After feeling inspired by the Bob Thomson Victory Garden methods I decided to give starting my tomatoes in winter a try this year, what did I have to lose? I did a sowing on Feb. 13th followed by 3 transplants over the months. With each move the plants were buried as deep as possible to encourage root growth and they received a fish emulsion soak every two weeks. Come April these babies were HUGE and flowering. I pinched the flowers not knowing what else to do, but more would come. In desperation I set out three of the plants (one each of Juliet, Sungold, & Big Beef) into the cold, very wet ground on April 21st. They were set up with a wall-o-water and a floating row cover for protection against the cold, wind, and rain.
While doing a garden walk through on May 5th I was elated to find some tomatoes growing on all of the plants when I peeked into the wall-o-waters. The plants that remained indoors were not fruiting but were continuing to set flowers. Above is a photo of the Big Beef taken today. I am hoping the gamble will be paying off come June with some fresh garden tomatoes.
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