Cherry Tomato Seedlings

All of the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato seeds that I started two weeks ago (see this blog entry) have germinated.

This is the highest germination rate that I have ever archived.

In the picture above, you can see that the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato seeds did not germinate uniformly. Half of the seeds germinated at the end of the first week. The others germinated over the next several days. The last seed took 12 days to germinate.

Seed Starting 2011

Today, I started my seedlings. This is about 2 weeks later than I have done in the past (see this blog entry).

Last year, we had a very wet and cold first months of the year. As a result, my seedlings did not develop (see this blog entry).

Since we had a wet and cold December, I did not want to take any chances that this year will be a repeat of last year. As a consequence, I am dividing my seed starting in phases. Today, I started my Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes. Next month, I will start my Winter Melons. In March, I plan to start my Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomatoes.

I am planting a lot less variety of seeds than I have done in the past (see this blog entry). This is a matter of economics (see this blog entry). I have limited space in my garden and I get the most return from planting only Cherry Tomatoes and Winter Melons.

Another change from the past is that I am using regular 4" square pots instead of the APS-24 and APS-6 units. Since I am only planting 8 seeds, it did not make sense to use the APS-24. I also don't have to deal with Algae problems (see this blog entry). I just have to be disciplined to water the pots regularly, as the biggest benefit of the APS units is that they are self watering.