Kitchen Garden Seedlings.. 4.6.2021

These are seedlings for the tomatoes that I was overthinking.  There are Roma sauce tomatoes, nonhybrid determinate heritage types that I wanted to grow and save the seeds.  I got them growing before April 15th, which is usually my deadline to start tomato seeds.  The dwarf tomato varieties all germinated as well - Brandy Fred, Tanunda Pink, Dwarf CC McGee, Extreme Bush (not a statement about political families, just a tomato), Dwarf Johnson's Cherry, Dwarf Improved Champion, and Alpatieva 905A all germinated.   I usually plant several seeds for each, and most of the cells have more than one seedling.

I planted the cilantro and lettuce seedlings in a raised bed.  Both should be OK even if there is a frost.  Also in both cases, there are seedlings germinating in small rows that I direct seeded a few weeks ago.  Those are smaller.  It's interesting that the latest cilantro had very poor germination inside, but the seeds that I planted directly into garden soil are looking better.

The tomato seedlings  that I started earlier are getting too big to keep indoors, but the weather is not warm enough to plant them.   I knew there was a chance of that when I started them.  However, my mental state needed the optimism of starting tomato seeds, so there you are.   I have a few ideas.  First, planting some of the hardier seedlings in the garden will clear up some space on the plant shelves and reduce my trips taking them outside in the am and inside in the pm.  Second, most will go into larger conatiners soon.

 

 

Third, maybe I can plant a few tomato plants outside with protection.  I've used these "Wall'o'water" covers in previous years.  They do the job.  Awkward to work with but they do work. The sides are plastic that has been bonded so they can be filled with water.  One shelter holds about 4 gallons of water.  The sun shines through the water so the plant grows.  The water absorbs heat during the day, and releases it at night, warming the plant.  It's OK as long as the plant doesn't outgrow the covers.  When the nights are warm enough, I can remove the covers.

 

I set up two, and have a soil thermometer inside so I can see how warm it gets, especially at night.  If the soil is above about 50 inside these in the am, I can plant three of the tomato plants.  I also ordered three more covers, which Amazon states will come in about ten days.