The garage smells like soil and my dad keeps bumping his head on the grow light shelf. We are deep into seed-starting season.
I started six tomato varieties this year on February 10th, four days ago. All six are sitting on a wire shelf I built with my dad out of pipe and boards, with two T8 grow light fixtures hanging about three inches above the trays. The lights are on for 16 hours a day on a timer. I have a heat mat under the trays set to 78 degrees because tomato seeds germinate much faster in warm soil. The first true cotyledons (the seed-leaves) are already starting to push up through the soil mix in some of the cells.
Six varieties on a shelf in the garage. Last frost is April 15th. We have about 60 days to grow these into something worth transplanting.
Cherokee Purple — My favorite tomato. A large heirloom with dark reddish-purple flesh and a complex savory flavor. Slower to ripen than modern varieties but worth every day of the wait. This is the one I eat on white bread with mayo and salt on the day of first harvest.
Sungold — A cherry tomato that tastes like candy. Intense sweetness, thin skin, very productive. I eat most of them off the vine before they make it inside.
Better Boy — A reliable disease-resistant slicer for when I want a lot of tomatoes without any drama. Not the most interesting flavor but dependable in NC heat.
San Marzano — A paste tomato for sauce. Meaty, low moisture, perfect for cooking down. I made my first batch of tomato sauce last August with these and it was better than anything from a jar.
Black Krim — Another heirloom, similar to Cherokee Purple but from Crimea, with deep smoky flavor. My second favorite heirloom.
Brandywine — The classic pink heirloom. Enormous fruit, incredible flavor, but slow to ripen and prone to cracking. A challenge variety that I want to see if I can do well with.
Last frost in Apex is around April 15th. Tomatoes need 6 to 8 weeks of indoor growing before they are ready to transplant. Starting February 10th gives me exactly that: I should have stocky 6-to-8-inch transplants ready to go in the ground in the first week of May, when nights are reliably above 50 degrees.
The next 60 days involve: potting up seedlings as they grow, giving them stronger and stronger light, hardening them off by bringing trays outside on warm days two weeks before transplant, and watching the weather obsessively in April. The last part is unavoidable.