What in the world am I going to do now?

dixie Wed Mar 31, 2010 9:01 am

What was I thinking? 3 x 72 = 216, right? I've got about 216 tomato plants & almost as many pepper plants. I tried some different varieties this year & I planted 2-3 seeds "just in case" in each cell of a 72 cell container. God blessed & nearly every one of them sprouted & growing strong. I know, I could use scissors & cut all but 1 in each cell, but that's against my nature. I'm going to start repotting them today & I'll probably lose some of them. If nothing happens I'll be begging people to take plants. The old garden spot has been plowed, I guess most of them will go there, will keep about a dozen in my boxes.

Tomatoes:
Opalka
Gold Medal
Isis Candy
Early Cascade
Family heirloom
Red grape
Jerry's German Giant
German Pink
Orange banana
Homestead

Peppers:
Tam Jalapeno
Pepperoncini
Ancho
Emerald Giant
Jalapeno
Cascabella
Serrano
Big dipper

happyfrog Wed Mar 31, 2010 9:16 am

i had a similar problem - solved it by offering on freecycle my 'extras'. i only need/want/desire 2-3 cherry tomatoes and ended up with close to 2 dozen seedlings from the 20cent packet. . . i repotted and kept 6 - gave away the rest. when it's closer to end of may, i will pick the 2-3 biggest, strongest looking plants and will give away the rest again.

it's an idea.

i met some great folks that way who are also into gardening and were most intrigued by my sfg . .. got them thinking about a different way to garden. ..

happy sprouting!

gardening is such a fun and easy hobby! Smile

and for the most part, gentle on the budget.

Lavender Debs Wed Mar 31, 2010 9:37 am

A happy dilemma!

I did not start nearly as many as Betty Anne did but I do have far too many and I'm not sure that I have anyplace to till. I want to start replacing my lawn with food but the lawn was rolled in and the plastic netting is still just an inch or so under the sod.

My plan is to either put up a notice by the front walk that I have too many tomato starts and for .50 each they can go home with you OR to have a garage sale and set them out with descriptions.

Deborah ....who didn't think that people in Tomato country grew Cascade.

**camprn** Wed Mar 31, 2010 9:54 am

Lavender Debs wrote:A happy dilemma!

I did not start nearly as many as Betty Anne did but I do have far too many and I'm not sure that I have anyplace to till. I want to start replacing my lawn with food but the lawn was rolled in and the plastic netting is still just an inch or so under the sod.

My plan is to either put up a notice by the front walk that I have too many tomato starts and for .50 each they can go home with you OR to have a garage sale and set them out with descriptions.

Deborah ....who didn't think that people in Tomato country grew Cascade.

I know I am going to have extra and plan to donate them to my local WIC or Food Pantry.

Lavender Debs Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:59 am

Awesome (and duh) camp (are you a nurse?). I give to the food bank but didn't think about giving starts. That is terrific!

Deborah ....wonders why she didn't think of that. Glad you did.

nidiyao Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:06 am

Maybe set up tray or two at a local farmer's market saying "free starts", or at the library, or outside your church door. Actually, I love the freecycle idea, I really like to meet local gardeners!'
Sandy

dixie Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:38 am

Thanks, I never heard of Freecycle, but there is a local one & I'll check it out.

dixie Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:40 pm

It didn't take as long as I feared & I got all the tomatoes repotted, will tackle the peppers later in the week.

martha Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:06 pm

Deborah - TILL??? didn't you read the rules about this being a family forum? And yet you speak this way in public???

What in the world am I going to do now? Icon_wink

**camprn** Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:12 pm

Lavender Debs wrote:Awesome (and duh) camp (are you a nurse?). I give to the food bank but didn't think about giving starts. That is terrific!
Deborah ....wonders why she didn't think of that. Glad you did.

Yup, I'm a nurse. I've been at it for more than 20 years. Goodness, where does the time go? Shocked

SirTravers Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:19 pm

I like the Freecycle idea. I joined my local group and got an armload of irises the other day from a member that was dividing hers out.

bullfrogbabe Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:44 pm

My friends at work are also into gardening, we swap varieties with each other and give away our spare plants to each other at planting time. I only plant 2-3 spare pots as seed germination is pretty reliably most of the time; I only put 2 seeds per pot and either snip the weak one off or transplant it if it is strong into another pot that didn't germinate. I ask around when I plant seeds to see if others would like some of whatever I am planting, if they do I plant enough extras to share. They do the same in return.

Not everyone has time or lights to start their own plants, so those of that do just share our extras so our coworkers don't need to buy theirs at the nursery.

We also swap seeds with each other, so we can use them up while they're fresh. We all take turns buying the seed! Some co-workers supply the seed and I'll start them some in return.

Kabaju42 Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:51 pm

Holy cow that's a lot of 'maters! What in the world am I going to do now? Icon_eek

camprn wrote:I know I am going to have extra and plan to donate them to my local WIC or Food Pantry.

That's a cool idea. It reminds me of a few years ago in our area a guy decided he didn't see any use to having a lawn. So he ripped out his front lawn and replaced it all with tomato plants. Then he donated the tomatoes to the food bank.

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