The safe date for last frost is 10 - 12 weeks away for us in Northern Alberta. We have had the pepper seeds going since New Years Day but now it is time to start the tomato plants. Seedling tomatoes can be planted very deep in the planters. Burying the base of the plant 6-8" down means that the lower part of the stock under the soil level become a strong root. I like the seedlings to be 14-20" when we plant them so that means starting them now. You can bury them down 6-8" like we do, or you can lay the seedling on its side for a day and it will stand up vertical somewhere in the 6-8" area up from the soil level. You can than dig a small trench / hole in to plant the horizontal portion below the soil surface which accomplishes the same thing as just burying them 6-8" straight down. Alright I am getting ahead of myself by talking about planting when I haven't even sowed the seeds yet.
Starting the seeds looks pretty well identical to starting the pepper seeds. Normal process of soaking the dirt pods ahead of time to make them puff up and be ready to receive the seeds.
So lets get our seeds laid out and organized in some sort of planting order.
Notice that there is a generous selection of great heirloom tomato seeds sent to us by @karenfoster. Very excited to get these guys started!!
The seeds that are being started are :
4 - Patio climber tomatoes
4 - Siletz Tomatoes
4 - Oregon Spring Tomatoes
4 - Roma Tomatoes
4 - Yellow Pear Cherry Tomatoes
4 - Black Krim Tomatoes
4 - Goldilocks Dwarf Tomatoes
4 - Pink Boar Tomatoes
4 - Tomatillo
8 - Inca Berries
4 - Paprika Alma Sweet Peppers
I use a toothpick with a wet end to grab each seed and place it.
The toothpick method provides way more control then any seed spreader I have used in the past.
Just keep plugging away and put a seed in each pod until they are all filled.
As easy as that! Throw the lid on, place the incubator tray back on the heating pad, and wait for the little guys to sprout up!
It is a long weekend in Canada this weekend so we have done a lot of seedling things. Trying to use every minute of free time to make our gardening better. I will be putting up an update post of the rest of the seedling and also the new grow lights we picked up!
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