Gardening Class: Grow the Earliest Tomatoes

I finally have my schedule of spring gardening classes set!  The hard part is trying to figure out what sort of classes people want.  One of the classes I thought people might like, "Grow the Earliest Tomatoes," necessitated me running out to my greenhouse and sowing seeds of my earliest maturing varieties:

This is the earliest I've ever sown tomato seeds.  My intention is for these babies to be ready to give out to participants in the "Grow the Earliest Tomatoes" class on February 2.  Students will learn the newest technology to get their tomatoes to fruit and ripen in early summer, rather than having to wait until mid to late summer for their first ripe tomatoes.  Class participants will take home varieties bred to mature early, such as Matina, First Lady, Siletz, Stupice, San Francisco Fog, Oregon Spring, and Early Girl.  I also sowed the varieties that turned out to ripen first in my garden last year, which were Lemony, Homer Fikes, Camp Joy Cherry and Sungold.

This class won't be for wimps or people not willing to put in some work.  If you want ripe tomatoes by the end of June (instead of the end of August, which sometimes happens here in Coastal California), then you'll need to fuss over them quite a bit and know what you're doing.  But if you want to do the work, I'm more than happy to show you how to do it.  This should be a fun and interesting experiment for those of you who want to be the first on your block to have ripe tomatoes.

For a full class description and tuition information, click here to be directed to my Upcoming Events/Classes page.  You will also find my other newly added classes to the schedule.  I'll talk about each one individually as the days go on.

Comments

[LaLa]

I am inspired by how you have figured out how to stretch every part of the tomato process out to last almost the whole year through. Starting seeds so early, harvesting thru to December, saving and sorting the seeds and then before you've finished those wonderful home canned tomatoes, you've got new tomato babies sprouting. Rock out Tomato Lady!

[Nancy Jean]

Wow! I am so excited to read that you are having an early tomato class, what a great idea. A whole variety to choose from too and just when I was going to fall into a winter funk, my tomato dreams aren't as far away as they once seemed.

[Anthony (I love Gardening) Finney]

Wonderful well put together gardening site. Very useful tips and articles. Well worth a read. Love the article on growing tomatoes. Keep up the good work!