First Sign of a Tomato - Week 9, Day 63

Last weekend, I got my first sight of a tomato forming. Now a week later, I have over 20! Start looking in the middle of the flowers for a little green tomato. Pretty exciting!

Types of Tomato Leaves

There are 2 basic types of tomato leaves, potato (PL) and regular (RL). When you are planting different heirloom tomatoes it is important to make sure that the seeds you have gotten are what's advertised. In the few I am planting this year, the Brandywine Sudduth Strain is the only potato leaf. More information can be found on gardenweb about tomato leaves.
PLs are more rounded.

How To Plant Tomato Plants In The Ground

Planting tomatoes is very similar to planting anything else with one small exception. It's a good idea to trim the bottom few sets of leaves off and plant the tomato deeper in the ground. You can see on the picture small spikes coming off the stem. These will turn into roots!

1. Trim with gardening sheers the lower few sets of leaves

2. Dig hole and measure height up to new lowest branch

3. Remove from pot. This seems easier with the plant is dry. 

4. Plant and cover with soil up to new lowest branch

5. Water

If you are going to support your tomato plants with a stake go ahead and put it in the ground so you don't damage the roots later.

That's it. There are tons of youtube videos on how to do this and sometimes it's better to watch than read.

Note for next year: Peat Pots might not be such a great idea. The roots can grow into the side of the pots and get stuck. Plastic pots might be better plus you can reuse them and not have to waste $.

Edit: The small spikes/hairs coming off of the tomato stem are called Trichomes. From wikipedia: "Hairs on plants are extremely variable in their presence across species, location on plant organs, density (even within a species), and therefore functionality. However, several basic functions or advantages of having surface hairs can be listed. It is likely that in many cases, hairs interfere with the feeding of at least some small herbivores and, depending upon stiffness and irritability to the "palate", large herbivores as well. Hairs on plants growing in areas subject to frost keep the frost away from the living surface cells. In windy locations, hairs break-up the flow of air across the plant surface, reducing evaporation. Dense coatings of hairs reflect solar radiation, protecting the more delicate tissues underneath in hot, dry, open habitats. And in locations where much of the available moisture comes from cloud drip, hairs appear to enhance this process."
The roots that come out of the stem are called adventitious roots. From wikipedia: "Adventitious roots arise out-of-sequence from the more usual root formation of branches of a primary root, and instead originate from the stem, branches, leaves, or old woody roots. They commonly occur in monocots and pteridophytes, but also in many dicots, such as clover (Trifolium), ivy (Hedera), strawberry (Fragaria) and willow (Salix). Most aerial roots and stilt roots are adventitious. In some conifers adventitious roots can form the largest part of the root system."

All Grown Up - Week 7, Day 49

Well, well, well...The plants have grown up and I have procrastinated. I will soon post an entry on how to plant the plants in the garden. Meanwhile, I realized Green Zebra is not a true heirloom. Stay tuned for more on heirloom tomatoes plus a post on potato leaf versus regular leaf.

Miracle-Gro - Week 4, Day 29

Nothing that new this week. The plants are growing up before my eyes. I used Miracle-Gro Tomato Plant Food mixed in with my water this weekend. I have read bad reviews of Miracle-Gro but my experiences have only been positive.

Update - Week 3, Day 21

Well, I'm already not living up to my promise. I took the pictures on Sunday but was too lazy to post (it's Tuesday now). I have done a pretty poor job of tracking my original plants but of the total I have planted and have physically made it so far (ones that survived the dogs and umbrella incidents) only 3 turned out to be duds. I think that's a pretty good germination rate.
Today I'd like to talk/post/quote wikipedia about the first 2 leaves called Cotyledon leaves. Here is the except from wikipedia:

A cotyledon (pronounced /ˌkɒtəl.ˈiːdən/; "seed leaf" from Greek: κοτυληδών kotylēdōn, from κοτύλη kotýlē "cup, bowl") is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant. Upon germination, the cotyledon may become the embryonic first leaves of a seedling. The number of cotyledons present is one characteristic used by botanists to classify the flowering plants(angiosperms). Species with one cotyledon are called monocotyledonous (or, "monocots") and placed in the class Liliopsida. Plants with two embryonic leaves are termed dicotyledonous ("dicots") and placed in the class Magnoliopsida.

In the case of dicot seedlings whose cotyledons are photosynthetic, the cotyledons are functionally similar to leaves. However, true leaves and cotyledons are developmentally distinct. Cotyledons are formed during embryogenesis, along with the root and shoot meristems, and are therefore present in the seed prior to germination. True leaves, however, are formed post-embryonically (i.e. after germination) from the shoot apical meristem, which is responsible for generating subsequent aerial portions of the plant.

I find that pretty interesting and as you can see from the picture the first true leaves are forming!!!

Status: Truckin'

Part 2 Small Setbacks - Week 2, Day 16

As you know I planted half my seeds week 0 and then half week 1. The 1st batch I put in my fire pit which protects them from my dogs. The 1st half filled up the entire pit so the 2nd half was put on the ground. Big mistake! It got attacked by my dogs so I replanted. After learning my mistake, I moved the newly replanted 2nd half into my wheelbarrow away from the dogs. Today a freak accident happened. Our umbrella was knocked over by the wind and hit the wheelbarrow spilling 4 of my 2nd half seedling. Planting #4 will take place by the end of the week. It looks like a Yellow Pear, 2 Kellogg's Breakfast,  and a Green Zebra got taken out. Oh well, it's still early.