Alberta

About half of my toms have their first set of true leaves, and the other half which I sowed about a month back have almost all sprouted, they have only their seed leaves.

This week I have to choose the best of the best for my own garden, the rest go to a charity sale next weekend. These cups of toms that I save for myself start getting planted I hope this week. I'm still in the process of getting the tom beds ready. As for size of the tomato seedlings I'm not worried, I've often planted them with just their seed leaves and they do great. I do add a little protection for the seedling with an uncapped and bottomless water bottle. The bottle doesn't serve so much as a frost protectant, especially since frost is very unlikely now. The bottle is protective against slugs and snails and birds that are looking for a tasty green treat. I sometimes have problems with birds, cardnials mostly, stealing seedlings--so the bottles are an excellent theft deterrent. I remove the bottles when the seedling has grown so large that its leaves touch the bottle walls.

I will be planting tomato seedlings for the next couple of weeks--the practical thing about planting them out ASAP is that I don't have to water and tend to them every day. I have at least forty seedlings to get int the ground, so I'll be happy when they're all planted out.

T

Alberta