Tomato seeds planted March 24. Germinated 4 days later. Picture taken April 2 at 9 days old.
It has begun!
I’m going back to the Santa Fe Farmers Market this summer with my tomatoes! I have a lot of new unusual tomatoes started as well as my stable of wonderful favorites for the public.
Pictured above, the baby tomato seeds are inside the house under lights and keep warm on a germination heat mat set at 85°F. They will be transplanted this week into 2 inch pots and later this month they will be transplanted again into 4 inch pots and then finally transplanted outside in the garden in May. Plus I will take some of the plants to the Farmers Market at end of April/May to sell.
giantveggiegardener 
Looks like healthy, happy plants. I hope this is a great tomato year for you and for the Santa Fe market.
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What difference have you seen between transplanting straight to the larger pots and doing it in stages? I remember when I was a girl, my mom started tomatoes in half gallon milk cartons and added dirt to them as they grew.
for some reason I can’t reply on your blog; I think because I’m on a different computer than normally.
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I got your reply on the blog. I don’t like planting them in too large a pot at first because I find it’s too hard to keep that much soil consistently warm and moist even if one adds soil as they get taller. I like starting the seeds in really small seed propagation trays like the one in the pic. I had my tomato class plant seeds in pony packs this year to try to save a step and noticed they took longer to germinate than in the germination trays as it took longer to heat up more soil. Warm temperatures are needed for good germination. Then when I plant in the 2″ pots, I plant the stems deep so they start to put out roots on the buried stem and the stems get thicker under good lights. The last transplanting (deep also) continues to create thicker stems and very healthy plants. Please note they must be under strong florescent lights as well which really helps get with stronger stems as well.
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Wow now that’s a lot of tomatoes! Looks great!
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Do you still have plants to sell at the Farmer’s Market?
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Looks like I only have a few small ‘Paul Robeson’ tomatoes left. You can get great heirloom tomatoes at Aqua Fria Nursery. They have over 80 varieties.
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Thank you for getting back to me. I will check out Agua Fria Nursery as you have suggested.
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