New to growing your own tomatoes? This is the forum to learn the successful techniques used by seasoned tomato growers. Questions are welcome, too.
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#1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 142
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Last year was the first year I planted from seed. Due to a health emergency, I was unable to plant when I wanted, and didn't get the seeds started till May 2. On May 7, I had germination on most, including my sun cherry plants. I planted them outside in the garden on May 20. On July 31, the first sun cherry started turning orange.
This year, I planted the seeds on March 22. Into the garden on May 12. Yesterday, the first sun cherry tomato started turning orange. So it appears that planting the seeds five weeks earlier had almost no effect on anything, and it was just the week earlier in the garden that was reflected on the ripening date. This leads me to wonder if there's any reason for me to get my seeds planted early, and maybe I should just plant them at the end of April. |
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#2 | |
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a
Posts: 21,169
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In my zone 5 I didn't sow seeds until the first week in April, left a week for hardening them off and they were usually set out the first part of June, weather permitting. So I know exactly what you are referring to, been there, done that and changed my seed sowing time to better reflect reality. ![]() Carolyn
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Carolyn |
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#3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
Posts: 7,068
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I was late getting my plants out due to late freezes. I planted one bed on the 8th of March and another on the 25th of March. There was very little difference in the time I started getting ripe fruit from both beds. In fact the first two varieties to produce ripe fruit came from the bed planted 3 weeks later but the earlier bed had more plants producing ripe fruit on average a week earlier. The real benefit of having some plants in the ground early is if the weather heats up unusually quickly. If that happens the plants set out earlier have a real advantage over the ones set out later. That is why I like to stagger my planting.
Bill |
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