Going gaga over tomatoes is what happened to me in December when I found myself on Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I ordered eleven varieties of seeds, one in every color and shape. And then, garden friends sent me a few seeds from four more varieties. Other than direct-seeding a handful of Yellow Pear tomatoes last year, the rest of my tomato plants were purchased at Tomatomania, so this was my first experience starting all my tomatoes from seed. 

I seeded a few leftover Yellow Pear seeds to bring the total varieties to sixteen. With the exception of three varieties given to me, each variety occupied nine, or more, cells in my seeding trays, a total of 72 +72 + 25 = 169 cells seeded with one or two seeds.

Now, I don’t have a farm, and I don’t sell at a farmer’s market. What in the world was I thinking? As Lisa at The Self Sufficient Homeacre just wrote in her humorous blog “20 Warning Signs You’re a Seed Junkie,” #1, I have more seed packets than I ever will be able to plant. When you open a fresh packet of seeds, I find it hard to only use nine seeds.

I seem to have had a plant tag deficiency this year. I never have plant tags when I’m seeding. I got tired of going to stores that were sold out of them, and didn’t order online in time to plant, and I ran out after five tags. I devised a clever way, I thought, to mark all my seeds. I came up with a graphic for each tray. This eliminated plant tags! Here’s one of four trays planted (also planted a lot of peppers, a few cucumbers and squash).

There was one hitch. As I don’t have a grow light, I have to move my trays outside during the day to get some light (I’m in Southern California, so I can do that in January), but what if I happen to forget which is top and which is bottom? I put a sliver of silver tape on the top left corner!

There were weeks of taking them out for morning sun, dragging them into afternoon shade (it has gotten up to 80 some days in March!), and taking them into the living room at night.

It’s been two months, most germinated, some didn’t and the tomatoes are ready to pot up. It took two-hour sessions over three days! And I had to come up with something to mark all the tomatoes. (More trips to garden stores turned up nothing.)

At any point, I could have sacrificed half of each variety, but I am a mother, and mothers care for their children. I fretted about what would happen to them while I’m away, and decided this spot under the wisteria would be best, filtered light and somewhat protected from wind. My husband has directions how to water.

The finished touch was a sheet of voile (which I had used in the winter garden to keep cabbage moths from laying eggs on brassicas), to keep the wisteria droppings and flies off.

Total tomato seedlings, 122! I have room for maybe 15 plants. There’s something about planting a seed and nurturing it for months. You have to give it a chance, right?

Are you seeding tomatoes for this summer? Please let me know your techniques. Thanks for reading! New “Late Bloomer” episodes coming soon! – Kaye