Hardening off seedlings on a mainly sunshiny day. I can see tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, Brussels sprouts, and bok choi. Some are for now, some a little down the line. I’ve been transplanting steadily bit by bit, rather than all out … Read the rest
Transplants, like these tomatoes, do well in mostly overcast, even rainy weather for the first two or three days. Funny the way things in life can turn in an instant. One minute it’s put them in the sun, the next, … Read the rest
The Big Beef tomatoes on the left look so much bigger, healthier, greener, than the ones right, and they were planted a couple of weeks later. Both are in the same sized plug sheets. Both get the same time under … Read the rest
Tomato check-in, around a month after germination. On the left, the pair of plain, generic-looking seed leaves that come first—they’re still stuck together at the tip by a tiny bit of the seed shell. On the right, the true tomato … Read the rest
Around two weeks from germination, and the tomatoes are spreading their leaves and aiming for the sun. These Big Beef are growing together in a tray and will be separated into their own cells of soil, and maybe even small … Read the rest
In the spirit of dog years and fast-growing plants, this tomato seedling at about 10 days from germination is a toddler, or maybe more an infant. Root, stem, then leaves push out of the seed and up to the light, … Read the rest
The generally reliable Big Beef variety, five days old. Always the little miracle to see dry specks of seed germinate with a little warmth and moisture, and to imagine them in four or five months, sprawled around the field (or … Read the rest