how old are most of the 6 pack tomato plant sold at stores??

[fancie]

was curious how long before spring I need to plant them so they look as good as the ones I normally buy each year.

also, for tomatoes and peppers... is there any trick to harvesting the seeds so they are growable next year.... I have never tried but this year I want to start my own heirloom? plants.

 

[bid]

Start your seeds about 8 weeks before your expected last frost date. That will give them time to reach a respectable size before you harden them off and transplant them to your garden.

Peppers you need to let mature on the plant to save the seeds. For example, bell peppers you would want to turn red (or whatever color) before harvesting. Let a few tomatos really ripen on the vine before picking and you should have viable seeds for next season.
Good luck!

 

[curly_kate]

I think they must start theirs in January because I started a few Jan 1 this year, and they are about as tall as the ones at garden centers, but not nearly as full. :/ I don't think my gro-lights can compete with a greenhouse.

 

[2dream]

I have not tried it yet but I understand that Tomato seeds have to ferment first. There were directions on how to do this in this years Farmers Almanac. But I am sure there are directions all over the internet.

I started my purchased tomato seed in February. My plants were not as large as the ones you can purchase but they seem to be outgrowing those. All my started seed are now larger than the plants we purchased.

 

[mtn_penny]

Saving pepper seeds--- I am going to have to disagree about the letting them stay on the vine. I bought some bell peppers at the grocery store a couple months ago, saved the seeds drying them only a day or so then popped them into the garden and they are all sprouting nicely.

 

[digitS']

Never be discouraged by comparing what you grow and what you see at the garden center. Those plants have been "pumped" to encourage sales. And, there's not a whole lot more value beyond that.

The varieties are often chosen on the basis of their visual appeal at a very early age - not their productivity in the garden or taste at the table. Fertilizer has been injected into the water that flood those seedling, every day. Greenhouse conditions are carefully controlled. Hereabouts, even light is supplemented.

If their plants begin to get "rangy" - the greenhouse growers will spray them with a growth-retardant.

Finally, these hot-house creatures show up at the garden center where they had better be gone in a matter of hours. Otherwise, they begin to show the results of the suffering from the move outside their pampered environment.

Your own plant starts can make the move outdoors more easily, and be more healthy and more productive in the garden. They can be in enormously greater variety and have more personal appeal than anything - anything - you can get at the garden center.

Steve

 

[vfem]

Ok, I swear garden center tomato starters are on some kind of whacked out hormone or steriod! I started mine in the house and some in January, some in Febuary. Nothing came to be anywhere as large as the nursery plants i've had.

I moved my plants outside hardening them off for a week and half. Then half mine died and they other half thrived like jungle plants!!! However, I bought 3 nursery plants to replace some of the ones that died. So now, I have a monster tomato plant trying to swallow all the rest of what I have out there.... but everyone is green and healthy so who cares who's producing first you know!!!

As for saving heirloom seeds.... PatandChickens had a GREAT idea.

I am trying it this year too. She suggests that you self pollinate a few flowers by hand on your heirloom plants. Then wrap them in a mesh netting as to keep bees and other pollinators off that flower until the flower falls off and the tomato starts to develop... this prevents cross polination from surroundning plants so you have a true heirloom plant next year. Leave the netting around that tomato vine but not over the tomato. Let it ripen really good and harvest it knowing that is the one you are keeping seeds from.

I've already started this with my first brandywine tomatoes. I think now is the perfect time since everything is JUST starting to blossom and I have more control over each plant now, before I get over whelmed with TOO many tomatoes and flowers and vines to keep track of all of them!!! (I have 12 different kinds.)

Good luck!!!!!!!

 

[bid]

Saving pepper seeds--- I am going to have to disagree about the letting them stay on the vine. I bought some bell peppers at the grocery store a couple months ago, saved the seeds drying them only a day or so then popped them into the garden and they are all sprouting nicely.

I should have been clearer on that. Yes, you can get viable seeds from "immature" peppers because the seed is mature. But, I think you get more viable seed per pepper from a mature fruit. It certainly doesn't mean you can't grow from green peppers you have saved seed from.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Beautifully explained digitS',

The only veg plants I buy in are the ones I can buy from our local Womens' Institute Stall at the market every Tuesday. If I see a variety I haven't grown before I purchase it. The plants have been grown by local gardeners who are as mad as me about their veggies & flowers. They also give great advice. At the Farmers' Market (every 2nd Tues of the month) there are usually 2 or 3 local semi-professional gardeners who also sell their own vegetable & herb plants which are of a wonderful quality. I keep well away from the stuff sold in the supermarkets in packs of 6! I have never had any luck with them in the past -- before I tried growing my own!

Happy Gardening :happy_flower

:rose Hattie :rose