Tomato seed selection. This is easiest mistake to make or not. You can avoid this all together if you buy transplants from your local big box store or local plant nursery because they have already done the work of figuring out what grows well you in your area, but if you fall in love with tomatoes like me, you want to grow other varieties that this stores just don’t offer and they won’t cost you as much because growing from Seed should cost you less…Should LOL. You’ll seed… I mean see. For me, Seed selection is when you started to dream about all the awesome tomatoes you can grow, eat, sell or give away. This is where all the troubles begin because your start to see all of the colors, sizes and taste of tomatoes you can grow in that full color glossy seed catalogs the somehow magically appeared in your mail box and there are A LOT to pick from. I love reading and saving my seed catalogs. So how do you pick the right seeds?? There are some things you need to take into consideration before you make your final selection unless you just want to go wild and experiment blindly. I’ve done both so go for the ride like me, but this video is about making better decision and avoiding my TOP 5 mistakes..

Mistake 1 – Know your Zone that you are growing in. What you’ll need to look up your growing zone on the internet and see which growing zone you live in. I know when I first started I had no clue. Growing Zone WHAT???? But through a bunch a failures, you want to know this one for sure. Many of the seed pack will have some sort of zone chart on it. This is really the easiest to figure out. If you live in a hot zone or cold zone pick a seed that you think will work for you. If in doubt call the seed company or drop a comment in this video and I’ll get back with you with my opinion.

Mistake 2 – Know your Types – There are 2 primarily types of tomatoes. “Determinate and Indeterminate”– Do you want your tomatoes to grow Huge or stay in a bush like form. Determinate tomatoes only grow so big and produce a certain amount of tomatoes so when they are done producing tomatoes they are done vs. Indeterminate. Indeterminate tomatoes grow huge and continue to produce as long as the conditions are right. Also indeterminate requires more support and pruning. So picking between the 2 types can be important. I like to grow both

Mistake 3 – Know your Space – I grow completely outside in the warmer months and even though our winter season in Florida are short I still like to get a jump start on spring, so I’ll start the seeds in the shed as usual but with heating mats and grow lights. I start my seeds in a trays, cups, egg cartoons and pretty much anything that holds soil. So think about the space you have and what you want to grow because this will help you keep your spending in a budget because the seeds packs are filled with more seed then you know what to do with and also both types, determinate or indeterminate, will take up a lot of room in your garden. Personally, I like to plant tomatoes about 3 feet apart, but tend to bunch to close together

Mistake 4 – Know your Growing season – I know this seems like a no brainer in most of the country because your instincts tell you not to plant during winter while there’s snow on the ground and the earth is just frozen solid unless you know something I don’t. If you have an indoor grow room with lights, then grow on. I’m totally jealous and there’s seeds for grow room, green houses and hoop house as well. So, Why is Growing season import in seed selection? Because you don’t want to miss out on new varieties that become available in the seed catalogs and find out about them latter and the next thing you know, you just purchased more seeds

Mistake 5 – Know the difference - Heirloom vs. Hybrid seeds or Organic or not - This can be a really tough one. At first I was all about Heirloom Organic seeds and I wanted to grow as clean and GMO free as possible, and this is still true, but you want to be successful. Starting off growing your food is fun and can be rewarding. Anything worth trying there will be failures, but you don’t want this failure stopping you from gardening completely. Organic seeds is all about the growing conditions of the seeds, so just because the seeds are heirloom doesn’t mean they are organic and the same is true hybrid seeds. Hybrid seed are crossed pollinated to improve the plants characteristic against certain growing conditions like heat, cold, fungus and pest, vs Heirloom are older varieties that still have some good characteristics, but they are not being improved like hybrids. Heirlooms are all about preservation so they don’t get lost. History is just as important as the future and taking part in the heirloom seed saving is great for preserving history, and its an awesome way to pass seeds down to generation unlike hybrids that are not recommended to save the seed unless you plan on doing dehybridization of them

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