This is more like it. It's not as warm as it should be, but it's a lot better than it has been. I am really blitzing the transplanting task - right now our driveway holds the first wave of hot and sweet pepper, eggplant and ground cherry seedlings; they are small but healthy and it is finally warm enough overnight so that they can live outdoors 24/7. My garage floor holds lots of transplanted tomato seedlings (I am up to the "L" tomatoes!). Tomorrow they also go out into the elements and I hope to get through the rest of the alphabet. This means that by Monday, I should have at least some of pretty much all varieties we hope to offer. 

The plants are healthy, but really small, and nowhere near ready to leave the nest. The most likely scenario is for us to be at the Raleigh State Farmers Market with seedlings on Friday/Saturday April 19/20. If we get some nice warm weather over the next few weeks and the seedlings take off, it may be a week earlier; then again, the freezing temps forecast for two nights next week will slow things down....we will have to see what happens. Next week's night time temps will either mean Reemay covering, or relocation of seedlings back indoors. But it looks like this is the last temperature bump in the road.

When I am not transplanting, the book is the focus; things are proceeding well, and we've begun to photograph some things as well. My editor is paying us a visit in a few weeks; I really look forward to meeting her and getting some good work done. 

A few news items....my first two articles in garden publications are now "out there" - look for the most recent Triangle Gardener, and The American Gardener. Neither is readable on line as yet, as far as I know. I am giving a workshop on tomatoes, focusing on culture, troubleshooting and seed saving, with some background info on varieties, at West Point on the Eno, on Sunday April 14 from 1-3 PM. 

At some point, I need to find time to keep digging my garden rows and planting beets and greens......how did I get anything done when I was actually working at my traditional corporate type job?!?!

I just love data; collecting, analyzing, changing things based upon the conclusions. I've talked a lot about this "spring"'s weather and I am sure those of  you who read this blog are as bothered by the temperatures as I am. What I decided to do (to calm my restless spirit) was go back over the past years and compare transplant dates and first weekend at the market dates with how this season is shaping up. And the news is pretty good (I feel calmer, anyway!).

My Tomato transplant dates for the past few years (actually from the beginning of tracking this data) are:

2007 - March 24
2008 - March 25
2009 - March 20
2010 - March 26
2011 - March 26
2012 - March 19

And the dates for my seedling readiness (typically first weekend at the market) are

2007 ? (didn't record it!)
2008 - April 19
2009 - April 16
2010 - April 16
2011 - April 15
2012 - April 6

As I recalled, last year was an unusually mild spring which allowed the seedlings to be ready earlier.

My timing for this season - begin to transplant tomorrow (March 23), and projecting the first Market weekend to be April 13.

So although it seems like I am behind (that is how it feels, anyway), it isn't true.  But now for "the other news" - the forward forecast doesn't look really good until into the first week of April. So even if I get seedlings transplanted, they will have to live in the garage for quite some time (which won't make them very happy) and lead to possible delay in sizing up. April 20 could be more realistic for a market starting date.

However, we are talking weather here - which is very changeable! Keep watching my blog updates (you will become very sick of hearing about the weather, I presume).....no matter what happens, it won't be too far off from most previous seasons!


Happy Spring, everyone!  (even if it doesn't feel like it...)
 

That warm day was really quite a tease...right now I am about to dig back in to my book and it is gray, and chilly, and breezy and misty - just not a very nice nearly-spring day. All of this cool weather is making me chomp at the bit to get to transplanting seedlings, but with no greenhouse and a dependency on avoiding frosts, I still have to wait a few days.

Ah, what a lovely day....now we're talking!  Gentle breeze, low 70s - this is what growing things like.  Here's what's happening with regard to my garden, and the seedlings for the upcoming Farmers Market, and Dwarf project as well.

This year I've simplified things for myself (just not enough time otherwise), so as far as seedlings for sale starting in mid April, it will be mostly tomatoes, with a good (but not as large as previous years) selection of hot and sweet peppers and eggplant. This coming year I will not have lettuce, basil, cukes, melons or tomatillo seedlings available.

I've just completed transplant of my beet, greens and lettuce seedlings from the crowded 50 cell plug flats to individual cells (for beets and greens), or 3 1/2 inch pots, for lettuce. I've just uncovered the back two rows of my garden, pushing aside the leaves, and will turn the rows over in the next few days in preparation to receive the beets, lettuce and greens.

The peppers, eggplant and tomato seedlings are now spending all day and night outdoors in the crowded 50 cell plug flats. True leaves should appear soon, and if the night time temps hold at 35 or warmer, I will begin transplanting into 3 1/2 inch pots in a week or so. After that, it all depends upon daytime and nighttime temps. My current guess on seedling availability is Friday April 12, running for a month or so.  You can get a sense of the variety list on the page here (scroll down a way to find the lists) 

The Dwarf project marches on, and I hope to squeeze another 100 or so examples into my driveway garden. The project has done really well, and by this fall we should be approaching over 20 new releases, with dozens more in progress. 

So that's where things are - I am balancing the seedling work with book writing, which continues to go well, heading toward a June 1 deadline for the text. 

Last year was the tenth of our annual Tomatopalooza events. It was a fine day, hosted generously by friends at their farm in Efland, organized by the tireless work of one of our long time attendees with the help of many others. There were plenty of tomatoes to taste, and plenty of people to taste them. But.......a few of our long time acknowledged risk factors started to become even more evident. 

Originally starting as a small, nearly ad hoc, local event for my tomato seedling customers to pool some of their harvests so we could see and taste and assess varieties that people weren't familiar with, it has grown into a larger event that demands more organization....and more tomatoes. The volunteer pool has diminished, the tomato supply sources have diminished. The majority of the varieties sampled last year came from my own garden, which puts the event far too much at risk of my own harvest timing and abundance. The organization of the growing event was nearly overwhelming for the main organizer.

Those of us who represent the energy and organization behind the event are grappling with those realities - and that leads to a few options for this year. We could go much smaller and set the date closer to when we know we will have tomatoes. We could return to Efland (an offering by our friends) and go smaller there, making it more about getting together and having less certainty about the tomato supply. We've had offerings from a Farmers Market and a Park, but that doesn't answer the key questions of organization resource and tomato supply. And, we could take this year off - think back on 10 wonderful events and spend the year thinking about if and what the event should be going forward.

If Tomatopalooza number 11 does occur, the most likely dates would be either Saturday July 20 or Saturday July 27. It could happen in Efland, it could happen closer to Raleigh, or may not happen at all. Until we solve the problem of reliable tomato supply, a main organizer (no small amount of work), and a reliable and sizeable group of volunteers, we won't be able to do what we've done the past 4 or 5 years, when it has gotten a bit beyond us in size.

My personal preference is that we take a year off to think carefully about if - and if so, what - it should be, and how it can be achieved, going forward. I am deep into writing my book and will have little time and far fewer tomatoes to donate to the event.

I'd love to hear what you think about this - please send any comments to my email, nctomatoman@gmail.com  

The best way to explain where things are is to show you the picture of the tomatoes under lights in my garage, below. As of today, pretty much all peppers and eggplant and most tomatoes have been planted, and most of those are living under lights in the garage. We certainly need some warmer days and milder evenings. I can't see starting to transplant any time soon, so my current estimate for first seedling availability is Saturday April 13....it could indeed be a week later, but it all depends on the weather!