I love to WS tomatoes.

What will you be WSing?

T

Trudi,

I love to WS tomatoes too.

This years will be the same as last years seeds.

Purple Cherokee
White Wonder
Black Cherry
Xmas Grape
Sweet 100
Warren's yellow cherry
Large Cherry Red
Rutgers select

tiny tim in 8 inch pots

and my new one

Beef Steak

Fran

Several years back I did a nice planting of tiny tims to edge a kiddie pool garden. Tiny Tims are great croppers but I wasn't seeing as many toms as I thought I would--well, there was a reason.

I was watching Lizzy and she was inspecting the plants and nosing around underneath them, I thought she was just sniffing them, but NO, Lizzy was scarfing them down. I've grown lots of other cherry toms but I guess that Tiny Tim is dog-approved for best flavor in the garden, lol.

These are the ones I remember, from the list:

Blondekopfchen
Costoluto Genovese
Green Sausage
Green Zebra
Persimmon
Roma Paste

I also have some "Ruby" cherry tom seeds, and my old standby, San Marzano, from the past two years.
WHERE will I put all of them??? I had better get busy and create MORE lasagna beds! LOL

I'm a creature of habit with maters, mostly because I'm afraid of failure or that I may not like them so I usually stick with what I know have worked in the past for me. But this year I'm trying:

Mountain Belle Cherry
Cherokee Purple
Caspian Pink
Better Bush Early Girl-
Kellogg's Breakfast- tks for last years seeds Garden Scout
I've always had Better Bush and Early Girl but not as the same variety as the seeds from Totally Tomatoes.

These will all be WS, and accompany the 7 or 8 more common varieties purchased and ws.

I'm almost drueling! Great lists!

If anyone needs tomato seeds I have several available for SASE--you get to choose from a long list.

Here is a link that might be useful: Trudi's Exchange Page

Z5 people, when do you WS them? do you wait for the rest of the hardy annuals or do them now?

Thanks
Linda

Linda,
This is the first year I am WS toms. I plan to start w/ the longest season ones on March 1, and go on from there every couple of days put out another 10 or so. We'll see tho!

This will be my first year to grow tomatoes from seed too, so I am going to WS some, and sow a few indoors as backups. Our last frost is usually towards the end of May, so I'm thinking that the ones I'll be doing indoors should be sown in a couple weeks. Does that sound about right?

Anyway, the problem is that thanks to Trudi, and a couple of generous traders on the Rocky Mountain Gardening forum, I have 20 different tomato varieties, and only room for about half a dozen plants! So I keep going back and forth about which ones to sow.

Here is my tentative list (be aware, this is subject to change without notice, LOL):

Azoychka
MiniBush Yellow Cherry
Moskvich
Roma
San Marzano
Sungold
Supersweet 100's

Okay, here is what else I have, tell me if there is something I should add, or plant instead of the ones listed above.

Burracker's Favorite
Black Plum Paste
Campbells 1327
Chico III
Earl's Faux
Galina's Yellow Cherry
Golden Jubilee
Heinz 1439
Kimberly
La Rossa Paste
Lime Green Salad
Monomakh's Hat
Noir de Crimee

What I am aiming for is two or three paste types for cooking, some sweet cherry types for fresh eating in salads, and maybe one slicer type.

I know everyone's tastes are different, but since I haven't grown ANY of these before, I'm hoping some of you can tell me what your experience has been with some of these.

Also, if I'm using 2L bottles, how many seeds should I sow per container?

Thanks,
Bonnie

Bonnie, I usually sow my seeds into styrafoam cups and put two or three in each. Sometimes two or three sprout but as I'm often growing out my oldest packs of tomato seeds I may only get one or two sprout. I can transplant them separately or just take the one with the largest root system in the cup. I said the largest root system, not the largest seedling, because it's the roots which are more important early on.

T

Ah love WS tomato seedlings.

my favorites are

Kelloggs Breakfast
Sun Gold
Rutgers
Black Cherry
Taxi
German Red Strawberry

any time now for zone 6 works for me here. I just keep a eye on them if they spout before the last 32 degree night. Once they sprout put the jugs in a unheated room to keep them from frozen at night. Also have planted in the ground earlyand tossed a towel over the milk jug cover with a ring of water jugs around the plant. The key is to keep them from freezing after they sprout.

ML

Linda, I'm in zone 5 MA, not far from the NH border. I sow my tomato seeds starting the 1st week in April and finish the second week in April.

Like Trudi, I sow them in 12-16 0z styrofoam cups. I punch a hole in the bottom of the cup with my finder, fill the cup about half full with miracle grow potting mix but I only put 1 seed in each cup. then I sprinkle just a little bit of soil over the seed. Then I slip a ziplock sandwich bag over the cup and cut slits in it for air holes. I write the name of the tomato seed on the outside of the cup with a paint pen and place the cups in an old tray from a nursery from the days when I bought my seedlings in the spring (haven't bought those seedlings since the spring of 2002).
I put them outside in full sun and let them do their own thing.

Something new I tried last year was to add additional soil to the cups as the seedlings started to get taller. By doing that, the stems would get covered more and develop more roots and make an even stronger plant, so I thought.
It sure did, I never had such sturdy and healthy tomato seedlings, even from WS them, before last year.

I also found by filling the cups only half full, I had plenty of room in the cups to take out the seedling and add more soil to the bottom of the cup if the seedlings got a bit too tall and needed some extra soil and I hadn't had a chance to get them planted. Some of the containers I needed to do this with.

Last year I put all of my tomato plants in large pots to grow instead of in the ground. Each plastic pot held 1 1/4 cubic feet of soil and I filled them with nothing more than miracle grow potting mix. never fertilized them after that and they where all in full sun. None of the tomatoes I grew where meant for pots so they had lots of staking to poles.
It turned into my "tomato jungle" and with the incredibly warm fall we had, I was still picking tomatoes that where ripening on the vines until the 1st week in Nov. Then I stripped the vines of all he remaining tomatoes and brought them in the house to ripen. I had at least 100 of them that all ripened into the middle of Dec.

Fran

I planted the tomatoes on June 3.

Pics of my tomato plants from last year.

planted in pots on june 3rd
{{gwi:356441}}

july 4th
{{gwi:356442}}

Aug 4th
{{gwi:356443}}

labor day weekend
{{gwi:356444}}

Oct 31st
{{gwi:356445}}

bonnie, definitely try black plum. it's been one of my favorites the past couple of years.

Nice pics, slow growth for the first month as plants got established, but wow the next two they really exploded. I can't believe how green and lush your mater plants are on Halloween, mine were pretty much all done well before that and I'm a bit warmer than you. I like how the middle pot grew a flag on the 4th of July.

Trudi, I would love to try more WSing of tomatoes. I plan to have 50 plants this year. I prefer canning tomatoes...pineapples, reds, whites, zebras, etc, as well as paste tomatoes. A few cherry tomatoes would be fine also.

I don't even care what the varieties are...put a few of each in a baggie and whatever the seeds produce will be fine. I do prefer relatively blight resistant varieties though

I like the styro cup idea. I ccould use the red 16oz plastic cups couldn't I? And you say 1 or 2 seeds per cup???

Mark-

Great pictures. I have a question. Once the tom seeds have germinated using WS technique-- you still have to wait until your frost free date to plant them out, correct?

Jessica

Jessica
Threat them just like any other tomato seedling you have. Plant them out at normal times in your area. Also suggest not to let them freeze when the temps dip after they sprout. I just move the tomato seedling jugs in a unheated building like a garage at night then put them back out during the day. They tend to sprout here before the last freeze date.

ML

Wow, lots of neat varieties mentioned.

I WS'd the following tomato seeds yesterday:

White Snowball
Oxheart
Yellow Pear
Beefsteak

I also sowed a few purple bell pepper and jalapeno pepper seeds. I didn't try peppers last year, so this will be a new experience.

My container is snugly under fresh snow this morning.

I am going to try a short season pepper (fastest maturity time I can find) I also plan to sow another flat of peppers indoors next week, depending on how the current flat is doing. If I still have no germ in a week I will re-sow all the peppers. I think I might have good germ though, so we'll see I guess.

I only have 2 varieties of tomatoes right now, so I will WS 1/2 and start 1/2 indoors this year. I already WS'd the toms I got in the SASE Intro to WS mailing. While they may take another month to reach maturity, I fully expect that the WS'd tomatoes will end up with production equal to or better than those started indoors.

I'm already starting to plan next years garden and plants I will try to WS next winter. Even if many plants don't do well this year, I hope to have things planned much better for next year, and to WS even more things.

Hey Trudi and Fran,

Are you guys using the styrofoam cups because it provides more protection than the milk jugs or 2L bottles? Or so that each plant will have its own little pot? I have tons of 20 oz. water bottles, but no styrofoam cups on hand. If there is some benefit to using those though, I will go and purchase a package of them.

Oh, and one more question. I am a tomato newbie, and want to know what the black tomato varieties taste like. Are they sweet, or acidic? Why are they so popular? I still haven't narrowed down my list, and I actually just made a couple more trades, so I have 3 more types to choose from:

Thessaloniki
Kellogg's Breakfast
Stupice

This seed trading thing is worse than the WS addiction, LOL!

Bonnie

Bonnie, I usually grow several dozen different tomato plants each year. During the middle of the winter I sit down and name into the rim of the coffee cup with a ball-point pen, and I poke a small hole in the bottom of the pen too.

I don't use styrofoam for any extra protection, it's just as cold in that cup as it is in any other container. The different tomato varieties do germinate at different times, the cups give me flexibility in planting out. I can transplant whatever is ready without digging around in a flat to pry out the first seedlings.

Also, I donate my excess tomato seedlings to a charity sale. Because I've scribed the name into the rim I don't have to worry about making tags or the tags getting switched by accident at that sale. The cups are perfect size for donations or sharing across the fence.

T

I plan on winter sowing my tomato seeds this weekend, I will sow:

Neves Azorean Red
Kelloggs Breakfast
Sungold
Cherokee Purple or Cherokee Chocolate - I haven't made up my mind on which one I want to grow yet.

I also may sow Buck's County Hybrids, they're one of DH favorites.

Fran, you tomatoes look great, I plan on growing most of mine in containers this year, I seem to have better luck growing them in pots. I am also about 10 - 15 miles away from the NH border, wonder if we're in the same general area.

Linda

Quick question on tomatoes...last weekend, I WS'd some Speckled Roman seeds (from Trudi! Yay!). I guess now it wasn't such a good idea and I should have waited a few more weeks or maybe even until April?? Is there any hope I'll get sprouts?

Rich, Glad you liked the "growing flag" in my middle pot. That actually went in that pot right after I took the pics. It's in the rutgers select. one of my grandfather's favorite tomato vines. He was a WWI army vet and worked on the war dept during WWII. The flag goes in the rutgers in his memory.

Bonnie, I use the styrofoam cups partly because I'm lazy. WS is supposed to be easy and fun and using the cups makes it easier to just pick start them in, move as needed and as trudi said plant out when ready and some germinate more quickly than others.
My cups are all labeled with the tomato name on the outside and my extra's go to the plant swap I have every year and to neighbors and friends.
All I have to do is hand over the cup with the seedling in it.
I reuse the cups every year and the neighbors and friends give them back to me. So far they will be on their 3rd round of use this year.

I also put any extra seedlings (as if we don't have tons and tons of extras) in styrofoam cups for the plant swap I have every year. Those I put tags in and every year, the cups come back to the swap with someone else's seedlings in them. They do last a long time.

Black cherry is a super sweet tomato if you let if fully ripen before you eat it. If you are like my daughter, then you have tons of black cherry tomatoes to eat and half get fully ripe and sweet before you eat them and the other half are not quite as ripe and quite as sweet, but they are still sweet.

The purple cherokee, has a slight smokey taste to it. only one I have ever had that tasted like it and it is wonderful for slicing and salads. Just enough of a smokey type taste to make it really different tasting and a real pleasure to have

Jessica, I always use the last frost date to plant out my tomatoes and real tender annuals. Where I am from in MA, it used to always be May 31st, the old traditional Memorial Day Weekend. I stick with that and when I've tried a bit earlier, I get freezes hitting everything.
Back in 2005, May 19th, we got hit with a real nasty freeze during the overnight hours. I covered all my WS annuals with tarp over night. they where all still in their containers. It went down to 22 degrees during the early morning hours. I missed to containers of marigolds and lost them, but the everything that was covered was fine. The perennials also where fine without cover.
2 Days later my daughter graduated college in MA. There we where, outside in a suburb of Boston and had snowflakes flying in the air. So I always wait till May 31st to hit the ground planting the annuals.

Mark, I've never tried the plastic cups for seed starting, but would think they would work just as well as the styrofoam cups. I just have easier access to the styrofoam ones and they hold up really well for several years of reuse. Not sure how well the plastic ones would hold up to keep using year after year.
I put only one seed in each cup. Again, I'm lazy and with one seed I don't have to worry about having to split any extra sprouts in a cup. I've had near 100% germination with my seeds, so 1 seed in a cup works well for me.

Linda, I've never had good luck growing my tomatoes in the ground. No matter what I do to amend the soil, they never do well. That's why I resorted to the huge pots to put them in. Now I have everyone around me doing the same thing and never buying the patio tomato type plants, just taking my seedlings and putting them in the pots.

E-mail me about where you live. I have a spring plant swap every year, about the first Sat in June. you are more than welcome to come.

Fran

I've seen several posters talk about Cherokee purple. Yesterday, I broke down and ordered the following varieties of heirlooms from Sand Hill Preservation:

Cherokee Purple
Missouri Love Apple
Tiger Cherry
White Wonder
Ruffled Yellow

Like I need any more seeds ;) I'm really excited though.

Has anyone else ordered from Sand Hill Preservation? They mentioned several times it is not the company to order from if you need your seeds right away, so I don't know what to expect.

I just got an order from Sand Hill - it did take a while to get the seeds. And to make matters worse, since I couldn't remember if I even did order (sending the order in versus ordering on-line - I buy *everything* on-line) I had to send them an email asking if they had gotten the order! :-D Be patient.

Thanks for your response Linda. I'll know not to hold my breath, and be patient :) I almost always buy my seeds online or at local retail stores. It felt strange sending off for them. They do have so many unique, rare varieties, so it will probably be worth it. I may just have a few varieties of tomatoes fruit late in the season. My WS tomatoes haven't germinated yet anyway.

I also ordered some Bolivian Coriander, which isn't coriander, but used like cilantro in South America. I've never tried it, but I like to try new, rare things. I also order wasabi sprouts. They're not the true wasabi root, but these sprouts are used as a substitute in Japan.

I just started 2-one quart milk jugs with green zebra & our favorite cherry-sungold. I too have had bad luck with ground planted tomatoes, so mine go into large pots or raised beds. I have 2 big self watering planters on my porch where the cherry tomatoes live-3 to 4 plants in each. That may be a bit much-I have had a problem with whitefly, but one year I actually kept a tally & these 2 pots produced over 1200 cherry tomatoes through the season! I was sharing 'maters all over the place! I like the idea of using the cups, but have had a problem in the past with small containers drying out. Has anyone else had this problem, & if so, how did you deal with it?

Farfaraway: You should almost certainly get tomato sprouts. Last year, I even WS'd some tomato seeds in January, before a huge icestorm, and still managed to get sprouts from those seeds once it warmed up.

I'll begin by saying that I was skeptical about doing this with tomatoes but I promised Trudi I'd give it a try this year and took her up on her offer of seeds.

I planted 10 Giant Belgium on Feb. 3 in a milk jug container out on the deck and 10 more Giant Belgium in the greenhouse Mar. 1st using my standard seedling trays, heat mats, etc. as a kind of control group.

As of today I can report that 8 of my WS sprouted vs. 9 of the inside ones - WS took 2 weeks to germinate vs. 5 days for the GH ones but that's no big deal for me - and the WS seedlings are now 3/4" taller and have 2 more true leaves than the inside ones do. Their color is a healthy dark green too.

So I'm convinced that WS tomatoes can work. You win Trudi. ;) I'll let you know how the garden performance compares as the 2 groups progress.

Dave

Dave, that is so encouraging to hear! I am planning to WS my tomatoes this week, if only I can decide which ones to grow. I'm tempted to throw all of the names into a hat, and just pull out a half a dozen to try this year, LOL! Seriously though, I am now up to 25 different kinds of tomatoes, thanks to some wonderful traders, but I only have room for 6 or 7 plants in my tiny garden, so I really MUST narrow it down a bit. When I finally get them sown, I'll post the ones I decided on.

Congratulations on your tomato sprouts Dave!

Bonnie

Bonnie, I can relate. I have 13-14 types of tomato seeds, and plan on trading with a friend for some more heirloom toms. I have a small garden, and will not be able to fit all these varieties ... especially with all the other veggies I'm planning to grow :) My eyes are too big for my stomach in a gardening sense.

I'm not quite sure what I'll end up doing. I'm thinking about straw bale planting, that way I can randomly set bales around the edge of the yard, wherever there's room. There's no rule that vegetables have to be planted all together on a rectangular plot, is there? ;) I will probably take some of my plants to my parents, since they have a huge garden ... that way they can have a few extra varieties and I can sample a couple as well.

Thanks Mo! I knew that you all had had success with WS tomatoes, but I thought maybe I had done mine too early. I'll just watch and wait and be patient. :-)

Highal...I was just thinking of emptying a few packets of different seeds and tossing them all in one big container to see what happens. Of course, who knows how to determine which do better than the others.

Then again, I don't really worry so much about specific varieties. I worry more about getting good production..primarily for sauce and for canning....
Don't care if they're yellow, orange, black, red, green or rainbow....

I winter sowed tomato seeds in single cups on 3-13 & yesterday I had sprouts !
Jan ")

Well the first of my sprouts are up and just in time for the first 20 degree night. Moved that one container of Roma to a un heated horse stall. Guess the body heat worked and back out to a place where have moved all the sprouted containers. Most of my winter sowing is in tomato seeds. Trying to grow several varieties for friends acre size garden. Most of you will be getting tomato sprouts now in zone 6 and 7, just keep a eye out on weather reports and any nights dipping below 32 cover with a towel or blanket the jugs. Plan on planting mine out soon in the ground but they will be protected at night still with a towel and a ring of water bottles. Did this one year and have very early tomatos.

The wave of green has hit in NJ.

Love the photos!
I have sprouts - Oxheart, Green Zebra, Green Sausage!!!
The weather here is so up-and-down - last weekend it was near 80 and then dropped to 40s. This week it's been rainy and very chilly, but warming up somewhat today. The seedlings seem to be fine in their jugs. :)

MLCOM and I are always germinating toms about the same time. I saw my first sprout yesterday afternoon!

I have sprouts in Hong Yueng, Peiping Chieh and Early Kus Ali!

Congratulations to all of you who have tomato sprouts!

Trudi, I have never heard of any of those. Have you grown them before, and what kind of tomatoes are those?

We are still having lows in the 20's and occasionally the teens, so I guess it's a good thing nothing has sprouted yet.

On 3/12/08 I WS: Azoychka, MiniBush Yellow Cherry (Russian Heirloom), Moskvich, Roma, Stupice, Sungold, and Supersweet 100's.

On 4/1/08 I started indoors: Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Kellogg's Breakfast, Opalka, and San Marzano.

My vegetable garden hasn't gotten any bigger, so now I'm thinking maybe I should invest in a couple of earthbox type containers. I wish I could find a less expensive version, other than the homemade ones. I'm not crazy about setting a Rubbermaid container in the front yard. Does anyone know of a source for a self watering planter that's that cost less than the Earthbox?

Last year, I shared some extra pumpkin vines with my DH's coworkers, and now they are asking me to start tomato plants for them. To me that is such a compliment, since I still consider myself a novice. I'm a surrogate mother now!

Bonnie

thanks Jan for bumping this! Such good info, I already wsed my tomatoes (as soon as I received them- thanks Trudi!) but for next year I will have a lot of good advice. Idk if mine are sprouting since I cant read what I wrote. Lol another thing learned.

Betsy

Hi Gang,

I have never grown tomatoes from seed,i received 5 seeds of Black Prince and about 12 Cherokee Purple seeds from a very kind WSer,am i to late to start these?Should they have been started a monthe ago?

Also, i read through this thread trying to determin what would be the next best to buy,i looked on the Sand Hill web page,talk about confusing,to some one who does not know what is good,lol

Can any of you offer a sweet,meaty,slicing tomato i should order,providing i am not to late.

Thanks a bunch,Carol

Start your seeds now, Carol, it'll be OK.

I can't give to much advice on types to grow; I can only manage 2 tomato plants up here in my small space. But ... last year I grew 'Kosovo' (thank you, Trudi!), and it was the best tasting one I've ever grown.

This year I'm trying 'Black Cherry', Burpee 'Bush Big Boy' (old seed, hope something comes up), and I've got a fallback sowing of 'Container Hybrid'. Sure wish I could try many more varieties ...

Bonnie, I've used EarthBoxes for my toms for several years now; they work fine, but I do agree they are kind of expensive. The first couple of years I grew tomatoes, I grew them in 5-gallon pickle buckets that I got from my butcher. I haven't found anywhere to buy self-watering boxes that are cheaper than the (basic) EarthBox, and I'm definitely not equipped to make my own. But I did come across this article recently, that tells you how to make self-waterers using two 5-gallon buckets:

DIY Self-watering container

{{gwi:356446}}

PV

Bonnie, most people have never heard of those tomatoes, they're new to me too. There are another five varieties sown which haven't yet sprouted. Because these are rare there is little public data on them. I am hoping that from the eight types I'll be able to select the best of the best to cross and create some cold-tolerant lines. Should all go well I'll have seeds to share at the end of season.