Seed Starting 2011 - Round #2

Dearest readers, it's been too long! I've been holed up with tracheitis (if you can believe it), but now I'm back in action and eager to share my latest seed starting shenanigans.

Paste, Cherry, Slicing

This past Monday (April 4), I started the following tomato seeds:

• Roma (paste)
• Polish Linguisa (heirloom paste)
• Gilbertie (heirloom paste)
• Chadwick Cherry (cherry)
• Bloody Butcher (cherry)
• Coldset (bigger than a cherry but smaller than a slicer) 
• Early Girl (slicer)
• Beefsteak (beefsteak heirloom) 

Some definitions:

• Paste tomatoes - very meaty, not a lot of seeds or juice; best for processing (canning, drying, freezing, cooking)
• Cherry tomatoes - small, juicy, flavorful, prolific; perfect for fresh eating and not bad in salsa or stews
• Slicing tomatoes (or "slicers") - fairly large, symmetrically round fruits that are good for - you guessed it - slicing
• Beefsteak - very large fruits with good meaty texture; great for flavor but not for slicing due to large protrusions and asymmetrical formation
• Heirloom - any of the varieties listed above can be "hierloom" which simply means that they are not hybrid varieties

So, because Josh and I do a lot of canning, drying, and freezing, a good majority of our tomato crop is made up of different types of paste tomatoes. Each has its own flavor and though we really like Romas, we're trying a few new ones this year (thanks father-in-law!). 

Tomato purpose practicality aside, there is absolutely nothing better than spending a July afternoon in a garden, half of the time weeding and half of the time eating cherry tomatoes off the vine. Because the fruits are so small, cherry tomato plants tend to have very heavy yields, so we always like to plant a few of them for sharing with neighbors. Also, when we have more than we can handle, we've found they make good salsa. 

And, finally, we plant a few slicers for good measure. We've found that Coldset do well in Michigan because they have a shorter growing season and, unlike other varieties, do not require consistent hot and sunny weather. The Early Girl tomatoes are a similar story, bearing fruits before many other varieties and acting as an insurance policy against crazy Michigan weather. The Beefsteak are tricky and often do not produce very hearty yields for us in part because of their longer growing season. But, the tomatoes we do get can be as big as 2.5 pounds which is a pretty crazy treat that makes it worth putting a few in the ground.

The are 42 individual containers in the type of tray I use. I blame it on the fever, but my math was way off, resulting in the crazy organization you see below:

Check back soon to hear how this weekend's pepper, cabbage, rosemary, and oregano starting go...