I almost forgot about this thread!
Here's a little up-to-date info about what's going on with my tomato plants...
Well, I planted more seeds for this year's garden. I didn't get the Marizol Gold or Maylor Roth's Orange Brandywine varieties I mentioned above (maybe next year), but I planted five varieties: Ashleigh, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Carbon, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, and Estler's Mortgage Lifter. All but the Carbon variety grows in the 1-3 pound range, and are all supposed to be very tasty tomatoes. Particularly the carbon which is a brownish color and is supposed to be one of the best-tasting tomatoes you can grow. I am also looking forward to the Aunt Ruby's German Green because it's said to have a sweet, tangy, and spicy flavor!
Here's what each variety looks like...
Ashleigh:
Aunt Ruby's German Green:
Carbon:
Crnkovic Yugoslavian:
Estler's Mortgage Lifter:
Anyway, I started my seeds on the 22th of March and they broke out of the soil on the 26th - 3 1/2 days later! They've been growing quickly ever since, and just this past Thursday I repotted them into larger containers once their "true leaves" started to form. Here's some pics:
The crazy thing is that I buried the stems about 2-3 inches into the soil in those cups up to the leaves (which is what you're supposed to do), but they had already grown almost an inch only 10-11 hours after I repotted them when I took those photos!
Just nuts! Well, now they are bigger still with more of their true leaves coming on, and just today I put them outside for the first time for about an hour or so. This is the first stage of the "hardening off" process. This is a necessary process that involves putting them outside for very short periods of time at the beginning, and gradually working up to longer periods with more direct light to get them acclimated to being outdoors and in full sunlight. However, you don't start them off in full sun though. You need to put them in the shade or indirect sunlight to start with or else the immature plants will get scorched. The other benefit to doing this is that the breeze wiggles the plants around and helps to toughen up the stalks and make them more sturdy, and it also stimulates growth as well. Today the conditions were perfect for them with a temperature of 19C/66F with overcast conditions (I just put them on my front porch), and little wind. You don't want to put them out in too much wind either or else you'll run the risk of breaking the weak stalks while they are still immature. Just a little does it.
Hoepfully I'll be potting them in the next 3 weeks or so, and then I'll be enjoying tomatoes by the end of July or August!
I can't wait!