Any time now. If you keep the plants cool they won't grow so fast and the twenty days will work out just fine. Plant them at this time right up to the bottom true leaves - makes 'em nice and stocky. Don't forget to harden them off for a week before you plant in the ground. Best of luck with your tomatoes.

Yep, any time now. And in the process, if you discover you still have access to any of those pellet nets - split them open or get rid of all or any part of them.

Dave

Thanks ya'll.

Dave, I was pulling you're leg. All the nets were removed.

Thought about telling you I'd knitted little tomato baby sweaters from them but figured that was over the top :-)

I smile a lot but sometimes it doesn't translate well.

I thought...maybe you were at the time. There was a hint of a grin there. But figured I'd better be sure. ;)

They must've improved the netting on peat pellets in the past couple years since I last used them. It seems much more fragile than I remember it. The ones I started my dwarf seeds in have roots growing right through the netting already, and the dwarf seedlings are only about four inches tall. Amazing.

Trying to trim that 20 days down ... Didn't matter so much with readily available box store toms.

NOAA, Right on the border of a 10% probability of 32F or less on a later date = May 1 or May 15.

State Extention Office in a general "how to" dated 2005 says, Soil temps of 60F and May 5 to 20. In a FAQ dated 03 says May 15 and a map dated 2000 shows last frost as April 15.

Victory Seeds has a last frost of 4-30 and states the data from NOAA in 98.

Where do you get your planting data?

Trimming down the 20 days? This year I am advocating the "sneaking up on it" approach. ;)

My years of notes tell me I that I have a 50/50 chance of getting burned prior to the 24th of April even with my nice little pocket micro climate from the lake (which is currently 41 feet high and going over the dam). So since I can't go fishing, I am sneakily planting out 5 plants a day and am up to 14 as of today. So far so good except for one Opalka croaker from Thursday.

I check the weather report almost hourly but I figure that I can protect those if I have to and I have something equivalent to the national debt in replacement backups. Come the 25th - I'll be well along and Mother Nature will notice I pulled it off. ;)

Dave

I've had some fungus/damping off/rotting problems with my 2nd stage potting up in the past -- not always -- but sometimes. But I've fixed that problem. Now I water with a slightly diluted Chamomile tea solution, and it works like a charm. No more rotting stems! Black tea also works, but not green. It's something in the tea that kills off any kind of fungal growth. I also add a half strength "baby" tomato food to the water so they have immediate "food". I use only half strength so I don't risk burning the plant. Plus there's fertilizer in the potting mix, so I don't want to over do it. So I just put enough in the water to tide them over until the roots develop enough to take what they need out of the soil. MacThayer

~~~ (which is currently 41 feet high and going over the dam).~~~

Topping the dam is a bad thing. Checked the Corps' site, they say you're at 98% and the gates are closed but "performing as designed.".

Hmm, Topping the dam is a bad thing.

Stay loose.

Dave - email me. After reading my post above I clearly had too many beers and was up too last night.

Dave

Wow, thats never happened to me before :-)

On the way.

Potted up about 40 plants and built a mini GH. No heat, no fan but a dbl. wall of poly, a semi insulated floor and a lift off opaque plexi top. I can see it from my desk so maybe I'll remember to take the top off during the day.

With no air circulation, think I ought to do a preventative fungal spray?

Preventive fungal spray is a must once they're out in the air. The stuff really works.

macthayer, I also have used the Chamomile tea solution when I repot after the first true leaves appear and have had no problems, just healthy, very fast growing plants. In fact, I've even done this to seedlings with just the codyledons when they started getting leggy. Same thing, continued growing strong and putting out true leaves. This is the first year I've been successful at getting to this point in growing from seed.