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Lodi, California

For early tomato, and taking to the weigh off. I imagine you'd be starting in late May to June if you want to take a tomato to weigh off, please correct me if I'm wrong. Is an earlier start date conducive for a bigger tomato? I'd like to know how you select your starting date. Thanks

4/2/2023 11:19:50 PM

Dodge city

I started my tomatoes March 21st and won't be ready to plant in the ground until late April/early may.

4/3/2023 8:58:42 AM

Ontario

I start a few every week from the 3rd week or May till the 2nd week of June for weighoffs. Never done for early tomatoes, but that would probably be a early May start

4/3/2023 10:12:46 AM

Grittyville, WA

I started in February in the hopes of an early start in a hoophouse. Terrible spring weather so far this year but things are looking ok. I have gotten 4 and 5 lb tomatoes from early start/ first truss before, but in hindsight starting right now might have been better.

4/3/2023 2:20:40 PM

Norwich, NY

I started some yesterday, and I plan to start some more in a couple of weeks. Might do some more at the very beginning of May. I’m hoping to bring some to the Vermont and Saratoga weighoffs this year. The last couple years have only been early tomato entries.

4/3/2023 4:58:16 PM

Lodi, California

I don't understand. What's the point of starting them so early in cold conditions when there is plenty of time to grow them later

4/5/2023 7:53:00 AM

Going Green

Ph3 once the high temps hit the tomatoes and just about everything else stops growing. June and July hit 90 to 110 degrees.

4/6/2023 4:10:05 PM

Going Green

My seeds have seen potting soil and will be hitting the dirt soon. It is 70 degrees all week long in Missouri.

4/6/2023 4:12:00 PM

Going Green

When your tomato is as large as you think it ever will be then put in brown paper sack and wrap sack with newspaper. Then store in a cooler for up two two months. Trying to grow during the heat is extremely hard.

4/6/2023 4:15:46 PM

Colorado

I was pretty happy with my timing last year. I will adjust a touch this year. Start seeds april 20 to put in the ground around may 15-20 weather depending. Last year I had to transplant to bigger pots because of a cold snap that delayed planting outside. My first tomatoes were pollinated june 27-29ish
picked and weighed on aug 10th giving roughly 42 Days of growth. I took clones of the plants as soon as I started pruning suckers. I used these clones to give me some of my late weighoff tomatoes. I was using the 45 day growing period to time the pollination which I later found to be a mistake. The later tomatoes blush much later at 55-65 days as the temperature cools off. I pollinated on aug 20 and need to do that at least 10 days earlier this year. I will also be getting the clones in the ground much sooner this year. I was just expermenting and not really taking it seriously with the clones but one of them grew my biggest tomato and the second biggest all time in colorado. It was 3.90 and was still quite green. It was at dap-55 and could of lasted another 10+ days if it was pollinated sooner. I left a lot of weight on the table.

This is for Colorado, I'm sure things have different timings depending where you are.

4/6/2023 11:15:27 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

I am only going to grow for the fall weighoffs. I will probably start my first tomato plant around June 1st and then stagger start them every few days. The plan will be to go with 1st truss mega or plant gets pulled. Current planned schedule, use my time now to get the pumpkins in the ground by 1st week May, mid May start the rest of the GPC categories, end of May, bring in 40 yards of compost for the tomatoes..June start the tomatoes.

4/7/2023 3:04:15 PM

Kutztown, PA

I started mine March 1st but probably wont put them outside until May 15th. That's when I put out my eating tomatoes. They don't grow much for a couple of weeks though since it's still a little chilly. This year the soil seems to be warming up quicker due to our relatively warmer weather. Frankly, I'm going to have to bone up on giant tomatoes. I wouldn't know a mega blossom from a blackberry flower at this point.

4/11/2023 2:45:52 PM

Levittown Long Island New York USA

Stagger, stagger, stagger .With my strange unpredictable range of temperatures ranging from 40 to 90 and my last frost date be around April 14 here on Long Island my best chance of anything is by staggering every two weeks planting another bunch and different varieties of tomatoes starting from February. I have plants all over at different stages of growth some go out right away. They avoid the summer heat ,some go out later to catch a good heating up period . They could take a little chill in the middle of spring and then come on strong there’s still no telling though you could have a heat wave of 90° over two or three weeks. that would really hurt things and the same thing an April, May and June you could have a cooler period where we barely gets above 70, so my best chances are best to stagger stagger stagger

4/12/2023 8:31:38 AM