Planted them out Monday 16 February, about a month before our frost-free date. They are in 10-gallon grow bags set along a south-facing exterior garage wall, fairly well protected from our cold north winds. The light-colored wall should reflect light and give them a “solar push” now while the days are still short. Three each Bush Early Girl and Siletz, both of which varieties are cold-tolerant, early maturing determinates.
When we get nights below 40, I will carry them inside the garage and bring them out again in the morning. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights are predicted to be in the 30’s here, so I will have a chance to “field test” their portability.
Both have a DTM of about 60 days. If I get ripe tomatoes by the first week of May, I will consider it a win. I have a backup set of seedlings for these still indoors, as well as a couple trays of my “regular season” tomatoes. NE Texas.
by NPKzone8a
6 Comments
Interesting! Seems like if it works, could be even easier with smaller varieties that can handle 5 gal or maybe even less. The soil would risk getting colder faster but easier to move inside and also would warm up even faster on nice days. Will be curious to see your results!
My back hurts just thinking about moving those over and over again
You’ll likely have tomatoes ready for harvest by mid April if everything goes well. Those are plus sized transplants. I also transplanted six tomatoes on the 16th, but my transplants were tiny in comparison to yours. I think the earliest tomato I have is more like 72 days to Maturity. Most years, I have something break color right at the end of April or the first week of May.
I’ve almost planted “Stupice” a time or two for an even earlier tomato option. Some seed sellers list Stupice at 50-52 days to maturity.
There was a guy in the Denver sub last year that planted outside a full month before last frost. He had tomatoes at least a full month before me so I’m deliberately growing extra seed starts this year to put a few sacrificial ones outside earlier than usual.
They look good. I am looking forward to hearing how things progress over the next few months. I started seeds for the cold-tolerant early-season varieties I mentioned in your first post about early-bird tomatoes. I hope to have them hardening off by early April and planted out between April 15th and 22nd. Hard to envision right now, though, since there is about a foot of snow in my backyard right now.
Meanwhile my zone 8 hitting 27F