Tomatoes

I've learned a lot about growing tomatoes from seed this year. I'd not ever tried it before, and in the end I think I'll be able to declare it a success. A couple of touch-and-go moments provided me with some great learning opportunities.My first problem was yellowed curling leaves and stunted growth. I transplanted them from their little germination packs into 3" cups made of newspaper, thinking the problems were due to being rootbound. That seemed to help a little, but not much. Turns out I was over watering the poor dears. The healthy looking one in the back right is a cherry tomato and they're more tolerant of varying water conditions than other varieties. The above photo was taken about five weeks after planting seeds and a week after transplanting to 3" pots. They should have been a lot bigger.After I quit watering so much, the tomatoes grew but their leaves again turned pale and the veins got a purple cast to them. I knew that purple coloring is indicative of a phosphorus deficiency, so I began fertilizing my seedlings. Some folks will tell you that you don't need to fertilize seedlings until you pu them in the ground, but my experience indicates some type of feeding is necessary. My tomatoes were in a commercial seed starting mix. If I'd mixed in composted manure when I put them into the 3" pots I probably wouldn't have had this problem. The above photo was taken a month after the first one.I planted the tomatoes in the garden and into each hole I put a trowel or two of composted manure and a handful of powdered milk (for calcium). I have them growing against a cattle panel and they seem really happy. They are planted with peppers and a couple of borage plants. I've mulched about half of them with newspaper and still need to mulch the rest as newspaper becomes available.