The big tomato migration

[Alpinejs]

Still scheming on ways to get a head start on my Canada crop. Here is
my latest thinking and I am willing to hear criticism and suggestions.

I will start seedlings aboout March 1st in the little cubicles from Johnnies
(ala nctomatoman's video). I will then plant them to 4" plastic pots.
When they are about 8" tall, I will plant into a large McDonald's drink cup,
burying the stem up to the true leave. I am guesstimating it is now about
April 15th. I will transport them to Canada in clear plastic Rubbermaid type
bins holding 18 eachwith air holes drilled into the sides of the bins. Depending on weather, I may have to take them in
to motels at night.

Now, if all goes according to the plan, I will transport them the last 9 miles
via boat, place in my hoophous and as called for, will upgrade to 1 gal.
pots. This will be their home until close to June 1, when they will get
planted out to their permanent homes in 5 gal. and 7 gal. pails on the
floating docks. Frost is not likely in thatthe lake water is up in the forties
by now and heat rises, right? My optimistic assumption is that my 'maters
will be about 24- 30 " tall by June 1 plant out.

Okay, fire away with the suggestions. I have a tough skin and am amenable to anything that improves on my short season up there.

Oh, BTW, I will be transporting about 81 plants of which 10 are giveaways
to the locals. I sent seeds to the others in Christmas cards, so if they don't
plant them......TOUGH!!

[Worth1]

Why dont you just buy tomatoes from the grocery store?

You asked for it.

Worth

[amideutch]

Jim, I don't know what kind of setup you have for starting seeds or how you have done it in the past but 1 March is a little early to start seeds especially where they are going to end up. By 15 April your seedlings could be 14"-18" tall. Then your talking about another 6 weeks before plant out! You may need to rent a trailer to transport them and a extra room at your hotel stops.

I noticed the mean temperature in July for your area in Canada is 24.5 C. and you average around 9 hours of sunlight per day. So long season Indeterminates may not be the way to go. Early to mid season varieties may be the better choice.

The Dwarf varieties released this year would be a good choice. Victory seeds, Tatianas and Heritage seed should have most of them available. Especially if you are going to grow them on floating docks.

I use a 81 pellet Jump Start seed starter from HomeHarvest.com to start my seeds. I've been using them for the last 2 years with excellent results. Then transplant the seedlings to 4" Cow Pots using FoxFarms "Light Warrior" for the aggregate. The reason I like the Jump Start Pellets and Cow Pots is there is no shock to the plant when you transplant them. They are both biodegradable so you can transplant them directly in the ground or larger containers.

Here is a few pictures of my seedling grow out in 2008. The seeds were planted in the first week of March. First picture was taken 24-03-08, next was 26-03-08 and the third was 30-04-08 with the seedlings in Cow Pots. Ami

[Wi-sunflower]

I hate to throw a wrench in your plans, but you had better check with Canadian Customs before you move those plants across the border.

You might want to PM the member jungseed and get her take on things. She has a thread here http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=4325 about her migration from Wisconsin to her summer lodge north of Minn. She didn't take plants but had a neighbor up there start them for her. I'm not sure if that is the thread I was really looking for tho, so a PM would be better.

Anyway, while customs USUALLY doesn't bother SEEDS, they can be really a PITB about plants especially if they are fully potted (the soil is the problem). They don't want to introduce disease or bugs.

Carol

[bcday]

What Carol said. Find out what the rules are for bringing live plants into Canada. You don't want to have to leave your plants at the border after all the effort you put into raising them. Bringing pests or diseases across the border via potentially infested soil or potting mix is a different situation from mailing dry tomato seeds. Your plants might have to be bare-root or even have no roots. You might not be able to bring them at all.

[Alpinejs]

Wi-sunflower and bcday...I am aware of the border problems. Tomato plants are not the
problem. The problem is the soil they grow in. Soil is not allowed unless it is in containers
and all my soil is in containers on the floating docks. Beyond that, I don't even check into
customs as they don't open till May 15th and I get there in April. I have a Canadian
Rural Area Border Crossing Permit which is only issued in NW Ontario at four locations.
Believe me, the mounties have ways to make sure we follow the rules and, I, for one,
would not want to to violate any as I consider my guest ownership a real priviledge.
The customs officers are well aware of my "garden". LOL, one time a sealed bag of soil
got rejected even though it was packaged in Emo, Canada but was coming in from the
states. Occasionally, a rule seems unfair but is almost always cause by the states such
as suddenly requiring passports. Canada doesn't care except that you can't get back
into the states without a passport so they would be stuck with us if we didn't have one.

[Alpinejs]

ami.....your final picture (beautiful) is the size I would like for transporting except planted up to the big McDonald's cup (about twice the heighth and volume of soil). My hoophouse
in Canada is heated and the 1 gal. pots should suffice till the final plant out.....I hope.

You starter thingies look to be the same as our Jiffy Pots. Two yrs. ago, I had great luck
with them and poor last year. I may try again as I have a goodly supply. Do you guys
call them "cow pots" because the cows have added some fertilizer????

[Alpinejs]

Worth....I don't buy the tomatoes at the store as Minn. gets their tomatoes from Mexico,
Calif. gets them from Florida and Texas gets them from Calif. All are picked green and
trucked for days and taste even worse than okra!!! (not possible, eh?)

[carolyn137]

And I knew darn well you must have had some knowledge of Canadian Customs b'c I saw your pictures of the tomatoes on the floating dock at another site from last season.

And what a beautifiul area and what beautiful pictures they were.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Alpinejs

Worth....I don't buy the tomatoes at the store as Minn. gets their tomatoes from Mexico,
Calif. gets them from Florida and Texas gets them from Calif. All are picked green and
trucked for days and taste even worse than okra!!! (not possible, eh?)

Strange my store bought tomatoes taste like blue cheese or extra virgin olive oil and black pepper.

I love okra I even eat it raw.

Worth

[erlyberd]

Don't ever listen to anyone telling you when it is too early for you to seed your tomato! Only you can have the true answer to that! Period! Want earlier fruit then start them earlier!

Not sure what your really looking for as in answers...to what questions?

Seems like you have some interesting concepts going on there as in growing on hoop houses over docks?

I take it the growing season is short and you need/use early varieties. Not sure what your growing goals are, getting tomaters sooner, bigger faster???

Can you say house boat!

Not sure about you time line, seed in, plants brought to Canada, plants put in final pots etc.

[Alpinejs]

erlyberd....whew, lots of questions. I guess the main point of the thread is to find way to
transport and get the most advanced indeterminate seedlings as possible to Canada
about 4/27 or so. Suggestions as to growing containers, travewling containers, etc.
Last year, my tomatoes were getting ripe in mid Sept. Most guests and my organized
hikes are over after Labor Day Week-end. On many varieties, I didn't even get seed,
so I would love to push the date forward at least one month. My growing goals are
sampling many new varieties and a few old favorites and seed saving from those that
get my stamp of approval. BTW,.my hoophouse is on the shore and all the growing is
done in pails on the docks after serving their time in the hoophouse. One of many problems is that the trip up involves motel stops in Utah (Provo), Wyoming (Cody) and
Minnesota (Hibbing) and possible freezing night temps so all have to go into the motels.
Point being that finding the right carrying containers is a problem. Not sure what I am
looking for in the way of help, but Tomatoville people are very creative and who knows?

[amideutch]

The Jump Starts are made from Light Finnish Spagnum versus Standard peat for the Jiffy 7's and hold moisture better and don't dry out so fast.

http://homeharvest.com/seedstartingrootingmedium.htm

Cow Pots are made from Cow Manure and are the greatest thing since sliced bread. They are not only biodegradable but feed the plant as well. No transplant shock as the pot and plant are put into the growing media and a done deal. The roots grow right through the pot. There is no comparison between Jiffy Pots and Cow Pots as the Cow Pots are far superior in all aspects. Ami

http://www.cowpots.com/

[Wi-sunflower]

The problem many newbies have with Jiffies is that they don't bury them COMPLETELY. If there is ANY edge of the Jiffy showing above ground, it will wick the moisture out of the plant and can kill the plant.

Personally I don't use Jiffies because they are too expensive vs a plastic insert and too messy for transporting to and from markets. They tend to fall apart after a trip or 2.

Carol

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by amideutch

Cow Pots are made from Cow Manure and are the greatest thing since sliced bread. They are not only biodegradable but feed the plant as well. No transplant shock as the pot and plant are put into the growing media and a done deal. The roots grow right through the pot. There is no comparison between Jiffy Pots and Cow Pots as the Cow Pots are far superior in all aspects. Ami

http://www.cowpots.com/

I had good luck with the Cow Pots last year and will use them again since I have plenty left. I bought them from here as their prices are much lower than any I've seen so far:

http://[http://www.theonlinegreenhou...wpots.html.com