Topic: Making the best of it, with some added optimism

[peanuts]

Over the last few years,  I've found I can buy good quality tomato, pepper, leek, onion, cabbage and sprout plants bare-rooted in the market. So I've gradually stopped sowing veg seeds with the exception of sweetcorn, sprouting broccoli and kale, and all the beans which I sow direct in the ground.

However, times are not normal.  I'm thinking ahead and realising it may not be possible to buy plants in April and May, however I might want to support the growers.  We are in lockdown here.
So, I've dug out my old seeds, carefully kept, and find I've a good selection of my tomato seed, and  commercial courgettes, cucumber and pepper.  Best sown before 2013, and 2014.   Hmmmm.

Problem, I've only a little seed compost!  But having spread some old grass and leaf piles along the raspberry rows yesterday for mulch, underneath I noticed it is dark, almost crumbly, and looking very nutritious - for a plant anyway! So I've mixed that with the  remaining compost and away we go.  I've put at least six seed in each pot, to give myself a sporting chance and we'll see what comes up.
Seeing just how many tomato seeds sprout in the veg patch in ordinary earth, I'm hoping my wild compost will be just fine.

[galina]

Sounds excellent compost Peanuts.  Also if you have moles, mole hills are excellent fine soil for sowing seeds.  Good luck with germination from those older seeds. 

[tricia]

I germinated all my tomato seeds on damp kitchen paper with pretty much 100% results. Even from an envelope marked 'Beefsteak  2012'  2 of the 4 seeds germinated!  I'll probably be able to add toms to the veg I regularly put out in my driveway in season (morello cherries,  courgettes and squashes).

All the toms are now individually potted up, a bit leggy due to the lack of light with the miserable overcast weather but they will be planted nice and deep when I pot them on again so not a problem!

Tricia 

[ancellsfarmer]

Over the last few years,  I've found I can buy good quality tomato, pepper, leek, onion, cabbage and sprout plants bare-rooted in the market. So I've gradually stopped sowing veg seeds with the exception of sweetcorn, sprouting broccoli and kale, and all the beans which I sow direct in the ground.

However, times are not normal.  I'm thinking ahead and realising it may not be possible to buy plants in April and May, however I might want to support the growers.  We are in lockdown here.
So, I've dug out my old seeds, carefully kept, and find I've a good selection of my tomato seed, and  commercial courgettes, cucumber and pepper.  Best sown before 2013, and 2014.   Hmmmm.

Problem, I've only a little seed compost!  But having spread some old grass and leaf piles along the raspberry rows yesterday for mulch, underneath I noticed it is dark, almost crumbly, and looking very nutritious - for a plant anyway! So I've mixed that with the  remaining compost and away we go.  I've put at least six seed in each pot, to give myself a sporting chance and we'll see what comes up.
Seeing just how many tomato seeds sprout in the veg patch in ordinary earth, I'm hoping my wild compost will be just fine.

Remember, you can also multiply tomatoes from cuttings. So if your germination is  fairly poor, or your plants too far forward to go out yet, you can take any side shoots that you remove, place in a jamjar of rainwater, in good sunlight and they should readily root, giving you an extra supply. The ideal size of sideshoot for this purpose is 75mm long.
 Deeply planted tomatoes tend to root up that buried stem, a win -win situation. Good luck.
AF

[Obelixx]

I usually buy all my tomato plants form a chap at the garden fair at Angles who does a huge range of heirloom varieties.  That has been cancelled so I've rooted thru my seeds box and found several varieties of tomatoes to try and some chillies too.    The chilllies are recent purchases but all the toms are 2 to 6 yrs old but should still give some results.

I will be sowing a couple of courgettes and squashes in a few days' time and I've ordered more chillies, purple sprouting, spring onions and cavolo nero and other bits and bobs this year so they'll be sown in due course.   

[Vinlander]

Problem, I've only a little seed compost!  But having spread some old grass and leaf piles along the raspberry rows yesterday for mulch, underneath I noticed it is dark, almost crumbly, and looking very nutritious.
I'm hoping my wild compost will be just fine.

Tomatoes are thugs and will do fine in almost any seed mix - however I'd recommend microwaving a batch of compost to nurse the seedlings to max 3cm across the cotyledons - at that point they can probably cope with transplanting to just about anything, but by the time they get to having a spread of true leaves of say 8cm they will be looking for an 8-10cm pot of something a bit richer.

I agree that germinating in sterile damp tissue is brilliant, but unless you get the seeds out at the first sign of a single root you will have trouble extricating the roots - they can run up to 15cm before the leaves appear so it becomes important that the tissue has NO wet strength so it can be pulled apart without breaking the roots - kitchen roll is much too robust (unless you perforate it into 1cm squares before sowing - crazy fiddly). I recommend the worst fast food napkins you can find or really cheap toilet paper that's actually totally unfit for its original purpose.

I also avoid most of this faffing about with seedlings by buying tomato plants and turning them into at least 8 cuttings each - however SWMBO won't eat anything except Gardeners Delight and Sungold from plant sources - I can only agree (that's SNAFU but on this I do agree).

I do sow a few tomatoes but none are Heritage.

In my experience of growing food for the last 40 years I would say that Heritage Tree Fruit is marvellous, and anyone planting a commercial variety instead of a RHS AGM heritage variety needs their head examining. Modern AGMs are influenced by yield so can be misleading.

On the other hand heritage vegetables are much less impressive. I've tried literally dozens of the most-recommended "flavour" heritage tomato varieties and I have never found anything even near to the quality of the two I mention above. I have to assume the people who recommend insipid heritage varieties have only ever tasted  Moneymaker, Alicante or Ailsa Craig - or the million varieties that are even more flavourless. Some of them become tolerable if grown in an exceptional summer - or places like Spain that make our 2018 summer seem a bit dull. One exception is Green Zebra - but it is a bugger to grow and useless in a normal summer - a prize is definitely there but it's a lottery.

I grow Green Tiger for its unusual meaty flavour with hints of Green Zebra's (Highlander was similar but has disappeared from seed lists). Some people say the skin is too tough - for some reason this has never put anyone off melons, pineapples or oranges so why should it matter on a tomato? Not to mention the Mangosteen.
I also grow Piccolo - it may be an expensive packet of fruit but it's worth it even before you realize this is the best and cheapest packet of seed you have ever bought in your life. It is grown in swathes of plants - thousands - there's no chance it will come up any different from the parent plant - and it does well in the UK - a bit slower outdoors but what isn't?

Cheers.

[Obelixx]

The chap we buy from has so many varieties we've been spoilt for choice - beefsteak, cherry, plum, pear-shaped, ovoid, red, yellow, orange, green, black and purple so we've tried a few each year to find what works here.  Oh well.

The seeds I found are for a beefsteak, Abraham Lincoln, Golden Sunrise,  Green Zebra and a red and a black cherry.   We'll just have to wait and see.

[cambourne7]

https://organicplants.co.uk/

Highly recomend this place i sometimes drive down and get there seedlings but they will post