Planting Tomato Seeds Today

Today was a day for tending to my tomatoes.  Between planting tomato seeds, re-potting seedlings and transferring larger seedlings to the garden, it’s been busy.  But a fun kind of busy, because the weather was gorgeous and it was nice being out in the fresh air and sunshine.

Tomato Varieties – Re-Potted

OK, first was transplanting some small tomato plants up.  These were seeds I planted about 3 weeks ago, and they were growing very strongly.  These were Supersweet 100, a hybrid indeterminate red cherry tomato.  Since I had 3 Supersweet 100 plants, I am running an experiment.  One I planted into its final container outside with the rest of the tomato plants.  Another I planted up to the next container size and left outside in a location with bright indirect light.  The final I planted to the next container size up, and I am keeping it inside, on a south-facing windowsill.

My next plant was a surprise.  Some of my 10-year old seeds for White Bush sprouted and one of the seedlings was going for the sky!  White Bush is, I believe, a determinate with ivory-colored skin and flesh; I didn’t save a whole lot of information on it so I am not sure (oops).  It’s an open-pollinated tomato.  So, I planted the strong one by itself the next container side up, and thinned the remaining to the two strongest and placed then together in the next container size up.

Then there was Yellow Cherry, another of the 10-year-old seeds.  It’s an open-pollinated indeterminate yellow cherry tomato (pretty obvious from the name), but seems like it will be a smaller plant than Supersweet 100.  I thinned the seedlings to the three strongest and planted them up to the next container size.

Planting Tomato Seeds – The Varieties

I also planted more tomato seeds today.  Two were for heirlooms, and one for a hybrid I’ve been wanting to try.

The first heirloom seeds planted were Kellogg’s Breakfast, an indeterminate beefsteak tomato with orange skin and flesh.  It’s a late season variety, so I don’t expect to be eating any of these tomatoes until sometime in May or June.  But I sure am looking forward to them!

The next was the heirloom seeds for the tomato variety called Pineapple.  These are the seeds I have planted for The Great Tomato Experiment, so it’s now officially underway!  Pineapple is a personal favorite, with the flesh being sweet and delicious.  Pineapple is a yellow tomato with red stripes on the skin and red marbling of the flesh.

My final tomato variety I planted seeds for today was Tomatoberry.  It’s an indeterminate hybrid tomato whose fruit is roughly the shape and size of a large strawberry.  A mid-season tomato variety, I expect to be nibbling on the first ripe fruits in late April.  Tomatoberry is supposed to be be really sweet and juicy; I guess I will find out in a few months!

Plants I’m Still Waiting On

Brandywine is taking its time at the moment; lots of seeds germinated (to my surprise) from the 10-year-old seeds.  The seedlings are still too tiny to re-pot though.  The same goes for Big Rainbow.  Both will likely be plenty big next week to re-pot to the next size container.

Celebrity Hybrid Tomato

I had planted some Juliet seeds last week, and when I looked this morning, nary a sprout.  I went about my morning chores, then all my garden work.  When I came back in a few hours later, I was surprised to see 4 seedlings!  Juliet is a grape-shaped cherry tomato, which I do so love to plant, seeing as they are practically foolproof to grow.

Before I leave for the day, here’s a photo of one of my first tomatoes in the garden, on the plant called Celebrity. The tomato is teeny-tiny at the moment, and hopefully it will be joined by others in the very near future.

That’s all for today; see you again tomorrow!