Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Last fall and last winter, I planted tomatoes from seed. Being almost a native from the east coast, this may seem strange because it is not done in the northeast. Then, I tried planting seeds during the summer - repeatedly unsuccessful.

This week, I received in tomato seeds with a map on the back, indicating that in my area, it is time to plant -September. One of the packages was the expensive, foil wrapped, heirloom sampler of 10 different tomatoes. I planted some yesterday. If they make it, I will order a backup selection of US made heirloom seeds.

The seeds from the PRC failed for myself and other people from what was posted on line.

I'm debating if I want to plant tomatoes this fall or not. I still have some clearing to do in the garden before I even think about it.

It is now, November 2020. Have planted seeds and transplanted tomato seedlings. Things became active at the end of October, having planted at the end of September. I still don't understand (Region 8) why tomato growing works when it is now down to the 40s at night. Started counting tomatoes on plants that were up in September. I have 20 containers on the patio.

At one time, I had a garden where some of the fruit trees are today. Kid was in elementary school. I took enough tomatoes to his class that each pupil took home three tomatoes.

One kind of guava is starting to ripen. With 4 different species, each has fruit come ripe at different times. Have a number of Cheromoya fruits on the tree. Harvesting on that is late December.

Will have no more oranges and avocados than I had last season.

I did not have luck trying to start tomatoes from store bought seeds.
So, I picked up 5 free tree black plastic containers and added them to what I already had, bought 3 pony packs. 17 cherry tomato plants are thriving. This time around, I put a nice layer of peat moss at the top of each container to generate heat. It worked and within 2 weeks, the plants were flowering. Tomatoes bloom and set fruit only when the soil/ground reaches a certain temperature.

Had no luck with broccoli. It flowered too early. To my surprise, radishes had proven hit or miss over the years. So this year it will be tomatoes. The cherry plants can last until season 2.

I just planted tomatoes last week.... early here, but needed time to sprout.
First time I did it by the sliced tomato method ( not hybrid but normal tomatoes ... you slice them up and bury the slices.)
Hope it works... friend said to try it. Time will tell and still in a couple week if NG, plant store bought plants.

Be interesting to see if the slice method works for you.