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Re: more tomato questions

> I've got a question on starting tomatoes indoors.  I'm using five
> EPS units (4 12's and 1 24) and have planted several varieties of
> tomatoes, a tomatillo, 2 kinds of eggplant, 2 pepper varieties, and
> four herbs.  I'm begining to think that it wasn't such a good idea
> to mix all of these seeds as now I've got a lot of tomatoes up, a
> couple of eggplant and some herbs, but I have zero germination on
> peppers, two kinds of herbs, and three kinds of tomatoes.  The seeds
> have been in for 11 days all the EPS units are under grow lights
> now, although the one with peppers is pushed back away from them and
> still covered with the hood as there are no seedlings up in there.

Can't help you on the herbs without knowing what they are, but I can
tell you that I've had pepper seeds take up to 21 days to germinate!
Be patient on those.  If they haven't germinated after 3-4 weeks,
then I would replace the seed and try again.  Also, tomatoes and
peppers germinate better with a little heat, and I've noticed that
some sun-loving herbs like it, too.  Don't give extra heat for the
shade-loving herbs.

I've also noticed that sometimes the plastic hoods create an
environment that seems a bit too moist for the tomatoes and peppers.
You might try taking off the hoods and creating a bit of airflow in
the plant room to see if this improves the germination.  I'm only
going on personal experience, but I noticed a definite improvement
last year when I did this.

> All the others have SOME seedlings, and so I felt I had to put them
> under lights.  The tomatoes that haven't come up are all seeds that
> I've had for three years, and had great germination rates with in
> the past two years.  Should I replace the seed, assuming that the
> packages got too wet or hot at some point?

If the tomato seeds have been in there for 11 days and have shown
little or no germination, I would definitely start to suspect them.
Peppers take quite a long while, but all my tomatoes have germinated
within 2 weeks usually.

>Also, I've really had
> poor luck getting my seedlings successfully into the garden in the
> past two year's attempts.

What kind of problems have you had in getting the transplanting done?
 Make sure you harden off the seedlings before they get transplanted
into their permanent spots.  If you don't harden off sometimes the
shock is simply too much and they keel over very fast.

> I had great luck with direct seeded
> tomatillos last year, though.  They outproduced the tomatoes by far.
>  Is there a problem with starting tomatillos indoors? Thanks for any
> suggestions!


Well, I've just asked a question about the tomatillos, so I'll be
looking forward to the answers to this, as well!

Hope this helps,
Joan
cmathew@airmail.net
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8098/
USDA gardening zone 7b (just north of Dallas, TX)
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