[tam91]

Interesting, well I have nothing to lose by giving that a try. Any variety or types of varieties that would work better? Only thing, I don't have any really early varieties.

Would this work better than starting a seedling from seed early?

[Sherry_AK]

Originally Posted by tam91

Interesting, well I have nothing to lose by giving that a try. Any variety or types of varieties that would work better? Only thing, I don't have any really early varieties.

Would this work better than starting a seedling from seed early?

In my experience, indet. varieties work better for this purpose. I've had pretty good luck with the several I've tried. I've had good success with varieties that are not ultra early. I've done it several times with Dwarf Project varieties.

I can't say for sure about whether this would work better than a really early seedling, but my feeling is that it would. These cuttings just seem to make a nice root system that gives them a good headstart.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

Sherry

[saltmarsh]

Tam91, don't you get strong and steady winds in the early spring. Protecting the young plants from those will be as important as protecting them from the cold. Claud

[tam91]

Claud, I'm not sure about the winds honestly. But they will be inside the greenhouse, so will be sheltered from any wind.

Thanks Sherry.

[kath]

I started 7 plants on 2/1 this year with the intention of keeping them in 5 gal. buckets for the season. They were kept under plant lights in our basement at between 58 and 60 degrees F. at night and a bit warmer during the day when the lights were on until there wasn't enough room because of later starts, at which time they were put in a greenhouse with a ceramic space heater- we kept it from going below 50 degrees F. and in the day we often had to ventilate because it gets too hot when it's sunny. I didn't record that date but it's probable that they were put in the greenhouse at about 5-6 weeks. By 2/27 They had filled 16 oz. drink cups and were 1' tall. Maskotka had open flowers on 3/17, Fruhe Liebe 3/19, Sibirskiy Skorospelyi, Zolotoe Serdste, Danko and Copper River by 4/2, and Favorite Holiday was the latest but heaviest setter. By 4/2 I had to tie all but Maskotka to bamboo sticks for support. Once they were in their large buckets, it was more trouble than usual to haul them outside every day and back into the greenhouse at night, but they were hardened off completely and stayed very healthy looking.

Plant out this year for these and 12 other early starts, which were started on 3/2 (Normally, I start my tomatoes around 4/1 because they get big really fast when it's warm enough to have them growing outside nearly every day from mid-April on.), was my earliest ever on 4/30 because of the extra warm spring weather and good 10-day forecast. By this time, I found that there was enough room in the garden to put the earliest plants into the ground which I much prefer because I don't have good luck growing in containers. So I decided to transfer them from their 5 gal. buckets to the ground even though they had big greenies by then- Maskotka was the exception and I kept it in its hanging basket. While it wasn't easy and I was worried about breaking them and how they'd do, it was all a big experiment anyway and I decided to risk it. Honestly, I didn't notice any problems with any of them- they continued to grow, set and ripen fruit and I didn't notice any difference between the determinates and the indeterminates; in fact, Favorite Holiday and Copper River were the latest to ripen of the earliest 7 plants.


The results were good enough for me that I'm sure I'm going to try this again this winter with at least Chello, Cyril's Choice, Yamal, Sungold, Work Release Paste and maybe a couple others. Not sure I'll start all of them on 2/1- maybe I'll try 2/15 with some of them so they aren't quite so large at plant out. I loved seeing blushing tomatoes on 5/1, though!

They were all ok as far as taste goes, but I liked Maskotka (cherry) and Sibirskiy Skorospelyi the best for being early and tasty. Fruhe Liebe was also earlier than the rest and a lot of people really like the taste. There are quite a few threads about which varieties are favorites for taste.