In theory, Mother’s Day Weekend is the typical tomato and pepper planting time in the Pacific Northwest. That depends on the weather, of course, but by then, we have passed the last frost date weeks before.
This year has been special. For being in a “drought,” it’s been cool and rainy this May. Today, as the Memorial Day Weekend starts, it is slated to rain much of the day, and the other day, we got nearly an inch of rain. The plants have liked it, so who am I to complain? Maybe a bit warmer would be nice, but I’ll take the cool weather in the mid to upper 50s for now. Soon enough, the sun will get hot. Honestly, the wind coming up the Salish Sea on our island can do the worst damage; it taxes the plants when that happens. And finally the wind has tapered back.
Years ago, I stopped growing tomato plants under grow lights. I had a couple of reasons why, and the biggest was that when we moved to our homestead here, I did not have electricity to the greenhouse, as I had at our previous place. Then I noticed my plants were stronger and denser and barely needed hardening off time before planting. After that, I didn’t look back. I found that I had to start bell and hot pepper plants from the starts I’d bought, as pepper seeds seem to really need the lights. I was OK with that “cheating”. 11 to 15 pepper plants are plenty for us anyway. On average, I grow about 150 tomato plants and plant around 120 in the ground (or dwarf plants, into large pots).
The other is I quit worrying about when I planted my tomato seeds. When I first started, I was a January seeder. Then, I did a test grow for a known seed company that sent seeds out across the USA to see how they grew. I got those seeds in early April. I planted them, and at the end of summer, those plants were exactly the same size and producing heavily compared to the early seeded ones. Tomatoes didn’t need the early start as peppers did.
So I quit worrying. I started seeding tomatoes in March. In the PNW we don’t have enough light to grow until March, when the sun begins to return, with the spring equinox.
Earlier in the season. As the seeds sprout and start to grow, I pot them up into gallon pots, and let them grow int he unheated greenhouse. The biggest ones go to the left, where they get the most sun. Those will always be the first to be set out to plant.
From big to small.
Peppers growing.
By May, though, at least 50 tomatoes are usually getting too big. The greenhouse can reach 120° on a sunny day in the mid-60s. This leads to plants I must water 2x a day, as the soil dries out quickly.
The first blooms will start happening as well.
And yuck, aphids on one pepper plant. That’s definitely time to kick them out and stop an infestation in the greenhouse.
The peppers and dwarf tomatoes go into 5-gallon buckets and other large pots filled with well-aged compost.
50 tomato plants or so went out of the greenhouse to get fully hardened off. These were the biggest plants.
The bed I am using this year was cut in the summer of 2018, the first growing area I built when we moved here. It has changed over the years in size and how I do rows. This fall we are going to deep till it, remove yet more rocks, then put down a silage tarp. It has a lot of weed issues, being so close to the edge of the woods. It was nothing but weeds after this past winter. I put myself to it, and kept digging weeds. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Tomatoes don’t mind weeds, really.
My idea this year was to suppress the weeds on the edges, using a roll of low-grade yard fabric I had on hand. On that I placed all the pots.
Then I started the first of 3 rows of tomatoes.
I grow field style, using cages. Yes, I could do them under cover, but it isn’t an issue to me. Once summer is here, it will be a thick jungle of tomatoes. I also tend to grow shorter plants as I like smaller tomatoes.
First row mostly done. I found a roll of farm fabric, and cut it in half, forming pathways to walk on. Normally, you’d burn holes in the fabric to put the plants through, to suppress weeds. But I had other ideas. It’s to just get me through these months, so I can fully change the bed.
Second row in, with another walk way.
I then moved out the rest of the tomatoes to let them finish growing/hardening outside. I am slowly planting the third row; as I feel the plants are ready, I put a couple in the ground. The last 30 were last seeded, so will take extra time.
Some of the tomatoes were definitely taxed by getting too big in the greenhouse. They needed a good dose of fertilizer and water (these plants were getting root-bound). This is a real issue if you have to wait 2-3 weeks longer to plant outside because it is still too cold. In the greenhouse, it is summer. All the watering drains them of nutrients.
In the coming week, it is supposed to finally be warmer and sunnier, so the plants will double in size. We are sitting at just over 15½ hours of sunlight, with another hour to gain, before the Summer Solstice in late June.
~Sarah