Transplant mix

For 120 x 4" tall square cowpots @ 670 ml each:  80,400 ml mix needed.

Base = ~6.5 bags Jiffy seed starting mix = 6.5 x 12 quarts =78 quarts.
Add 8 quarts perlite = 86 quarts mix.  = ~2.9 cubic ft.
Add to this 2 cups plant food per cu ft = 5.8 cups plant food. Prob should reduce it to 5 cups, because the perlite and jiffy mix each have a little food already.
= ~ 87 quarts = 82,000 ml.

Transplant organization...

I need to maximize space efficiency since this year I plan to have more transplants than ever before.
I'm thinking the best way to compromise transplant growth with space is to use 4 inch square pots.
3" square pots were too small - the roots get crowded before I can get them in the ground.  5" round is too big - too much space is needed.  4" round pots were sort of ideal size wise... but I can't fit more than about 10 pots in my seed trays....

Therefore I'm going to use 4" square pots in carrying trays specifically designed for these.
The pots:  4" Tall Square Cowpots.
The trays:  Square pot carrying trays. They are 2 bucks each and carry 15 pots.
This will allow me to get 2 trays on each of the four shelves of my grow rig. 2x4x15 =120 plants !!

F3 sowing and growing 2017

F3s were sowed on 3/19/17.  As of 3/26/17 things look pretty good.
Fruit ID number = F2 parent.
Letter = phenotype category.

Group A:  Purple, gf/gf, big.                                      F2:  8,24,46,55,15

Group B:  Purple, big; +/+ or gf/+.                            F2: 10,50

Group C:  No purple; big; +/+ or gf/+.                       F2:  20

Group D:  (cherry): no purple, small, +/+ or gf/+.      F2: 28, "58"*

I had also listed F2 #49 in group C but I never saved seeds from it.

I also saved seeds from a 2016 backyard sport plant.  I've designated this as #"58" .  But  don't really know what this is.  It might be an IRxCP F2, that sported from the F1 plants I grew in 2015.   Or, it could be something else.  I saved it because it was smallish red fruit, ~15 g, so it might be a nice cherry.  But, it might be some sort of weird cross between other heirlooms in the backyard.  In which case it's actually some sort of F1 between unknowns.  If so, the F2s of this one might be interesting.  However I only had about 6 seeds and so far this week only one has germinated.

"Wells" = my name for the planting holes in 72 seedling tray.  Reminds me of a 96 well plate.

Heirloom list for 2017

Here's what I sowed 3/12/17 (except Sun Gold sowed 3/19/17):

IR and KB - need to preserve seeds from these.
SG and UO are new this year.   OS, SS and SG are hybrids.
Germination rates are all good except 4-year old KB.  Small sample tho.
I generally sow 2 or more seeds per "well" but I recorded it for each variety and the germination rates reflect this.

2017 is underway. First sowing dates and seed starting mix.

It's time to start sowing tomato seeds...

3/12/17  Sowed the heirlooms.

3/19/17 Sowed the F3s from the IRxCP cross.

Actually I plan to sow again in April to get a delayed harvest group... if i can handle it..

I used Jiffy seed starting mix, supplemented with ~1 cup of plant food per 1/2 cubic foot mix.  The plant food was Burpee Organic Starter and Transplanting 3-6-4 Granular Plant Food.   This food has beneficial microorganisms - Bacillus species, but also, "VAM Microrrhizae" and several Glomus species. What are these? Beneficial fungal species. Although it didn't occur to me at the time that these were fungal and not just more bacterial species...

However - to remove the nasty microbes that cause damping off, I tried to carefully bleach and lysol the under-trays first, and I am using new 72-well inserts so those should be clean.  Before doling out the mix to the wells, I moisten it a little so it doesn't fly around everywhere, but not so much that it's clumpy.  Then after sowing the seeds I sprayed it with a littler water on top, and watered it from below in the under-tray.  Heat pad of course.

After about 48 hours I noticed some fuzzy white mold appearing on the top of the mix in the trays.  Egads!   At this point, I freaked out because I assumed that the mix was contaminated with mold.  Well duh, it is supposed to be contaminated with fungus - beneficial microrrhizae fungus, that is.   But I had not realized that, and I assume that it was just nasty mold that was going to kill all my seeds.

So I rushed to the store and got some Daconil.  Broad-spectrum anti-fungal agent.  Spray spray spray on the soil where the mold is.  Added some to the water too.   And lo, in a few days the mold was gone.  Hooray.  Except today - 3/25/17 -  I realized my mistake, in that I just killed off all the beneficial fungus in the mix. 

Well.  At least at this date, germination has gone well and so far so good.  My major damping off episode of 2 years ago was (i am quite sure) due to my initial use of inferior potting mix as the seed starting medium.   This go around, even with the Daconil the mix should be pretty clean.

Daconil is the brand name for Chlorothalonil.  It is practically nontoxic to humans.    But its half-life is "moderately persistent" at 1-3 months (http://extoxnet.orst.edu/pips/chloroth.htm).  So having applied it, I am mostly stuck with it remaining in the initial sowing soil.  I can keep it out of the transplant mix, at least.