Spring Planting

Every year we plant at least a couple of tomato plants. The plants only cost a dollar or two but I have always wanted to start some from seeds. My wife would rather have plants than seeds because of the instant gratification factor, but I like seeds because it gives me memories of elementary school when we would plant beans in Solo cups. I love the anticipation of waiting for the plants to sprout! I looked around online and read a bunch of advice on starting tomato seeds. I found pretty much the same advice everywhere and gleaned from it what I thought were the better ideas and totally ignored what I thought was unnecessary. I took the following advice and used it:

• Planting in toilet paper roll tubes (cut in half) rather than spending money on special seed starting pots.
• Putting all the tubes in one container so it's easy to move them around
• Using plastic wrap on top to create a greenhouse effect and keep it moist.

And I chose to completely ignore the following advice:

• Plant in a sterile soil-free "seed starter" mix to prevent disease. (I figure the pilgrims planted in dirt, so the potting soil I had laying around was even better).
• Keep seedlings indoors (Too much trouble, the weather outside right now is stable enough).
• Put sprouted seedlings under fluorescent grow lights (The sun will do).

Here is my mini-greenhouse:
And a blurry closeup of the toilet roll seed planters inside: I immediately wanted to plant more stuff but had only bought tomato seeds. Luckily, we never threw out our dead jalapeño plant from last year, so I cut one open and planted those. I exhausted our supply of toilet paper rolls, but luckily we had a nice disposable casserole dish from tonight's dinner. Instant greenhouse!
Total cost:
Tomato seed packet: $1 for about 30 seeds
Toilet paper rolls: free byproduct of already purchased toilet paper
Potting soil: practically free, left over from years past.
Container: practically free,left over planter box & used disposable casserole dish.
Plastic Wrap: Half a penny. About one foot of a 200' roll from the Dollar Tree.

So $1 for 30 (potential) tomatoes (about 3 cents each) rather than $2 for one existing plant, a savings of 98.5% (if I did my math right!). A significant savings over special pots, grow lights, seed starter mix, etc. Well, it is a savings if they actually grow. I planted about thirty of each. I will keep tracking progress here if there is any progress to track..