From seeds, growing

Here's a picture of some Sun Gold tomatoes that are sprouting up. I often use a paper egg crate to start seeds. This year I had the obvious innovation of placing it in a broiling pan with water in the bottom. This lets me not fret about keeping it watered during the day. The whole thing goes out on the patio in the sun, and rests overnight under a (dim) fluorescent light. Sometimes I feel that I have to chase the sun around the house, so in the late afternoon I'll move the seeds from the back patio to the front porch. Or not. It depends on how motivated I am.

This year I'm plenty motivated since the pickings of starts at the nursery were unexpectedly slim not to mention that the Sun Golds I grew last year from a nursery start were not as tasty as those I grew the year previous from this seed. Add to that the fact that I feel I'm late with the whole planting thing and I get an overall sense that I ought to be doing SOMETHING! This is worst after I've planted seed but before it's sprouted: Is it dud seed? It'll be too late to plant if I wait for little sprouts to show up. Maybe I ought to buy a backup plant or two at the nursery? No, no. This is all part of a plan whereby I take advantage of my tardiness to plant early bearing nursery starts in order to phase my harvest over a longer period of time - give it time to work.

And it did.