Tomatoes: organic, start from seed, buy from the nursery?

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I'm a tomato junkie. The reason I started gardening in the first place was to have plenty of bountiful and tasty tomatoes all season long. I'm even starting to freeze them and make homemade sauces all winter-long!

But I'm still trying to find the perfect balance on how to start my tomatoes, easily and cheaply. How do you start? With seed purchased from WalMart? Do you buy plants from the nursery? Or do you go organic? I would love some guidance because soon winter will be wrapping up and I'm going to need to think about my tomato garden. I really need to keep it as inexpensive as possible. Ideas?

Oh and I love all kinds of tomatoes. Really. I'm a junkie.
 
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I used to start all of my tomato plants. They are easy to grow but you do have to make sure to harden them off before planting outside. Instead of buying all of the starter trays I use paper or plastic cups. Poke a hole or 2 or 3 in the bottom and put in some soil and plant it. I put the cups in a cheap dishpan I bought at Walmart for $1. Now to make your greenhouse... put a few stick, I use popsicle sticks, in some of the cups to hold the saran wrap off the cups, put saran wrap over it just like you would your food. I always water my plants from the bottom up, meaning I just pour water in the tray and let it soak up thru the bottom.
 
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I used to start all mine too, inside in sunny windows. But where I live now I just don't have the set up for that. So I broke down and bought plants the last couple of years.

I also have found that even if I start from seed super early, and then nurture the plants like crazy, etc., what I can get from a purchased plant is just as good and my plants do not fruit any earlier.

I also experimented this year with growing out a plant that had volunteered from seed. I didn't know what variety it was of course, but it turned out quite well, it was one that I had liked the previous year.

I go to the local farmers market and buy plants from one of the growers. They have interesting varieties too.
 
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That's what I did last year because I didn't have time to start plants. I don't think it made a big difference. Either way I still had tomatoes with no extra chemicals attached to them.

I did try a purple tomato last year. It didn't produce as well as I had hoped but that may have been because of the weather. Although I still had lots of tomatoes my crop wasn't as plentiful as it normally is.
 
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I tried both last year and I prefer seedlings. They grow a bit faster and are just more fun. Growing plants from seeds is way less expensive however.
 
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I start mine from seeds.. these are easy to grow.. and this way all I have to do is invest in a small packet of good variety seeds and I have seeds for the whole year.. or if I save some from my best fruits i have them life long.. I have never had issues with raising tomatoes from seeds.
Since I live where the weather is sunny almost all year through.. I have tomatoes plants every time of the year.
 
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I'm not sure what I am doing wrong but the seeds I start in my house never seem to perform as well as the tiny plants I buy in the store. I still try some every year though. We have had a garden for about 8 years now and I still have a ton to learn. Tomatoes are my favorite thing to plant. My kids love to eat them fresh off the plant. We eat so many open face tomato sandwiches! fresh baked bread, a bit of cheese and a juicy tomato. That food is good for the soul. We like to plant a variety just to have different options. We can salsa, spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, and lots of plain old canned diced tomatoes. They are my favorite part of a garden so far!
 
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I'm not into "organics" but I always start all my plants from seed, and not from some huge conglomerate, I always buy my seeds from small seed banks and find I get better results that way, be it growing in my Aquaponic system or in the ground.
 
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I usually start my tomatoes from a seed. But last summer I got the plants from a nursery. In my experience they grow faster from a seed; unless I just didn't get a good "batch". This time around I will use seeds, but I will give the nursery another chance.
 
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I usually start my tomatoes from a seed. But last summer I got the plants from a nursery. In my experience they grow faster from a seed; unless I just didn't get a good "batch". This time around I will use seeds, but I will give the nursery another chance.
Yeah, has something to do with the stress and trauma of being transferred into different types of soil.
 
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I think I am not giving my seeds a chance to get used to outside temps long enough. When I move them from my house I give them a few days to harden off but I think I need more like a week for my tender tomato plants. They seem to really struggle for a long time. When I plant them along side nursery plants the nursery plants out perform my seed starts.
 

Jed

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Just by organic seed starts. The seed starts are probably sown in perfect conditions.You are doing perhaps a hit and miss as you are not germinating in a climate controlled condition all year around.
Keep at it and you may find some years are better to germinate than others.:)
 
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Tomatoes are my absolute favorite things to grow. The seem to do well for us. We usually have between 15 to 20 plants each year. I think its been fun to find new varieties and see how they grow and taste. There is nothing like a fresh tomato salad. I have a bunch of Sweet 100 cherry sized tomatoes started for this year. I will be starting a few more seeds soon and buying a few here and there from a nursery. The fun thing about the cherry sized tomatoes is that my kids love them and will sneak out and eat them right off the plant. You cant really get to upset with kids sneaking healthy food can you?
 

Jed

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True about kids eating cherry tomatoes/ vegies. Carrots were also a favourite and cherry tomatoes are one of the easier tomatoes to grow successfully.
 
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If you grow open-pollenated tomatoes rather than hybrids, you can easily save your own seed from your best tomatoes from year-to-year, confident that your own seed is organically produced, yet selecting for best size, taste, texture etc.
 

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