Planning the Vegtable Plants - tomatoes

First we are going to make a list of products we are going to plant and a planting schedule.  It needs to be said that a pure organic garden need organic seeds, I don’t have the money for organic seeds so we are going to follow organic gardening as closely as possible in accordance to what is affordable.

I don’t have enough space inside with grow lights or available outside light so I am going to plant in planters inside until the seedlings sprout then outside where I can control some of the growing conditions.

The first chance for planting outside should be close to the end of March and the first opportunity to plant in the garden  will depend on the type of plant but somewhere in the vicinity of May 1.

Tomatoes:  I have seeds from previous years I am going to try to start outside in planters where I can control the growing conditions somewhat. 

Planting chart for tomatoes nutritious

type	description	Days to germination	plants	Days to harvest	spacing	planters	outside
Ferry MorseTomato VF Roma	A heavy-yielding variety used for preserves, solid-pack camming, tomato paste and puree.  Very little juice and of mild flavor.	7-10	3	85-90	36/24 inches	March 19-20           7days March 27-30         30 days growing	1-May
American Seed   Beefsteak	Noted for deep scarlet, very large flat and ribbed solid flavor. 9 to 12 oz tomatoes	15-20	6	55-60	3 ft.	same	same
Ferry Morse Tomato Rutgers	Large attractive fruits with thick, solid flesh	7-10	3	80-85	3ft.	same	same
Ferry Morse Tomato red Cherry	Delicious sweet,, bite-sized red tomatoes	7-10	3	70-75	3 ft.	same	same

With this chart is it easy to see that the Beefsteak tomato should be the first to mature, then the cherry tomatoes, then the rest.  Since the Roma are used primarily for salsas we won’t need them until later anyway.  We will want the cilantro, onions and peppers to mature about the same time and the roma tomatoes do.  We will want to plant 6 to 12 Beefsteak tomatoes plants, because they sell well; about 6 roma plants and no more than 6 cherry tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes sell well but 6 plants will yield plenty of tomatoes to sell and Cherry tomatoes are not very good for juice or salsa’s.   We may have to buy some beefsteak or other type large slicing tomatoes.

If we plant in the garden around May 1 then 55 to 60 days should put tomatoes in the Farmers Market around the end of June and the other tomatoes ready the middle of July.