Last summer, as I was dragging a heavy 2-gallon sprayer down the tomato rows, I said to The Husband, "Don't let me plant this many tomatoes EVER AGAIN." Trying to keep ahead of the blight and the tomato worms and the critters that eat the tomatoes right off the vine was a never-ending battle.
I can't remember how many tomato plants we ended up with last year. We started with 24 from a greenhouse, then added a few that I started from seeds. A tree fell across the garden at some point and took out several tomatoes and some peppers. In any case, we had fewer tomato plants last year than we'd planted in years.
A few weeks ago, I found packets of tomato seeds - 4 different kinds - in the freezer and decided to start all my plants from seeds this year. Around the 1st of March, I planted some of them and set them in a tabletop greenhouse that came with its own lamp. I planted about 40 seeds, some of which I imagined would not sprout. I tried to be careful to just get ONE SEED per seed-starting "cell."
Well, they all sprouted. And there was more than one plant per cell. About a week ago, I took out the extra plant from each cell and put it in its own bigger container. Had about 8 or 10 of those. Of course, the extras no longer fit in the tabletop greenhouse, so they've been living on the front porch for a week and are doing fine.
With all that's been going on around here this past week - almost getting hit by a tornado, starting a flooring project, work stuff - I have more or less ignored the tabletop greenhouse crop, except to keep water in the saucer. Today, I noticed that the plants had grown tall enough to touch the light. They were a strange yellow/gold color, as if they'd been sunburned. And there were 5" long roots growing out the bottom of the cells.
I went to the Dollar General, got some peat pots, and came home and began transplanting the sickly-looking things. Some of the cells STILL had two plants in them, though I thought I'd thinned them all. One or two cells even had THREE plants in it.
Long story short (I know, too late), we have 60 tomato plants now living on our front porch. There are 4 varieties - Black Kirm, Ruby something-or-other, De-something or other, and one more that I can't recall at all. I have no clue which is which. Some of them are smooth-leaved, some are kind of hairy. Some have reddish stalks.
WE ARE NOT PLANTING 60 TOMATO PLANTS THIS YEAR.
There's probably no need to worry. If half of them survive this transplant and their sojourn on the front porch until planting time, it'll be a miracle.
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