This year I'm grafting tomatoes. Why would you graft a tomato, instead of say getting a hybrid? Well, when you graft you're getting the heirloom or open pollinated tomato variety that you want, but with better production and disease resistance than you'd get growing just the heirloom tomato. Heirloom tomatoes taste so much better! There are a few problems with them, they're slow (generally) to fruit, and they don't have much disease resistance. Hybrids can be pretty tasty but nothing matches a brandywine, san marzano, caspian pink, prudens purple (i could go on) for flavor. So, to get the best of both worlds, grafting is a choice. It's not easy! I'm doing side grafting this year. Side grafting is done by cutting a slice into each tomato stem about 3/4 of the way through the stem, and joining the 2 stems together. Side grafting has a few benefits and some drawbacks. One of the benefits is they don't have to have a healing chamber (which most grafted vegetables do). One of the drawbacks, you transplant both plants into the same pot/container, and wait for the graft to heal. Then you have to cut the rootstock top, and the scion (the top bit which is the heirloom) root.. it can be hard to tell which is which. So i've tied a piece of thread to the scion root, so i know i want to cut that. And to the rootstock top, so i know i want to cut that. I love learning new things, getting the most out of my garden. This isn't easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. I'll keep you updated.

My tomato seedlings are doing very well.. Course if I was just going to grow these to plant in the ground, they'd be way too tall and leggy by late may. These are for grafting. I have rootstock and heirloom tomatoes here. With a 6 pack of lettuce leaf basil in the upper left. Once i graft the rootstock to the heirloom, they'll stop growing till they heal, which is why i started them earlier than the un-grafted tomatoes i'll grow. Grafting is tricky, and there are several ways you can do it. In the next few days i'll be grafting these, so, more to come.

It was sunny but chilly outside today. Still, what matters is the soil temperature, not the air temperature. We can get below freezing nights, and frosts, but the soil won't freeze again. A soil thermometer can help you a lot in determining when to plant seeds and seedlings all through the season. So, while the air temperature was in the low 40's today, the soil temperature was just about 50 in one of my gardens. I planted peas, chard, kale, carrots, lettuce, spinach, collards, and bok choy. Always look at your seeds to see the minimum soil temperature for germination. A lot of seeds can be planted now, but not all of them! Remember, only seeds go into the ground now, the night time temperatures are way too cold for seedlings. The soil thermometer is also very useful throughout the rest of the season. Gauging when to plant your seedlings, if the soil is too warm for planting lettuce in the summer, and when to start your fall crops. I'll be talking about all those things as the season progresses. This is not an expensive tool, but it's a very useful one.

The seedlings from my first flat are doing well. As you can see they have their second set of true leaves. Seeds don't want any nutrition which is why you use a seed starting mix. Once they get their 2nd set of true leaves, they want a bit of nutrition, but not too much. I use a 50/50 mix of seed starting mix and potting soil. You don't want to use only potting soil, it's too dense for the little seedlings. I'm using paper cups this year, it gives lots of room for the seedlings roots to grow nice and long, and give me large healthy seedlings. I poked 3 holes in the bottom of the cup for drainage. Another benefit about using paper cups, is you can write the variety on the cup itself, eliminating the need for lots of plant labels. I got all my cayenne peppers, eggplants, parsley and sweet basil transplanted today. Next; grafting the tomatoes I've started, as well as planting my 3rd flat.

You will see this, either on seed packets themselves, or in catalogs. What this means is as soon as the ground in unfrozen, you can plant these seeds. The ground being unfrozen means, when you can dig down, with a shovel or hand trowel, down about 8-10". So if the first few inches are unfrozen, but anything below still is.. it's still too early. There are lots of vegetables that you can plant way before the frost date. Our frost date here in New Haven CT is May 15th. But about now, you can plant peas, lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, chard, among others. Remember, even though the air temperature might dip down under freezing, the soil once unfrozen, won't freeze again. This is for planting seeds ONLY! No little seedling transplants will be able to handle the uneven temperatures, but seeds in the soil can. So, even though it's still winter, time to plant in the garden is NOW!

My seedlings are growing nicely. Now though it's time to start thinking about planting things outside! The first things to go in the ground are peas. The traditional date to plant peas here in CT is March 15th. Peas, like all legumes, cannot use the nitrogen in the soil as it is. They attract beneficial bacteria that form nodes on their roots. The bacteria converts the nitrogen in the soil into a form that the plant can take up and use. What the plants expel back into the soil is nitrogen that almost all other plants can use. That's why legumes are called natural nitrogen fixers, they add nitrogen to the soil. What you see here are the peas i'm going to plant this year, and inoculant. While there's generally enough bacteria in the soil for peas to do well, if you use an inoculant, you'll be making sure they get what they need, and you'll boost the productivity of the plant. I'll be planting shelling beans this year as well and i'll be using the inoculant for those too. Next post i'll talk about the many things you can plant outside before the frost date. 

All my seedlings are coming up and doing nicely. I even have my first true leaves on a couple of cayenne pepper seedlings. If any of you keep seeds for years, and don't know if they're viable, or what the germination rate would be, there's a simple test you can do to determine the germination rate of any seeds you have. Take a few paper towels and wet them down. Wring them out a bit so they're damp, but not soaking. Put 10 seeds onto the paper towels and fold the towels over. Put them in a warm place, like on top of your fridge. Mist them every day or two to keep the towels moist, and after 5 days to 2 weeks (depending on seed variety; for instance, some hot peppers take almost 2 weeks to germinate so be patient) check the seeds and see how many have sprouted. if 5 out of 10 seeds sprout, you have 50% germination for those seeds. It's a good way to see if your seeds are viable and worth spending time planting.

These are my basil seedlings. Basil seeds will stay viable up to 5 years, if stored correctly; (in a covered container in the fridge, I use a large coffee tin, with a packet of silica gel to keep humidity low). I under estimated how high the germination rate would be! So, I have too many seedlings in one section. They're so small right now, that if i tried to pull them out with my fingers, i could damage the roots of the seedling i want to keep. Best way to thin the seedlings is with a very small scissors. You just cut the seedling you don't want, close to the soil line. You don't even have to take the seedling you've cut out, just leave it there. You don't want more than one seedling per section, and this is a good safe way to remove all the extras.

I also got my second flat of seedlings planted today. These are san marzano, brandywine, pink caspian and prudens purple tomatoes. I also planted a rootstock tomato. I live in New Haven CT. Our frost date here is May 15th. Generally speaking, it's a bit early to start tomatoes. I usually don't start tomato plants till late March or Early April. They grow so fast, that they would be too leggy and tall by the time I could plant them outdoors. The difference with these is that I'm going to graft them. When I graft the tomatoes they will basically stop growing until the graft heals. So I need to give these tomatoes a head start over the regular ones, that I will plant later in the month.