Data for my book - how you can help! and - about my book!

[Tormato]

Southwestern Massachusetts, and the tomatoes in my garden don't give a Fahrenheit what zone it is. 30 above or 30 below will kill 'em.

A very few early varieties get started early, about April 1st.
A few of my favorites get started mid-April.
The bulk of the varieties get started about May 1st.

Germination is indoors. The day they sprout they go outside (weather permitting) during sunlight, and back indoors at night. Over, and over, and over until it's time to transplant, about June 1st. No crud , and no hardening off.

Dr. Lve Apple

Who's searching for Craig's Ptato Leaf

[noinwi]

Well, I'm not in NW Wisconsin anymore, but since I don't even know if I'll have a garden here in the PNW this season, I'll give NW WI info.
Started seed typically late March indoors, potting up to 8oz cups, then to 16oz cups. Hardening off started late May, outdoor during the day(on the east side of building) and inside at night for a while before letting them stay out all night. Planting to permanent garden spot and/or containers the beginning of June. First harvest was always a crap shoot(July to August), depending on the Weather Gods(shear winds, t-storms, etc). Last season was still harvesting ripe toms in late September, but some seasons first damaging frost occurred in late August and I had to harvest a lot of greenies.

[WVTomatoMan]

West Virginia Zone 6:

- Start seeds indoors last weekend in March
- Mass plant in 4 packs
- Use heat mats and fluorescent lighting
- Transplant to 3.5 inch containers when 1st true leaves are developed
- Start hardening off 1st week of May
- Plant in ground weekend closest to May 15th
- Average last frost date is late April (20th - 30th depending on the source)
- Early varieties start ripening 4th of July week or the week after
- Height of season is late July through the end of August
- Indeterminate plants produce ripe tomatoes until killing frost which is around October 15th give or take 2 weeks

Good luck.

Randy

[socalgardengal]

My first time starting seeds so don't know if this will be of any help.
I'm zone 10. I started mine in mid January using the baggie method. Left them on top of the fridge til they germinated. Then I potted them up in saved yogurt cups using seed starting mix and set them outside. Once they looked a little leggy, I potted into 12 oz styrofoam cups up to the bottom leaves and used regular potting soil And there they have been ever since. Welk I did bring them in overnight 2 times because it was down to the low 30's. They look beautiful and healthy. LOL, I'm so proud of myself! Ready to pot up again this next week using 32 oz styrofoam cups then I should be planting out in April

[chalstonsc]

Plant multiple seeds of same variety in 2oz. cups on the third day before the full moon in January.

Separate seedlings and pot up once into 20oz. or 32oz. plastic drink and yogurt cups, usually 15-20 days later after first true leaves have grown.

Put seedlings through cold treatment for two weeks plus

Plant out last week of March, 1st or 2nd week of April, depending on when 10 day forecast shows no chance of frost.

Have planted Fall crop anywhere from late June to beginning of August, which yields some but way below Spring crop.

[RebelRidin]

Mid Atlantic - Maryland Zone 7a

Typically:

Dense seed in starter mix 1st to 2nd wk in Feb.

Pot up into 16 oz translucent drink cups (lets me see water penetration and root growth) using 50/50 seed starter/potting mix by 1st to 2nd week in March.

Plant out April 15 to May 1 depending on forecast.

First fruits by July 4. Peaks mid July through mid August. Fruits until frost but of lesser quality.

[janbee]

Easternmost California, USDA Zone 8a, average last frost on May 25.

I start seeds around Feb. 9 and usually pot up 30 days later. I plant out in the last week of March or the first week of April, depending on wind. (Our spring winds are ferocious and continue for days.) The day before I plant out, I erect walls of water where each plant is to go, partly to help warm up the soil a bit but mainly so I can tell which walls have leaks. When the plants outgrow their walls of water, I replace the walls with tomato cages wrapped top to bottom in row cover. When all danger of frost is past, I remove the row cover. The earliest I've harvested is June 1; the latest is July 2. I get fruit until first frost, which in the last four years has ranged from Oct. 9 to Nov. 7.

Looking forward to your book!

[Ms. Jitomate]

According to the USDA Gardening and Plant Hardiness Zone Map I am in USDA Zone 10a here in Pasadena, California. We can garden all year round.

This was my first time starting from seeds and I used your Dense Method, but I have been growing tomatoes for many years. I sowed my seeds on Jan. 2. I transplanted to 3” plastic bags on Jan. 27 & 28. I have been giving away to plant on the ground starting in March 5. I myself will plant them on March 18 this year. I aim for St. Patrick’s Day but we are expecting some rain. My harvesting notes are not that great because this is the first year I am taking down notes. But we definitely keep the tomatoes going until they look bad, sometimes into December because they still have fruit and December can be very mild weather. I start looking for new tomatoes in nurseries in September and I plant nursery grown tomatoes for winter. I started harvesting these tomatoes in February. This was an unusual cold winter so these took a longer time to ripen than previous years.

I hope this helps you.

[BigBrownDogHouse]

Northern Illinois- Mchenry County
About 12 miles south of the Wisconsin border.
We were 5a but recently were changed to 5b.
Smidges of our county remain 5a.

I plant 40 seedlings at a time in a bio dome and grow for several folks so I have already started my first 40 and will plant up as soon as possible to restart the next 40.
First to second week of March is my usual start up time but have started in Feb.....plants got way too big before I was able to plant out starting that early.

Last Spring was mild and was the earliest I have ever planted out since growing tomatoes(about 8 years now). I planted out around May 15th. The past few years before that I was hesistant and didn't plant out until Memorial Day or maybe a few days before.
There can be frost warnings in this area up to Memorial Day give or take a few days....not every year but some.

Last year was my earliest plant out date and I of course got tomatoes the earliest I ever have, the last few days of July. Those were cherry size/golf ball size.
Larger toms for me will usually start hitting first week of August into mega production mid week of August.
Can usually pick until late Oct/early Nov until the frost hits again.

[Worth1]

Wow I figured someone would post about my area but to no avail.
I guess I will start out saying it is a tossup from year to year as to when and how the tomatoes are grown here.
I live in what is called Zone 8b.
The central Texas area I live in has many climates and can change greatly in just 40 miles or so.
If you live North West of the Balcones escarpment the weather is colder in the Llano and Mason area.
Austin is located right on this escarpment so from one side of town to the other you may or may not get a killing frost or freeze.
I live around 30 miles southeast of Austin and we don’t get nearly the amount of killing frosts as do the folks just a few miles north of me.
So with that said and for the area I live in I start my plants indoors the last week of December.
There they will stay until they are around 6 inches tall.
If weather permitting I will put the plants outside and only bring them in if there is a killing frost or freeze on the way.
Depending on how the weather is acting I will put my plants in the ground anywhere from the last week of February to the middle of March.
At plant out time they are from 12 inches to 18 inches tall.
I will start harvesting from late April on in to June depending on the variety.
Fruit set comes to a halt also depending on the variety and the type of year we have anywhere from late May to early June.
Of course the cherry tomatoes will chug along until the summer gets at its very hottest with temps in the 100’s.
I have found no reason or desire to plant a second crop.
By the time the weather cools enough in late summer before the fruit can ripen it will surly have just one cold night usually in November that will kill the plants.

Craig I hope this helps and by all means ask me any specific questions you may have in an email PM or right here.
Good luck with the Book.
Best wishes,
Worth

[Pyrrho]

Kentucky, Zone 6B

I start seeds in late February (a slightly-less-than-dense seeding method) and pot up into small cups in early April.

I harden off seedings as soon as weather permits. This normally happens around the 3rd week of March.

The rule around here is plant out on Derby Weekend (a.k.a. the first weekend in May).

I don't grow many early varieties, but I start harvesting most varieties in late June/early July. I can get tomatoes as late as November, but nights get cool starting in September, so the flavor goes down hill at that point.

I hope this helps. Best of luck with the book!

[huntoften]

Zone 6b...south Kansas City, Missouri
Start seeds around Mid-February using your dense planting method.
Under fluorescent lights until mid-March then transferred to greenhouse with only night-time heat to keep temps above 40 degrees.
Potted up to 10oz cups in late March and kept in greenhouse until early April.
Moved outside on rolling carts in April and brought inside on nights when temps get in the low 40's or lower.
Plant out fully hardened plants that are 8-10 inches tall and stocky the first two weeks of May.
Harvest starting in late June for early varieties (Stupice, Kimberly, and some cherries)
Main harvest in mid-late July through mid-August. Second harvest in September and October through first frost in late October.

Can't wait for the book! What will it take to get a signed copy?!?!?

Craig,

According to the USDA climatic zone chart, I am in zone 8A. Until about two years ago, I was in zone 7B. I didn't move my garden, they updated the zones with more recent data.

In North Texas, I am truly in a two garden per year zone. I have an early summer garden by planting my tomato seeds near Christmas each year. After germinating, the seedlings grow under lights until early March when I plant them outside in the soil. I typically must cover my plants two or three times until mid April to protect them from frost damage. My spring harvest starts in mid May and continues into Mid July. From mid July, the high summer heat causes my entire garden including my tomatoes to either die or enter a non productive state resembling hibernation. In late July I can start planting many tomato seedlings which I began germinating in mid May for my fall garden. The new seedlings usually don't begin growing until the summer heat starts declining in mid to late August. While the newly planted fall seedlings grow very little in hot weather, I've always believed the plant roots must be growing well beneath the soil in preparation for the fall growth spurt. They continue growing and producing well until the first frost of fall arrives in late October or early November.

I've never really determined if the actual heat of summer or the length of daylight plus the angle of the sun causes the end of my spring garden and the beginning of my fall garden. The two distinct growing seasons usually provide tomatoes, from the same plant varieties; which are quite different in size, volume, and taste. The spring and fall gardens are also attended by very different insects and diseases. My spring tomatoes must contend with many foliar diseases which seem to thrive in cooler, more moist weather. I have very few insect problems in the spring. My fall garden has almost no foliar disease, but stink bugs, grasshoppers, and aphids are very active and destructive.

Ted

[Torquill]

Hi, Craig. I'm in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area, which has more extreme temps than most people expect of the SFBA; USDA has me as a Zone 9b, Sunset Zone 15.

I start seeds on Feb 14 (average last frost date), pot them up around March 7 (last frost warning), and plan to plant out at the end of March... I'm a little more conservative than most of my local friends, but early March more often than not still has low soil temps regardless of the weather, and I've gotten some stunting if I plant too early -- the peppers are especially unforgiving. I may move those dates up by about two weeks if these new raised beds give me warm soil earlier than the native clay does. I can plant up until Memorial Day, but after that new starts fry in the heat.

I generally harvest main-season tomatoes by the end of July, then continue through until they get wretched-looking around Halloween. I can still get cherries and green tomatoes until the first frost (late November most years, Christmas several years ago) but the fall rains after the summer drought tend to crack most of the large tomatoes beyond repair.

I look forward to hearing more about your book! I've thought several times over the past decade about your trials and tribulations with pot-culture and Fusarium, and wondered how things were going out there.

--Alison

[Ken4230]

Craig, good luck with the book. I never have enough to read. I'm only putting out about 60 plants this year and have done it this way for many years and have had really good luck with it.
My second planting is usually Rutgers, Jet Star or Big Beef but the way the weather is going, i may need some more heat-tolerant ones.

Jan. 15.....Start half doz. early tomatoes, 2 seeds per 2 in. pot in good potting mix, straight vermiculite used to cover the seeds. (my grandmother used sand to cover her seeds)
Feb. 1......Start rest of tomatoes and place in insulated coolers with handwarmers until germination.

Feb. 7......Place under lights 16 hrs per day in unheated upstairs room, 60 deg. and under.
Mar. 1......Transfer pots with plants to larger pots and start weak fertilizer plan.

Apr. 1......Plant out early tomatoes. no hardening off of tomatoes. Cloches are used and sometimes doubled.
Apr. 15....Start staggered planting of rest of tomatoes. all in ground by Apr. 25. If not needed, my insurance plants are given to friends and neighbors.

Apr. 20....Repeat for second planting, usually in the ground directly under heavily pruned existing plant by June 15th. Existing plant is removed as late as possible.