Let’s breach the topic of sowing tomatoes! Which, we can break down into three types of growers: Insane, crazy and generally normal people!
We are in the middle camp, fully in the “crazy” category, sowing our tomatoes at 10 weeks to last frost. In the grand scope of sowing tomatoes, this is still very early and will result in some exceptionally tall tomato plants come last frost. Tomatoes grow both tall and fairly fast, once they’ve been established.
It’s critically important to note that one of the things that allows us to do this is the fact that we have a heated greenhouse where we can kick our tall plants into come early to mid May. We also have an indoor growing space that accommodates tall plants very well. We also plan on up-potting our tomatoes into nearly a gallon of soil come late April, in order to facilitate continued growth. So, you might be able to call us “prepared crazy.”
In the insane group, you have people that sow tomatoes 12 to 14 weeks to last frost. We largely chalk this up to inexperience, but we call this “insane” because you’ll be dealing with 5-6 foot tall tomato plants come last frost and 3-4 foot plants before you can even start putting them outside temporarily. Not even considering the technical challenges involved with this, very tall plants risk damage of the plants since moving them is a two person job to do safely.
Then you have the reasonably sane group of people that patiently wait until (the much more reasonable time of) 6 to 8 weeks to last frost to sow their tomatoes. This results in perfectly sized, cute 2-3 foot tall tomato plants that are very easily transplanted into their final destination. They’re easy to take care of, easy to transport and are ready to take off once that last frost comes around.
The general rule of thumb is for every two weeks earlier you sow tomatoes, you’ll see an additional foot in plant growth. 12 weeks will produce 5 foot tall plants, 10 weeks results in 4 foot tall plants, 8 weeks will result in 3 foot plants and 6 weeks will produce 2 foot plants. So, as far as we are concerned, pick your poison and deal with the consequences!
All of these have the ability to produce ripe tomatoes within a short 100+ day growing season, both in the greenhouse and outdoors. While you can eek out a bit earlier maturity with earlier sows, it’s actually not quite as beneficial as you’d think. The difference in maturity time between 12 weeks and 6 weeks is only about a week (or maybe two) in advanced fruit maturity. Where you see dividends, though, is in pure yield. Larger plants simply support more fruit and thus the lure to sow earlier.
This is really what it comes down to with growing northern tomatoes. How crazy are you, really?
