My worst day on the job this spring involved 47 dead tomato plants

I usually keep my mouth shut when the local gardening club insists that starting tomatoes indoors under lights is the only way to go. But last April I had a week where my indoor setup failed - the power strip tripped overnight and killed the seedlings. So I grabbed some nursery starts from a farm stand near Bristol instead, spent maybe $30 on 24 plants, and stuck them straight in the ground after the last frost. And honestly they outperformed my pampered indoor ones by a mile. Grew faster, set fruit earlier, and I didn't have to harden them off for two weeks. The club ladies looked at me like I'd insulted their grandmothers. Has anyone else had better luck with direct-store plants than with fussy starting trays?

2 comments

2 Comments

theagibson1d ago

Actually the harden off process still matters even for store starts, they just had a head start.

grantw322d ago

I read somewhere that store bought starts have already dealt with real world weather, so they bounce back from transplant shock way better. My neighbor swears by his tractor supply plants and he gets tomatoes bigger than my head every single year. There is definitely something to letting the pros do the fussy seedling part while we skip straight to the fun part.