Teenager Tomatoes

OK. It's official. My little baby tomato plants are no longer babies. In fact, the group that I have growing under lights by the window is huge. They are officially teenager tomato plants, and just like adolescents outgrowing their jeans, are rapidly outgrowing their pots. The other group is quite a bit smaller, but still look healthy and happy. I need to go get a new grow light, plus some gallon-size pots. It's already time for another round of mass trans-pot-ation!

As long as I can harden these plants off, I will have accomplished something somewhat difficult for the amateur vegetable gardener. I will have started tomatoes from seed in the Pacific Northwest. Hooray!

I just threw in what gardeners call a "cultural" term there. (Horticulture, not art.) To harden off indoor starts, I will have to gradually expose my teenager plants to the elements over the space of two weeks. I'll bring my plants outside in their pots, and set them in a warm sunny area of my garden. I'll leave them exposed to the elements for an hour at first, and bring them back inside. I will gradually lengthen their exposure time until, at the end of two weeks, they are out for 24 hours. At that point, they are ready to plant.

At the plant sale a couple of weeks ago, I learned that it's okay to put tomatoes in the ground by Memorial Day. I'm not sure if I'll have any room in my garden by then! The fava beans are flowering, which means that they will soon be producing beans. After I harvest those beans, I can pull the favas up. But my peas have not yet produced anything. My tomatoes may stay in gallon-sized pots for a little while, until I harvest all my spring veggies. It doesn't get quite warm enough up here for tomatoes (although I grew tomatoes just fine last summer), so I'll need to invest in some wall-o-waters to provide my tomatoes with some heat.

Phew. Seems like a lot of work. But a summer full of big juicy brandywines will be worth it.

Life continues to tick on, and I'm clicking along at a happy medium. UW Bothell's Teacher Education program will be interviewing me on May 22nd. Wish me luck! I'm really hoping I knock them dead.

And on that note, I'm rather sleepy. Good night, readers!