Planting seeds and Transplanting Tomatoes

Warmer weather has enticed me to go ahead and get things in the ground.  Benjamin helped me start sowing seeds.  Below he's planting some Roma II Italian beans. These are really a favorite of our family.  Romas are a flat snap bean that are hard to beat as far as flavor goes.  Benjamin and I work as a team in planting to make it go quickly.  After the seedbed is prepared, I make holes at appropriate depths and distances and Benjamin drops the seeds in the holes and covers them.

There's something about planting seeds that is special.  The anticipation, the faith, the work.  It creates an excitement that I think is hard-wired into us.  Benjamin and I planted the following beans/peas so far:

• Contender Green Beans
• Roma II Italian Beans
• Dragon Tongue Beans
• Chinese Mosaic Long Beans
• Rattlesnake Pole Beans
• Peanuts
• Purple Hull Pinkeye cowpeas
• Razorback cowpeas
• Blackeyed Peas

A simple seed

In addition to seeds, it is now time to start getting our little plants that we've been nurturing since the very beginning of January into the ground.  I moved the tomatoes out to the cold frame and have been hardening them off.  In order to hedge my bets, I've been moving them out slowly, one or two varieties at a time.  That way, if we have a big storm or a late freeze, I won't lose the entire crop.

These are the varieties of heirloom tomatoes we have planted for the 2014 crop year:

• Thessaloniki
• Abu Rawan
• Valenciano 749 (saved from a previous year)
• Black Krim
• Arkansas Traveler
• Mortgage Lifter
• Money maker (saved from a previous year)
• Organic Beefsteak
• Reisentraube
• Gypsy
• Amish Paste
• Big Rainbow
• Black from Tula
• Pink Brandywine

Tomato plants in the cold frame wanting to get their roots into the garden soil.

Ready to spread their roots out and GROW!!

So one variety at a time, I bring them out and get ready to plant, ensuring that my spacing is good.  The LSU AgCenter planting guide says to plant them 16 - 24 inches apart.  I keep good records of transplant dates and the row I planted each variety on.   

You can see how i have a 20 foot tape measure anchored and stretched out.  I mark each 18 inch place at which I'll be planting the tomato plants.

Healthy Pink Brandywine Tomato Plants

You can tell that the plants are tall and slightly 'leggy.'  The nice thing about tomatoes is that you can plant them deep as the stem will create roots, so I dig a deep hole.  The ground is nice and soft though and not hard at all to dig with my knife.  The moisture in the soil was perfect.

Digging a hole

If your tomatoes are too tall and leggy and you don't plant them deep, you risk breakage in high winds and droopy, weak plants.  Setting them deep in the hole gives them some strength.

Planting the tomato

Now I simply fill in the hole with dirt, give the ground a pat and that right there is a happy tomato.  In 60 - 75 days (if the Good Lord's willing) we'll be picking our first tomatoes!

A healthy, happy tomato

Since planting we had some weather in the upper 30's along with winds and an inch of rain and so far all of the tomatoes have weathered the storms nicely and are still looking good.  I'll try to get the rest of them planted this week.  I heard a funny saying this week that goes like this:

I'm so excited it's Spring that I wet my Plants!