Up until now, we have been well above 40 degrees each night and in the 50s, 60s, and 70s each day — a safe zone for plants.

Additionally, just like a baby, the plants need plenty of liquids once they’re out in the open.  Over the past few days we’ve made up for a relatively dry April.

In the past 7 days, we’ve had 2 inches of water in the Chicagoland area.  The general guideline for an average nice week is a 1/2 inch of water a week.  I’d recommend a little more water during the transplant days which we have clearly covered this week.

I’ll have before and after photos soon showing how the plants have done all week.  Look for them this Friday.

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Tomato Seedlings going in the ground, April 24, 2009

The tomato plants started just over a month ago from seed indoors under a grow light.  Pictured above, the seedlings are a little tormented from the trip under the warm grow lights to the outdoors.  I’ve let them out during the day to start to acclimate to the cold weather over the past week, but today is going to be a rough day.

From above, the seedlings are about 4 to 6 inches tall.  When you transplant them, you want only the top set of leaves above the ground.  The rest of the stalk so far goes in the soil to help create a strong stem for the tomatoes to grow on.

Tomato Plant just planted in the ground, April 24, 2009

Above, the plant is almost completely in the ground except for those top leaves.  Also at the same time, I put the tomato plant supports in the ground.  That way I won’t damage the roots if I were to put it in the ground in a few weeks when the plant really needs it.

The little guy is a bit sad after moving from the warm heat lamps to the relatively cold outdoors.  The next 5 days, the plants should get plenty of rain and warmer spring nights to give them a good start on their way to blooming.

I’m planting 9 different varieties of tomatoes this year.  I’ll post about each variety in the coming days.

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3. Spring Preparations

This is my fourth year urban farming and while I might make it look good today, I’ve definitely had a fair bit of trail and error along the way.  Living in Chicago, the growing season isn’t long enough to satisfy my urge.  It’s usually November and December before I’m ready to get seeds back in the ground.

Seed catalogs — more on those tomorrow — come in December and January and I usually make my first purchases shortly thereafter.  With the seeds in my hands by February 1st, it’s easy to start growing right away.

A few years ago, I planted tomato seeds in the seedstarters around February 1st.  By March 1st, they are outgrowing the 2″ square pot and ready to stretch out.  First, please don’t plant in the ground until the ground and the weather is good and ready.  I hate losing 6 weeks of work to putting the tomatoes in the ground too early.

My recommendation is to give them the room they need but keep them inside.  While I’m not a fan of plastic cups (for environment reasons), they do make a good mini pot for tomato starts.  It will also give them another 2 to 3 weeks to grow inside.

If you’re using a “growing medium” (I use this mix), you’ll need to add some real dirt and some tomato fertilizer to keep the tomatoes happy.  For tomatoes throughout the growing season, I use Gardeners.com Organic Tomato Fertilizer.  Transplant them to the cups and they’ll do fine until you can get them outdoors.  Crisis averted!

Tomato starts growing under a grow lamp, April 2009

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About three weeks ago, I turned over the soil and cleaned up the plots.

Early spring clean garden plot

I’ve used raised beds before and frankly the weeds get stuck in the edges of the raised beds, so I’ve opted for a new method this year.  Plain ole’ garden stakes.  Anything not used for planting is covered in an organic (not chemically treated) weed tarp as you can see from the edges.  We’ll have to see how the new system works.

Then I start to plant the cold weather starts — spinach, radish, and peas.  Lettuces coming soon too.

Early planting of radish seeds

I’m not a scientific guy so the spacing isn’t perfect.  But I have to imagine that back in the early 1800s, they didn’t pull out a tape measure to make sure the spacing was really 3″ apart.  It’s hard to tell the depth from these pictures, but the radish seeds don’t go much deeper than a 1/2″ into the soil.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (inside on the floor), I’ve started tomatoes and peppers.  6 different varieties of tomatoes plus 1 variety of peppers (more on those in coming weeks).  I use a small grow lamp along with an indoor growing system from Gardeners.com.  Tomatoes only grow in warm soil (about 75 degrees) so if I wanted to start them from seed outside, I’d have to start pretty late in the summer.  Instead, we start them inside in a warm corner of the house.

Tomato plants growing inside under a grow lamp

These plants are about two weeks old.  It should be another three weeks or so until they go outside during the day to adjust to the colder weather and then a week after that — into the ground!  I’m planting early, mid and late summer tomatoes so we’ll start getting tomatoes in about 2 1/2 months from now and then will continue until the first frost.

Remember, the tomato you eat on July 4th started growing about now.

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