Re: [tomato] seedling transplant
Byron.Bromley (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Wed, 3 Mar 1999 18:45:26 -0500
Maragaret
Again, starting from seeds in a 200 day growing (I beleieve you
said you were in the southern part of the US.) is highly feasable.
However if you are the Candian border looking at 8 inches of ice
on your garden, shovel snow as late as May 10 and as early as
Oct 1, Then that system won't work, My tomatoes that start on
my compost pile get up to 18in high, have 2 green tomatoes about
1 to 1 1/2 dia by the time the first frost gets them about Sept 10th.
Kay Lancaster and 30 other garden book writers base their writings
and "Wisdom" based only on their own mircoclim.
Just as an example, In one book the Author claimed she started here
early outdoor seeds on Feb 20th, The Year I bought the book I was looking
at
100 inches of snow then. I feel that garden books should remain in their
growing Zones, Not one that I have read take into the fact that there
are other growing zones and things that work in Texas don't work
in North Dakota or New Hampshire. And things that work in Hot and Dry
don't work in Hot and Humid. There is not one "EXPERT" out there
that takes all factors into consideration.
This is why when "Old Sages" post about growing in Texas, I try
to give the newbie that those ideas might not work in a more northern
or more humid growing areas.
In my 50 years of gardening, I have found that not 1 item works
100% of the time all the time in 100% of the situations. And the best
answers is by experimenting in your own garden in your own mircoclim
and keeping excellent records of what you have done.
Byron
----------
From: margaret lauterbach <mlaute@micron.net>
To: Tomato@GlobalGarden.com
Subject: Re: [tomato] seedling transplant
Date: Wednesday, March 03, 1999 1:00 PM
At 12:56 PM 3/3/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Maragaret,
>
>I said breaking the tap root. If the tap root gets too long
>you have a greater chance of breaking it pulling out of
>starting medium or placing into potting medium. Once the tap
>root is gone so is the plant basicaly. You will get some growth
>but a very poor plant.
>
>I have also found the deeper the pot the better, Most of mine
>go into a 4in dia by 6in deep pot. This allows the tap root to grow
>longer and send out more feeder roots.
>
>I have a 90 to 100 day tomato growing season, If I can get 12 to 16 in
>plants to transplant, I have a higher productivity.
>
>Byron
>
Byron, try an experiment here. Try direct seeding some tomatoes when you
put out your transplants. Make sure your direct-seeded tomatoes have the
same days to maturity as your transplants. Then keep track of when you
start picking from each source.
Kay Lancaster, who knows everything worth knowing about plants, said you'll
be picking ripe ones from direct-seeded within a week of the transplants.
I tried it, and found that was correct, too. Another thing, I've recently
read that the older the transplant, the longer time it takes to acclimate.
It would be worthwhile to all if you'd keep records on that, too. Margaret