I spent two days planting dozens of varieties of tomatoes in peat pellets. This year, because of our little seed business (which has been very encouraging), we are going to plant more than 30 open pollinated varieties of tomatoes in our garden. We won’t be planting a whole lot of each one, as we would run out of garden. But each plant produces hundreds of tomatoes (usually) and that’s a lot of seed! I’ve got another order of some new tomato varieties coming from Sand Hill Preservation Center so will be planting those as soon as they come in.

Planting-tomatoes
Wow, what a bunch of tomatoes! Of course we’ve also planted our old favorites such as Bill Bean, Punta Banda, Old German, and others. We’ve also developed our own variety of tomato called Early Firefall and have found seeds from an old favorite, Early Cascade. Early Cascade was a hybrid, sold by Seminis, which was bought out by Monsanto. (What haven’t they bought out?) Early Cascade was promptly dumped. But some breeders in Canada bred Early Cascade back from hybrid to stabilized open pollinated and are now selling seeds. I bought a big pack and we’ll also be offering these. Early Cascade was one of my very favorites and always produced big, early crops of plum-sized, tasty, beautiful tomatoes, no matter where we lived.

Hey guys, I’ve been asked to pass along the word; some of you are asking questions in the comments section. Sometimes questions in the comments section get missed. So if you have questions, please feel free to click the link at the top of this blog and fill out the form for your question. Then just click the “Ask Jackie a question button” and an e-mail will be generated and sent to me.

Will-cutting-boards
Will’s busy working on our front porch as the weather has moderated, temporarily anyway. He’s staining boards for the roof/ceiling indoors, then taking them out to nail up. It’s kind of slow going that way because if he does too many, the fumes get bad. So he does a few, takes them out and nails them up and repeats the process. It’s kind of “full” in our living room with the scaffold to put up the medallion in there, plus many roof boards drying out and being stained. My little chair is way back in the corner; I feel like I’m in time out! But seriously it’s great to see such progress. And spring is yet to come. — Jackie

9 COMMENTS

  1. Brad & Rhona,

    I love their company too. Lots of choices new every year, as well as some old friends. And we, too, prefer to support family businesses over corporate giants.

  4. Just Me,

    Wow, I’m so happy they popped up for you that quick. Mine usually come up in about 4-5 days. I do think husky, organic seeds DO germinate faster than hybrids from big box stores. And produce better, too.
    If your seedlings got too leggy from not enough light, don’t worry. When you transplant peat pellet and seedling to another larger container, just bury the tomato up to the leaves in a good seed starting/potting medium. The stem will develop roots all along it and it will be leggy no more.

  5. Just to let you know that we have purchased seeds from Sand Hill Preservation for many years and always have been very satisfied. We are all for supporting small business.

  7. Wow! Am I getting nervous! We have decided to plant only open pollinated heirlooms from now on! Do you know if any legislation is being put in place to stop the seed conglomerates from manufacturing products that would attack and destroy any Heirloom/Open pollinated varieties? (You can regard this as a question if you’d like….)

  8. Thanks for the idea. The pic of you planting tomato seeds showed me how to separate the different thiings I’m starting. I thought I was going to have to buy a bunch of cups or something to put the peat pellets in. See, even when you don’t intend to you help us learn!

  9. Jackie,
    Wanted to let you know your tomato seeds should come with a warning label on them: Warning: keep a close eye on these.
    I planted tomato seeds (each variety you offer) on the 10th of this month. Yesterday (the 20th) I took the lid off of the “mini greenhouses” and there were several that were 2″ tall (the Bill Bean & the Old German) and starting to send roots out of the bottom of the Jiffy pellets. One of the Bill Bean’s was 3″ tall. I’ve never had seeds take off like that before. I’m really looking forward to this year’s tomato crop.

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