Gardening Class: Grow Your Own Tomato Transplants from Seed

This class used to be called "Tomato Seed Sowing," but I thought I needed a more descriptive name.  I mention the name change so that those of you who like to take this class year after year will know it.  Here's a photo of my tomato apprentice, Rachael, after last year's class.

Rachael has probably been my youngest student, as most folks who attend my gardening seminars are adults.  When I first saw her, I worried that she would not be able to focus for my entire lecture.  But she did great, taking home a sown flat of tomato seeds that she was able, with her new knowledge, to nurture into about 70 or 80 tomato starts.  She didn't need that many, so Rachael ended up selling her extras at my seedling sale later, and made over $100.  I was very proud of her.  Rachael has continued to come to the farm and volunteer over the past year, and has learned a whole bunch of stuff about plants.

Believe it or not, but this is the time to start thinking about starting seeds for tomatoes. The "Grow Your Own Tomato Transplants from Seed" class is all about learning how to get that little bitty seed into a healthy, robust plant, ready to go out into the garden.  As some of you know, doing that is harder than it looks.  Soil, airflow, lighting, watering, fertilizing, potting up, are all important to know how to do right.

The thing that keeps a lot of people coming back to this class is that they get to take home a sown flat of tomato seeds, and choose up to 48 different varieties to place in their 48-cell flat.  My seed bank currently holds over 125 varieties of tomatoes, some "normal" such as Early Girl, but most highly unusual like JD's Special C-Tex, Purple DogCreek and Portuguese Monster.

It has not been unusual for my students to successfully propagate 100 or 150 plants from this class alone.  I know that some folks have even sold their excess, just like Rachael.  I love hearing those stories! 

I'm offering the class on four different dates.  Choose an early date if you want to plant out in early April.  Choose a later class if you want to plant out in May.  Click here to go to the dates and fees. All classes are held here at Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond, California.  We are located 45 minutes from San Jose and about an hour and a half from San Francisco. Here is a complete list of the tomato seeds you will be able to choose from: 

Amazon Chocolate (new for 2008)
Ananas Noir
Aunt Ruby’s Green
Aunt Ruby’s Green Cherry
Azoychka
Barad’s Yellow
Basinga
Beauty Lottringa
Bi-color Cherry
Big Beef
Big Rainbow
Black Bear (new)
Black Cherry
Black Ethiopian
Black from Tula
Black Krim
Black Oxheart (new)
Black Plum
Black Prince
Black Stripe Cherry (new)
Black Zebra
Blondkopfchen
Bloody Butcher
Brad's Black Oxheart (new)
Brandysweet Plum Cherry (new)
Brandywine OTV
Brandywine Landis
Brown’s Yellow Giant
Burpee's Supersteak (new)
Camalay
Camp Joy Cherry
Caspian Pink
CelebrityVFFNTA
Chapman
Cherokee Purple
Chocolate Vintage (new)
Chuck’s Yellow
Church (new)
Copia
Cosmonaut Volkov
Costoluto Genovese
Costoluto Florentino
Coustralee
Coyote
Earl’s Faux
Early Girl
First Lady
Fourth of July (new)
Gardener’s Delight
Gary O'Sena (new)
German Red Strawberry
Giant Belgium (new)
Gold Medal
Grandma Josie (new)
Grape
Green Doctors (new)
Green Giant
Green Zebra
Grub's Mystery Green (new)
Hawaiian Pineapple
Heart of Compassion
Hippie Zebra
Homer Fike’s Oxheart (new)
Hugh’s
Isis Candy Cherry
Lemony
Japanese Black Trifele
Japanese Oxheart
Jaune Flamme
JD's Special C-Tex (new)
Jersey Devil (it's back!)
Julia Child
Kellogg’s Breakfast
Kentucky Beefsteak
King Pineapple (new)
Lemony
Love Apple
Love Happy (new cross of mine)
Magnum (new)
Mammoth German Gold (new)
Mandarin Cross (new)
Marianna’s Peace
Marvel Stripe
Matina
Moskvitch
Mr. Brown (new)
Nebraska Wedding
Neves Azorean Red
Northern Lights
Oaxacan Jewel
Orange Russian 117
Orange Strawberry
Oregon Spring
Paul Robeson
Peacevine Cherry
Persimmon
Pineapple (new)
Pink Accordian
Plum Lemon
Porterhouse Steak (new)
Portugese Monster  (new)
Purple Brandy
Purple Calabash
Purple DogCreek (new)
Purple Russian
Red Pear
Riesentraube
Rosalita
Rose
San Francisco Fog
Siletz
South American Giant
Southern Pride (new)
Stupice
Sungold
Super Marzano
Sweet Horizon
Taxi
Texas Star
Thessaloniki
Tigerella
Tommy Toe Cherry (new)
Top Sirloin (new)
Tree's Bottom Yellow (new)
Valena Pink (new)
Vintage Wine
Virginia Sweets (new)
West Virginia Sweet Meat (new)
White Cherry
White Tomesol
Wild Bill's Big Red (new)
Yellow Brandywine
Yellow Pear
Zogola (it's back!)

Comments

[Annette]

I love your selection of tomatoes! I can't wait to take the CHICKEN CLASS. :)

[Emilie]

It's great that your classes are attended not only by seasoned gardeners, but also by kids eager to learn more. What a great way to teach not only about nature, biology, geometry, chemistry (all involved in designing and caring for a garden) and business (something Rachael clearly learned a bit about in caring for her own seedlings for sale), but also about philanthropy and personal introspection.

P.S. All your classes sound like fun, but the chicken class particularly interests me!

[Patricia Messer]

My friend Heidi and I are starting tomatoes this week as well. I love to look forward to Spring and new growth helps fill the soul. We look forward to each newsletter and this was especially wonderful to see the varieties you will be planting. We went from 12 last year to 40 this year.
We appreciate all the hints and helps you give in starting and transplanting seedlings.
It's going to be a great year. I also had a large tree mostly down from a huge snow several weeks ago. Now there will be more sun and a place for chickens.
Thanks again,
Patricia & Heidi in Utah

[Nickie Irvine]

I'm not sure why I bothered to take your Tomato Seed Growing class a couple of years back. After all, I'm a seasoned gardener and I knew how to sprout a seed. What could have enticed me? Perhaps I was curious about the many varieties you have and the prospect of bringing some home. Perhaps I'd grown lazy and needed a kick in the pants to plant my own starts. Or perhaps I wondered if you had a few tricks up your sleeve. Little did I know -- this gardener has many a trick up her sleeve! Come to think of it, maybe I should take it again, and the sooner the better!

[Linda Barber]

Hi...I just love your farm, and we have bought tomatoes from you for several years. You even took us inside the house once and showed us work you were doing in your kitchen, and we bought some jam (YUM!)My Dad has always grown his own seedlings, but he is back in MI. I would love to attend your Tomato Seedling Class!!!! PS...I forwarded your newsletter to my sister in MI...she loves it!

[Stephanne Caverly]

I have enjoyed seeing the evolution of your tomato kingdom over the last few years. Being on the scary edge of a career change, and watching you turn your passion into a profession has been a source of inspiration for me. Both your garden, and your website are a joy to look at - a real tribute to produce as an art-form. Thanks!
(My current ambition is to produce an earlier tomato harvest)

[Lucy]

It's so nice to see that not only are there gardening classes available to the community, but gardening classes with a real focus on sustainable, creative farming. The summer vegetable garden class sounds perfect for me, but I'm excited to see vermiculture too!

[Julie]

Cynthia, your upcoming class in February, "Grow Your Own Tomato Transplants from Seed" will be my 3rd opportunity to "study" with you. Every time I visit the Farm or attend a class, I learn new things that benefit my gardening and ALWAYS come away inspired and excited about my relationship with my garden. Your passion and brilliance about your work have taken my skill level way beyond what I imagined I could learn in one short year. The shortcuts in the learning curve that I experience due to your teachings have brought me to a place in my gardening that I think may have taken years on my own to learn. Thank you so much for being my gardening "touchstone"! See you soon and happy to hear more sun is coming to your land!

[janine]

What an awesome selection of tomatoes! Really hope I can make it for at least one of the classes.

[Leslie Fitzgerald]

It looks like a truly astonishing assortment of tomatoes for this year. If the pictures look so good, imagine how nice the tomatoes will be in real life !
If I win tuition for a class, I want to attend one of the tomato transplant sessions.

[Doug Whitmore]

I'm signing up for the Tomato Transplants from Seed course on Jan 26th and I can't wait. This will be my first class, though I hope to take more.