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kawaiineko_gardener

need help finding tomato plants please

Basically where I live has a very short growing season. I'm trying to grow tomato seedling transplants, but it's not going well at all.

The growing season where I live has a very cool climate; even in summers, although they're hot they're mild compared to summers in the south. This makes it extremely difficult to direct sow tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds outside. The germination rates are very low, and they take forever to germinate. The main growing season here

starts at the middle to end of May.

It would just simplify things for me to get plants rather than try to start them from seed. I tried to do this last year, and it didn't work well at all.

I'm wondering if anybody who is growing tomato seedling transplants, will have any leftover they can spare?

I'm just on a very limited budget, and the prices

for the tomato plants in catalogs are expensive.

I'm sorry I didn't gives specific varieties as to what I'm looking for, it's just I don't know what people are growing. Just list what you have please for the varieties you're growing

Here is what I'm looking for:

Determinate variety of a gold cherry tomato that is early maturing (50-60 days)x3

Determinate red cherry tomato that is early maturing (50-60 days) x3

Red Slicer tomato that is early maturing x 3 (50-60 days)

Roma tomato that is determinate and resistant to blossom end rot (the only reason I really care about the blossom end rot thing is because this is a problem I had last year)

x2

Also I Know this is a tomato growing forum but does anybody here have bell pepper and eggplant seedlings they can spare?

For eggplant I'm looking for a dwarf type plant that produces asian eggplants and matures in 50-60 days x3

bell pepper, just an early maturing dwarf type x3

Comments (5)

  • 15 years ago

    Are there no plant nurseries, no garden centers where you can buy transplants? Even Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, etc. offer a great selection of plants at very reasonable prices at the proper planting times for your area. 6 plants for $2.59 was the average price I saw just yesterday.

    That is much less expensive than ordering plants online plus no shipping costs. And its even less than it would cost someone to package up live plants and send them to you. You may not be able to find a gold cherry but all the rest are commonly available as transplants.

    If it is just free plants you are looking for then check out the plant exchange forum here as there are many offers there for the price of shipping. Just post what you want or browse through all the HAVE offers.

    Dave

    Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Exchange

  • 15 years ago

    I'm with digdirt. I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of heirloom and hybrid determinant and indeterminate plants at Home Depot and Lowe's this year. The prices are not as good as germinating your own but they are better than shipping costs even if the plants were free.

  • 15 years ago

    In Addition to big box stores named, also ACE hardware carries plants. In my area there are PIKE nursery stores too. They usually have much better selection than the rest because NURSERY/plant sale is their main line of business.
    While I am waiting on my own seedlings, I have bought several tomatoes, peppers and eggplants from Pike. The ones I bought were in 4-packs. I repoted them for about 10 days now. They are just like the ones are sold for $3.50 each. I paid $2.50 for a 4-pack.

  • 15 years ago

    check with your local nursury ,, they often have plants specific for your area and usually a wealth of free information.

  • 15 years ago

    Don't know if you're in a rural or urban area, but check local small hardware stores, too. Our growing season is short, so there are many temporary "garden centers" that pop up around here(right around May 1), and also roadside plant sales. A local hardware store has a small greenhouse that's open for just a few weeks. They have an arrangement with a local grower that delivers really nice tomato plants and annual flowers at low prices. Getting plants through the mail is so hit and miss, and it's so frustrating to receive a half-dead plant when the(seasonal)clock is ticking. I'd take a drive on a nice day and just look around to see what your area has to offer.