The method worked so I had a lot of "test" plant starters. After they grew, I transplanted into 2"x2" peat pots. Then I started the "real" batch and they came up great, too. Soon, I had over 60 tomato seedlings to nurture and find homes for.
Lesson learned: Don't get attached to your seedlings. They're not your babies even though they depend on you for food, water, and they sure can look cute!
When I transplanted my plant starters, I used potting mix that I had sitting out in the garage. Big mistake. What I used was almost entirely peat. While being nice as an addition to soil, for some reason this stuff didn't hold moisture. As a result, I started watering every other day because the plants would dry out.
Lesson learned: Choose a good soil mix to transplant into. Otherwise, you could have moisture and nutrient issues.
Choosing the wrong soil mix caused many problems for me. Because the plants couldn't hold water, I had to water all the time. As a result, there was a lot of water running through the peat pots and collecting in the trays I had below them. Then I had standing water which is a problem. The combo of too much water, standing water, and no air movement resulted in fungus problems showing up in the plants. Fungus gnats also became prevalent. Having little gnats flying around your plant setup is a fantastic way to try the patience of your significant other.
Lesson learned: Don't tick off the wife with gardening. She's wonderful, but there are bounds to patience with my hobbies.
In addition to water problems, I was contending with the volume of plants. As they grew, they needed more and more space. I ran out of space as the plants needed to be transplanted from the 2"x2" peat pots to something larger. I had nowhere to put them to continue growing. If I transplanted larger, I'd have even less space. So I tried to limp them along. Some died as a result while others became root-bound.
Lesson learned: Be realistic about the number of plants you need. While some seeds will not germinate or die in transplant, don't start so many that you can't care for them as they grow.
Compounding my space issues at home was that I also was thoroughly weeding the garden, building the garden boxes, sinking them, filling with soil/compost, and trying to begin the pathway work. As a result, I got the tomatoes into their boxes at some point in mid-June which is about a month after the last expected frost. That's a long time for them to be needing transplanting and dealing with the aforementioned water/fungus/gnat issues.
Lesson learned: Don't bite off more than you can chew. There can be trickle down effects from poor decision-making.
Once I got them into the ground, I made more mistakes. In following the square-foot gardening method, I planted my tomatoes with one foot of space between them. Also, since peppers are companion plants to tomatoes and also need a square foot of space, I interplanted them. As a result, my tomatoes all fought for light and grew very tall (approx 7') and spindly. In addition, the peppers never matured, likely due to lack of light caused by living in the shadow of the tomato plants.
Lessons learned:
This year, I will be segregating the tomatoes from the peppers but will keep them nearby to benefit from companion planting.
Adjust the spacing of tomatoes to deter upward growth.
I figured out that I was overwatering at some point in mid to late July. In addition, I was watering too late in the day which leads to fungus problems compounded with Maryland's notorious summertime humidity.
Lesson learned: Research water requirements for plants. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
Hopefully, in adjusting from all these mistakes, my tomatoes will be much more productive in the future.
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