It’s time for tomato planting. I planted one batch about January 7 and the rest about a week later. All were started under the grow lamp. This year I am planting Sweet Chelsea, Sun Gold, Champion and Merced. I planted the Sweet Chelsea first because I had seed left from last year. The plants are large enough to plant outdoors, but it is still too early. I will transplant them again to 1 gallon pots. I generally put them in the garden in mid February with frost cloth wrapped around the cage. If it gets real cold I can put frost cloth over the top or throw a blanket over the whole cage. The frost cloth works great if the weather is cool. As well as protecting the plants, it produces a greenhouse effect and the plants grow much faster than without it.
For tomatoes here it is essential to get the plants going early so they are ready to produce when blossom setting conditions are ideal. Tomatoes will not set fruit if the weather is too hot or too cold. Conditions at the end of March and into April are ideal for blossom setting.
Sun Gold, a gold cherry tomato, is new for me; however I am familiar with it from the Old Sixth Ward Garden. I think I raised Champion some years ago, but I can’t remember. It is a medium sized slicer. Merced is a good hybrid variety. It is determinate and produces a lot of large fruit. Fruit quality is just so-so, however. I usually plant either Merced or Celebrity.
Now my problem is to harvest all those winter vegetables still in the garden; lettuce, broccoli, collards, beets, spinach and bok choi.
