It's Time to Start Tomato Seeds (here in California)

If you want tomatoes in the ground by late April or early May, it would be good to get your seeds started sometime in the next two weeks. This gives you time for a second seeding if something goes awry in the first go around.

I’m trying several new varieties this year, as I usually do, along with a good portion of old favorites. We usually get our first ripe cherry tomatoes in June, and our first slicers by July. That seems a long way away!

In order to make room in the house for tomato seedlings, I had to move the pepper seedlings out to the yard. Usually I pot them up into 4” containers and stash them in the greenhouse. But I decided to try something new, and plant them directly into the beds where they will be eventually growing. This could fail.

It’s still a little chilly at night, and the birds are always ravenous for young seedlings. So, Tom and I got out the PVC pipes and Agribon and covered the beds of peppers. They were fine last night, and hopefully they will continue to be so. They won’t do much growing for the next few weeks, at least nothing that we can see. But underground, the roots will be unfurling and establishing and getting a good start, and by the time April rolls around (with, very likely, the hot weather that usually accompanies it) the peppers will shoot up and we can remove the covers.

I had an entire day outdoors on Saturday, working on all of this. It felt very much like spring, getting my hands dirty and sunburning the back of my neck. Here’s to summer veg!

It's Time to Start Pepper Seeds (at least here in California)

I learned just in the last couple of years that it’s best to start pepper seeds long before starting tomato seeds. Tomatoes germinate and grow quickly, so if you sow them in March, they’ll be ready to plant out late April to early May. Peppers take a much longer time to germinate, especially, and their growth is also quite a bit slower. Last winter was the first time I started peppers in January, and we were eating our first ripe red ones by the end of June, early July. Which, in my opinion, is excellent.

My seeding trays fit 50 2x2 inch soil blocks, and I sow two seeds per block, to insure that I’ll get at least one viable seedling of each variety. In about a month, these will probably need to be potted up to 4” containers, and then in March it will be warm enough to take them outside to the greenhouse. That will leave my seeding table empty and available for tomatoes.

*** By the way, I have a ton of seeds left over, some from each year since 2018. If you’d like to grow your own peppers this year, please let me know and I’m happy to give you some seeds. The Johnny’s hybrid seeds, in particular, are a bit pricey, and I would rather have them be used than go to waste.

My seeding setup is quite simple: A table, a towel, a heat mat (for under the tray, to keep things warm for the germination process), and a light - that’s it. The seeds don’t need light until they germinate, but they need heat the entire time. Usually I set this up in our bedroom, but that’s where Tom’s “office” is this year, so I guess the living room will have to do.

We’ve had temperatures a full 20 degrees higher than normal this time of year, and there have already been wildfire starts in southern California, so it’s going to be a doozy of a year. No rain in sight, either. This weather does make us want to be outdoors all the time, so we’ve indulged that craving - getting compost dug and plants side dressed, brewing beer, pruning trees, and of course the ever-present chore of weeding. I used organic rice straw to mulch everything last year, and that was a mistake - I have rice germinating all over the place. However, I also have winter garden seeds germinating too! So that’s a nice side effect of this weather.

Greenhouse Thermometer

Our greenhouse isn’t much to look at, just some old redwood fencing and plastic sheeting that we repurposed with the help of my dad, but its creation several years ago revolutionized my efficiency. Tom went to the trouble to figure out mathematically how to build the shelves inside to best capture the angle of the sun, particularly in winter. I don’t have anything in there right now, but starting March 1, the first batch of pepper seedlings will need to move in here to make room for tomato seedlings in the house. I’ll also start a lot of flower seeds, and squash/melon seeds at the same time, and just keep them in the greenhouse.

In an effort to maximize efficiency, I decided to buy a cheap greenhouse thermometer from Govee. This has allowed me to see, from my phone, the temperature and humidity inside it, without opening the door and letting out all the heat. If you allow Govee to have a lot of information about you, you can also make some neat charts and get a history of temps over time, wherever the thermometer is placed. I didn’t allow that, but I’m still able to collect enough data to get an accurate picture of what’s happening in there. Last week, I added a bowl of water to see if that would affect the humidity. I’m not sure it has, actually. But the data is interesting and it caused me to ask some more questions about humidity and its relationship to heat.

Here’s a morning reading:

You can see that temp and humidity are at about the same level.

Now, here’s an afternoon reading (the door is closed, remember):

Notice how, when the temperature rises, the humidity level goes low. I couldn’t figure this out, so I asked Tom to explain it to me. That allowed us to do some research together about it. Now, I know some of you probably already know this, but I did not, and I’m guessing some other folks don’t either. So bear with me as I share what I learned.

Relative humidity represents a percentage of water vapor in the air that changes when temperature changes. Warm air holds MUCH more moisture than cold air. So when it’s very warm, the air is ‘holding on’ to the moisture, and when it’s cool, the air can’t hold on to it, releasing it into the atmosphere. For instance, a rain cloud can only release its moisture when it cools down enough. That’s one of the reasons rain clouds are higher in the sky - it is colder as you get higher. 100% humidity makes a cloud, but it won’t release water until it’s cold enough to do so.

So, roughly, when the air in the greenhouse is at a very high temperature, it is ‘holding on’ to the moisture and I get a low humidity reading. But when it cools off at night, the air ‘releases’ the moisture, allowing it to be read by my thermometer.

Does that make sense?

Now, when there are plants in the greenhouse, they will be photosynthesizing; taking the sun’s energy and converting it to sugars to be taken to the root of the plant. While this is happening, the plant is transpiring - releasing moisture from the leaves. Photosynthesis ‘pulls’ the water up from the root of the plant to the leaf of the plant, where it is released into the air (there’s a complex process of using some of the water in the process of photosynthesis which we can leave out for the purposes of this conversation). Will this increase the humidity in the greenhouse? It won’t be happening at night, because there is no photosynthesis at night (for the most part - some plants do this but not the ones I’m talking about, usually only desert plants). It will be interesting to see the results of that.

The thing to remember is that air circulation is the MOST important thing about greenhouse management. If the air doesn’t circulate, the plants will have too much humid air around them, therefore they won’t be able to make any more water evaporate, and that means no nutrients will be coming up from the soil. So open your greenhouse doors during the day when plants are in there, no matter how much you want to keep them closed. Open the greenhouse during the day and close it up at night to keep things warm and snug.

Let's Go

This has been a big weekend for the garden. Well, honestly the garden itself hasn’t changed much, but a lot of work went in to preparing it for spring and summer. Since it looks like we will no longer be dipping into the 30’s at night, I took off all the row cover and the PVC hoops. It feels great to get all of that gear put away, and leave the beds open to the elements.

Everything I planted last October is being eaten now (except garlic and shallots, those won’t be ready for another 2-3 months). Some things, like the Asian and mustard greens, and the Lacinato kale, are starting to form flower heads. I’ll let them bloom for the bees, and also maybe collect some seed. The broccoli and cauliflower just keep producing, there’s leeks and carrots and parsnips, peas and favas and chard. It’s fabulous.

But now it’s time to start thinking about the summer garden! And in that vein, I sowed all my tomatoes and peppers today. I’m planning for about 40 plants of each, but planted twice as much (insurance against something failing) and if I have extras, I’ll give them to friends. One of Adam’s friends has decided to start a small backyard garden and she’s already asked me for a few! That makes me happy, that a young person is getting into growing food.

Tom made me a bunch of tiny seed blocks, so I was able to fit several hundred seeds within one seed tray and that limits the amount of heating pads/grow lights/space we need indoors, which is terrific. In about 2-3 weeks, I’ll pot those plugs up into larger seed blocks, and I can avoid using compostable cups (which have their limitations) and I can put them straight into gallons after that. My goal is to get them in the ground in very late April or the first weekend of May.

I have mostly seeded old favorites, but I have quite a few new varieties to try as well, many that were given to me by friends. Here’s what I planted. Click on the name to link you to where to purchase (or just to drool at the pictures).

Cherry/Grape/Saladette tomatoes: Sun Gold (Johnny’s, hybrid), Red Calabash (Baker Creek, heirloom), Principe Borghese (Seed Savers, heirloom), Pink Boar (Wild Boar Seeds, hybrid), Zebrino (Paramount Seeds, hybrid), Chadwick Cherry (Seeds of Change, heirloom), Blue Gold Berries (Wild Boar Farms, hybrid), Sasha Altai (Tomato Fest, heirloom), Rosalita (Tomato Fest, heirloom), Black and Brown Boar (Wild Boar Farms, hybrid), Brad’s Atomic Grape (Wild Boar Farms, hybrid), Indigo Apple (Wild Boar Farms, hybrid), Orange Peach (Southern Exposure, heirloom), Goluboy Les (Delectation of Tomatoes, heirloom), Austin’s Red Pear (Seed Savers Exchange, heirloom), Beam’s Yellow Pear (Seed Savers Exchange, heirloom), Black Vernissage (Totally Tomatoes, heirloom), Black Cherry (Baker Creek, heirloom)

Beefsteak/Slicer tomatoes: Vorlon (Renaissance Farms, heirloom), German Pink (Seed Savers, heirloom), Terra Cotta (Baker Creek, heirloom), Crnkovic Yugoslavian (Seed Savers, heirloom), Black from Tula (Seed Savers, heirloom), Kolb (Seed Savers, heirloom), Kellogg’s Breakfast (Baker Creek, heirloom), Dr. Wyche’s Yellow (Baker Creek, heirloom), Dester (Seed Savers, heirloom), Cherokee Purple (Baker Creek, heirloom), Black Krim (Baker Creek, heirloom), Carbon (Baker Creek, heirloom), Lucid Gem (Wild Boar Farms, hybrid), Arkansas Traveler (Totally Tomatoes, heirloom), Pork Chop (Wild Boar Farms, hybrid)

Paste/Plum tomatoes: Italian Heirloom (Seed Savers, heirloom) , Gezahnte (Baker Creek, heirloom), Hungarian Heart (Baker Creek, heirloom) , Amish Paste (Seed Savers, heirloom), Ukrainian Purple (Seed Savers, heirloom), Pozzano (Johnny’s, hybrid), Opalka (Seed Savers, heirloom)

And here’s the pepper list:

Hot peppers: Jalapeno Traveler’s Strain (Seed Savers, heirloom) , Joe’s Long Cayenne (Seed Savers, heirloom), Thai (Seed Savers, heirloom), Highlander (Johnny’s, hybrid), Red Ember (Johnny’s, hybrid), Hot Rod (Johnny’s, hybrid), Tampequino Serrano (Baker Creek, heirloom), Hot Portugal (Seed Savers, heirloom), Ethiopian Brown (Baker Creek, heirloom)

Sweet peppers: Tolli’s Sweet Italian (Seed Savers, heirloom), CA Wonder (Baker Creek, heirloom), Lipstick (Baker Creek, heirloom), Yankee Bell (Johnny’s, heirloom), Milena (Johnny’s, hybrid), Red Knight (Johnny’s, hybrid), Shishito (Baker Creek, heirloom), Ruby King (Seed Savers, heirloom), Etiuda (Baker Creek, heirloom), Jupiter (Baker Creek, heirloom), Jimmy Nardello (Seed Savers, heirloom), Chervena Chushka (Seed Savers, heirloom), Buran (Seed Savers, heirloom), Ajvarski (Baker Creek, heirloom), Sheepnose Pimento (Baker Creek, heirloom)

Paprika peppers: Round of Hungary (Johnny’s, heirloom), Leutschauer (Baker Creek, heirloom), Magyar (Renee’s Garden, heirloom), Alma (Seed Savers, heirloom)

More spring news:

I get a newsletter from a farm in upstate New York, called Essex Farm. They provide everything a family needs at their farm - you pay a fee for the year, and you get all your meat, veg, grains, fruit, and value-added products from them. I admire them, and their systems, greatly. If I lived anywhere within an hour of them, I’d be a member. But alas, I have to satisfy myself with reading their weekly member newsletter. (The owner, Kristin Kimball, also wrote a great book called ‘The Dirty Life,’ about meeting her husband Mark and buying the farm. A new book is coming soon, I can’t wait.)

This week’s newsletter (also written by Kristin) had two interesting things I wanted to share. Here’s the first, a very ‘spring’ thing: “A truck just pulled in and dumped twenty yards of potting soil from Vermont Compost onto a tarp north of the greenhouses. Zohar is out there now, making flats with the soil blocker. By the end of the day we’ll have 80 flats of onion seeds in the germination chamber. And so now (as Anne likes to say at this time of year, and despite the low of zero this morning) let the wild rumpus start! The sun is out and soon the greenhouse will be full and we will be listening for the spring peepers, looking for the day the soil in the field is warm and dry enough to work.” Isn’t that great?! And here’s the other one that made me smile: “It’s love season in the pig herd. We bought a boar named Ham Solo just before Valentine’s Day, and turned him in with nine nubile gilts. He seemed overwhelmed at first, but he’s in the zone now. May the force be with you, Ham.”

The spring feeling of ‘something’s coming’ makes me smile. Now, I just have to get through midterms, and I’ll be a much happier person. :)

Soil Blockers

I do a lot of seed starting, beginning now with spring flowers, and then in March all our summer veg, and then again in August for winter veg. I go through a lot of seed mix and I have used and re-used those flimsy plastic seed trays for years. There’s a lot of problems with those seed trays; they tear and break easily, you have to dig out the seedlings to pot them up which often hurts the roots, and they don’t sit well in the flats that are made to go with them. They’re standard: Everyone uses them, but everyone rather dislikes them. Me especially.

I’ve experimented with other ways of starting seeds. You can put them in half an eggshell, you can make little paper pots for them, you can buy ‘cow pots’ made out of manure. You can start them in peat pellets, but peat is a very unsustainable medium. I just wanted a better way. And then I started hearing about soil blockers.

image credit: Lee Valley Tools

People seem to have great luck with these little machines. I figured it was worth a try and asked for them for my birthday. Tom ordered two sizes for me - one is a block of 3/4” squares - there are 20 of those squares in the block. The other is a block of 4 2x2” squares. I experimented with them today to start Iceland Poppies, along with some other seeds. The tiny blocks were good for the poppies because I just scattered the seed over the whole block, those seeds are so tiny. The larger blocks are good for bigger seeds, like sunflowers or beets.

The trick is to really saturate your soil mix. I used an organic seed starting mix made of shredded coconut coir and perlite, with organic worm castings mixed in. You really add a lot of water and let it sit awhile to hydrate. This makes it easier to form the blocks. I have to say that the larger blocks were MUCH easier to make than the small ones.

My examples are not terribly good because I need to put the soil blocks closer together. Otherwise when you water them, they spread all over the place. I’ll just use a spray bottle on these, but in the future, the soil blocks will cover the trays with no gaps between blocks.

One really nice thing about these soil blocks is that you don’t disturb the roots when you transplant them, as you lift the block of roots out whole. No digging, no pricking out, no separating roots.

A lot of folks make wooden trays in which to hold these blocks; three sided trays so the water can run out the other side, and you can slide out the blocks to plant them in your beds. I knew we did not have a lot of time to be building wooden trays; hopefully we’ll make some in the future. Meanwhile I bought some trays I had seen at the Heirloom Seed Festival in Santa Rosa in September. They are made by Bootstrap Farmer. They are super sturdy and will last for years. Plus, they come in fun colors.

The ones on the left are called ‘microgreen trays’ - see how they have a slight bit of drainage in the bottom? These are good to put the soil blocks in. Then I set that tray on top of a regular tray, like the ones on the right, to catch any water, which I reuse. I’m really happy with these trays. Not cheap, but certainly will last longer than those cheap ones.

I seeded a bunch of different flowers today, and those trays are in the greenhouse. It’s really to early to do much of anything, but I wanted to see if I could get those (notoriously difficult) Iceland Poppies to germinate in the next month, so I can plant them out as soon as it starts warming up in February. I also sowed-in-place a million California poppy, Clarkia, Phacelia, and California bluebell seeds all over the pollinator gardens. Hopefully we’ll have a good show in a month or so.