600 tomatoes .. How many did you have this year? Will they all be in a high tunnel ?

I cant wait to start seeding, only 2 months to go..

Just ordered my first 2010 seed order so I can have those tomato seeds ready to start next month.

Well the 600 take into account the 100 for my high tunnel. 200 plants for the 100 hanging baskets that I am going to sell, 50 cherry tomatoes for high tunnel and the 250 that I am growing to sell.

Jay

I have figured out that I need to start MORE than last year. Last year, I have around 2000-3000 plants, between having some for sale, some not to survive, and some to plant into the garden. I'm still trying to figure out how many more I need, but I think I will try to sell more, and maybe plant at little less (probably not tho). I think that more people will be doing the garden thing, like last year. Of course, there will be people that have figured out that gardening is not easy. So they will want to buy what they don't grown.

We sell alot of green/red peppers, approximately 2-4 each Saturday, so I need to figure out how many plants I need to grow our own. Any ideas?? I need a good variety that produces a green pepper that turns red when ripen and a blocky shape. I would like seeds that not expensive, if possible.

I haven't grown broccoli with much luck, so far. I really need to, because the family eats alot of broccoli.

I am planning on lot of pumpkins and winter squash. I'm not sure if I will pre-start some or not. Also uncertain if we will be growing any melons or corn.

We are taking 5 1/2 acres out of soybean production for next year, and now trying to figure out how to fill it with income producing items.

Down-side, we may be losing 1 worker this year. Our youngest son is checking out joining the army soon. He hasn't been able to find a stable job locally and he is still young enough to join up. He was doing alot of the manual labor this last summer.

Last year, I used small 4-6" to seed my tomato seeds in, and then transplanted the best ones into 50 cell plug trays. From the 50 cell plug trays, they go into 4" pots. Each time the plants start to get root-bound, they get transplanted. From the 4" pots, some of them go into gallon pots, some in 2 gallon and some into pots the size of 5 gallon pots. The 5 gallon pots will remain until either sold or planted into the garden. I sell everything by Father's day, or they go into the garden as a later planting.

I really need to get my 'stuff' together and get ready to start the seeds.

Looks like we got some crazed seed-starters here. Yahoo! My wife and I start about 4,000 seedlings and most of them are gone by the 1st week of June, except for what we keep for our gardens. We specialize in Heirloom tomatoes and grow about 85 varieties with about 55 Heirlooms. Peppers by the hundreds, squash, cukes, eggplants, broccoli, cauliflower, herbs, annual/perennial flowers/herbs too. Just the two of us. Call us nuts, but we love it . . . and the money's not bad either. People say the gardening season ends with the first frost. As a hard-core gardener we never stop gardening. We take stock of the past season's success/failure, improve the soil, expand the gardens, look through catalogs, order are seeds and before you now it . . . it's time to start growing again!

I hear you all loud and clear. I started ordering seeds in September and have most of my tomato, pepper, eggplant, lettuces, greens, etc. logged in and read to start in January. I'll start with the tomatoes, peppers and various onions in January. I start my early bearing tomato seeds I get from Solana (a Canadian company) and in February, I'll start the later bearing tomatoes. In January, I'll also start onions, shallots and leeks. In February, I'll start different cole crops and lettuces. Last year, I had 700 tomato plants and about 1,200 pepper plants. The deer devastated my tomato plants but they didn't touch the peppers or eggplants. The harvest was incredible. Anyway, I'll start separating out and planning the various seeds while I'm off my regular job the week after Christmas. I love this!

tommy, what's your best sellers of heirlooms, I'm looking at starting a few more?

I also have a lot of seeds to start. I use soil blocks for them. Looking forward to spring. Hmmmm....winter just started.

it sure seems like winter is going fast. It seemed a few years ago that I had all kinds of time to plan my spring starting but now it's just around the corner and we just now got all the perennials in and under cover.
I've got about 10,000 tomatoes to start in march. now I'm going to only start about 200 or 250 for early fruiting premium pots and of course it's time to start some of the flowers. I'm going to wait until after Christmas because I don't want to start taking care of them yet. I guess I'm getting lazy...

myfamilyfarm: best-selling heirlooms? Actually we sell out of everything by the first week of June. A number of people have their own favorites, but many ask lots of questions, especially with the many types we grow that are not very-well known. My favorites are Omar's Lebanese, Goldie, Giant Italian Beefstake, Rose, German Johnson, Ponderosa, Kellogg's Breakfast, Copia (wow, that's only a small sample of my favorites, there are so many more). If anyone wants a list of what we grew last year let me know your e-mail address or I can send it via your personnel info on the site.

Yes, I would love to know what you grew. I am wondering if going more into the plant growing side of gardening would be easier for us, since we are starting to age some, than the production of veggie side. Always thinking of working smarter instead of harder.

PS, on my post regarding the number of pepper plants needed, hubby told me that I typoed on the amount of peppers we sell each Saturday. I should have said 2-4 BUSHEL, approximately 100-200 individual large green bell peppers.

Actually, after we sell most of our transplants whatever is left of perennials is potted up into large containers, allowed to grow to bigger size, then sold at our Farmers' Market for anywhere between $5-$8 each. Some of our more popular perennials are Buddleia (Butterfly Bush), Belamcanda (Blackberry Lily), Korean Chrysanthemum (Fanfare), Delphiniums, Anise Hyssop, Agastache (Cana), Persian Catmint, various rock garden sedums & dianthus, Rosemary, Lavender, plus lots more. I'll need a e-mail address if you want a list of our tomatoes, etc. It would be almost impossible to list here.

I'm sorry I forgot to give out my email. It's hanselmanfarms@usa.com.

Thanks for your help.

We have the first of the leeks and yellow onions started here. Tomatoes will be started in mid to late april. Eggplant and peppers about 14 to 21 days before the tomatoes.

January we start lettuces for heads (we do mainly heirlooms and around 20 different kinds of lettuce) to be grown in a hoop house. Also a lot more leeks and onions (probably around 5,000 when all is said and done).

Feb. we will start the brassicas, broccoli, cabbage, celeriac plus more lettuce and likely more alliums

March will see more brassicas and lettuce and the first of the cucurbrits for mid April hoop house planting. Cucurbrits are cucumbers (usually Diva or another parthenoginic type) and zucchini and charantais that will need hand pollination

April we start tomatoes, peppers, basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, eggplant, more brassicas, more lettuce, more cukes, more zukes, more melons. We transplant the peppers and tomatoes in June so we start them late so they are no more than 6" tall when it is time to put them in the ground. Huge seedlings are a real pain to transplant and I think have a longer period of transplant shock than little plants

May we will start more cukes and summer squash as well as all the winter squashes and if it is still cool more lettuces

By the time June rolls around we have pretty much quit starting seeds indoors and all the seedlings are out of the seed room and at the very least sitting in cold frames for hardening off. Though most should be in the ground by June 10th

We use soil blocks for all seed starting and make out own soil mix for the blocks

Well, I did it, my first pepper seeds are started inside the house, on a heat mat. Tomatoes will be started later, I'm not sure how much later. Maybe even today. Farmers alamanac site states that today thru tues were good starting days. Plus I had the seeds from last year.

I used Miracle Grow with moisture control for my starting and up to 4" pots, anything larger than that I have some soil mix that my son brought home from the greenhouse that he works at. Last year, he brought about 4 cu yd of it, and I didn't get it all used, about 3/4 of it.

Wow, starting already! We have snow much snow on the ground. There is a a 5 foot tall drift that is probably 25 feet long running through one of my high tunnel.

I am glad to see that I am not the only one with seed starting madness. Some of you have it worst than me! :)

I just couldn't wait. Yes, I'm addicted. We have snow also, and it's still snowing. I'm tring to wait on the tomatoes for a couple of weeks, but I don't know if I can control myself.

I'm hoping to get some really LARGE plants ready for May 1st opening market day.

We are just getting the snows that has just left you.

myfamilyfarm: We are organic growers and use only a fish emulsion/seaweed extract for starting our seedlings and growing on. We have had excellent results using that product. We are fortunate in having a local contact for a wonderful seed-starting-growing-on mix that is all organic. It's made from cow manure, compost, a small amount of organic fertilizer, and lime. It's from a company called Ideal Compost in Peterborough, NH. We've tried all kinds of other commercial seed-starting mixes, but this stuff is the best. And you get a discount when you buy in quantity. I strongly recommend to anyone to go organic. It works, it's safe for you and the environment.

For several years, I wanted to go 'organic' but there is not alot of sources in my area. So I dilute everything by at least 1/2 if not more. I also use rain water to water everything and put some water soluble fertilizer in my 55 gal barrels, usually the fertilizer amount is for about 5-10 gallons in 55 gallon barrel. It gives just enough without over fertilizing. I want to use the 'manure tea' but just haven't really got organized enough for that.

I tried several different seed starting mixes before I broke down and tried the Miracle Grower w/moisture control. It has worked the best for me. We don't use much commercial fertilizer, only if we don't get enough manure/compost from the neighboring horse farm.

I know the Miracle Grower stuff isn't designed to be seed starter mix, but it works for me.

Just checked the pepper seeds and they are plumping up, so MAYBE in a few days. This year I have a seed starting heat mat under them. I also used aluminum foil pans, 1 with holes inside of 1 without holes, this is new for me this year.

myfamilyfarm--you mentioned varieties of peppers that do well. I'm in Arkansas where every fungus and pest on earth is drawn to the high sugar content of red bell peppers. It is really a challenge here to get them to the red stage and stay organic. Gypsy bell pepper seems to be nearly immune to everything that rots or eats colored bells. It is not blocky but a little elongated. I have had no trouble selling them in the upscale groceries and in fact my main retailer announces when the Gypsy's are in. Great taste and you harvest nearly 100%, even at the red stage.

Thanks alanleveritt, where do you get these seeds? I haven't heard of them til now.

We grow Gypsy here in NH (Zone 5) and it is one of our better producers, even ripens to a beautiful yellow with red blush. Not a very big pepper, but does the job. Our most productive is Carmen, an elongated sweet pepper that has always ripened to a bright red when most other peppers don't have time to mature fully to their color. It is very productive and holds up well. Highly recommended!

Gypsy is available from most seed catalogs as well as Carmen. Totally Tomatoes & Johnnys come to mind and I know there are others.

My customers just don't buy yellow peppers, I have tried to convince them without success. Hubby found Gypsy at Tomato Growers also.

I'm going to try the heirloom variety call Chinese something. I have 1 seed package right now, but not where I'm sitting. Has any of you tried it?

Chinese giant is an okay pepper, nothing great. The fruits are big but are on the thin wall side (I love thick walled blocky peppers). they tend to get blossom end rot more than other peppers I grow. They set a decent amount of fruit but tend to ripen later than cal wonder or Revolution.

And speaking of Revolution this is a pepper that I believe is exclusive to Fedco Seeds http://www.fedcoseeds.com (one of my favorite seed houses-it is an independent co-op, BTW). I tried it the first time 2 years ago and it sucked, but than 100% of my 500 peppers sucked that year no matter when or where they were planted (this was true with all the pepper growers in SW Ohio that I spoke with about this) But 2009 they were terrific. Thick walled blocky 4 lobed red peppers. They set fruit heavily and abundantly. Virtually no disease problems and because I have learned to pick peppers well before they fully ripen because they ripen just fine off the plant indoors (just like a tomato) almost no pest or sunscald issues. Oh and the taste is very good, one of the best of the hybrids.

harris seeds has revolution also. I am going to try ace and alliance peppers this year. getting close to pepper starting time. Just built 8'x8' growing shelves in the basement and have a few lights hung.

I like Fedco also but I hate trying to figure out how many seeds are in their packets.

Thanks boulderbelt, I only bought 1 package so I don't have alot invested. I'm looking for a good blocky pepper that will make good stuffed peppers. Most of my customers look for those kinds. The rest of my customer just chop them up, so they will take those that don't 'sit' as well.

My peppers have sprouted, I noticed it this morning. I wasn't expecting them until 1/10, so the heat mat has helped. Shame it isn't larger.

Fedco has to rank as one of the best seed companies around. Great variety, low prices and lots of seeds. Their catalog is plain, black & white but filled with great info. Good service and I gotta think many of the workers are hold-overs from the back-to-the-land movement of the late 60s-70s.

We got Revolution from them last year and it produced our biggest peppers and even ripened to a bright red. We feel this is a winner in our neck of the woods NH (Zone 5) along with Carmen (Fedco doesn't have it) another winner that matures to a beautiful red in NH.