Out in the Garden

Ripe Tomatoes in June!

One of my gardening goals that I outlined in my 2007 Garden To Do list post was to have ripe tomatoes by July 1st. That means that sometime in the month of June, I what to see this in my garden:

This may not seem like a big deal to you southern gardeners, but I am in northern Kentucky - just 20 miles from Ohio. Around here we don't get to eat garden fresh tomatoes until the middle of August.

My birthday is on June 24th and I can't think of a better birthday present than a BLT sandwich made with an organic garden fresh tomato!

This may not be possible because I haven't done all of the things originally planned to achieve the goal. So what are the things I've done to accomplish harvesting extra early ripe tomatoes? It hasn't been easy and is actually pretty labor intensive.

I started with the tomato variety Early Girl which has a faster maturation than most. Jet Star or July 4th would also be good choices for extra early tomatoes. I sowed the seeds in a cell pack on Valentine's Day, two or three seeds per spot and put them under a shop light in the laundry room where it stays warm even in winter. After the seeds germinated, I thinned each pack to the strongest looking seedling. As soon as they had true leaves, I transplanted them to individual peat pots and put them under my main grow lights. After a couple of weeks, I transplanted the best four plants again to an even larger container. Then, on Easter,  I planted the best two to yet an even larger container.

Each time I transplant them, I place them deeper in the new pot because new roots grow from the buried stem. I trim off the lower leaves to be able to bury the plants even deeper. This intensive transplanting is designed to keep the plants growing as if they were outside. Plants will fill up the pots they are in and stop growing. That doesn't damage the plant for main season growing, but this operation is for extra-early tomatoes.

During the whole process, I try to keep as much light on the plants as possible. After transplanting up from the peat pots, it takes two shop lights just for these four early tomato plants. It becomes a bit of a challenge finding bigger containers each time. My intermediate containers were the plastic covers from a spindle of 100 CDs. The neat thing about that is that you could actually see all of the roots as they reached the outside of the container. One of my larger pots was an old child's sand bucket. When I use items like these, I drill holes in the bottom of the container for drainage and for bottom watering. I never spray water on any of my seedlings. I always bottom water by pouring water in the trays and letting the roots or peat pots soak up the water. Here's a photo montage of the steps I've just outlined:

 

The last indoor transplant took nearly an entire bag of soil-less mix per plant. I let them grow in these containers for a few more weeks but they quickly outgrew the light table and had to be moved to the floor.

 

This weekend I moved them outside to be hardened off and finally planted them outside yesterday!

I wanted to put black plastic down below them to warm the soil and build wood frames with thick clear plastic wrapped around them to act as night "greenhouses". I hope I don't need them and I hope the tomato plants were put outside early enough to still get ripe tomatoes in June. Cross your fingers for me!

I will keep you posted on their progress.

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03:59, Thursday, May 3, 2007 .. Posted by southernbelle

Wow! Thanks for sharing the great pictures! I hope you get that sandwich in time for your Birthday!

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07:32, Monday, May 14, 2007 .. Posted by ApplesofGold

WOW! I hope you get tomatoes for your birthday! It looks like you will with all the hard work and dedication you've put into it! I loved the pics and you've inspired me to try this next year. Holly