Tomatoes in the Ground

Today was another warm spring day and the forecast for the next week is warm too. It seemed like I could chance putting the rest of my tomatoes in the ground and hope that we don't have one more frost. I'm devoting one whole row to tomatoes. I hope to get many, many tomatoes to can into salsa and tomato sauce.

I dug holes about 8-12 inches apart along either side of the row, amended them with egg shells and a tomato fertilizer and then transplanted 49 tomatoes into the ground.

I planted 7 Purple Calabash from Miss M, which never were re-potted after they sprouted because they had such petite form.
I planted 8 Red Zebra ( and have 2 in reserve). I didn't intend to have this many but the first seed I started didn't sprout so I had put all my remaining seed into 3 or 4 cells and ended up with them all sprouting.
I planted 13 Heirloom Mix from Fedco, 2009.
I planted 13 Amish Paste Tomatoes for my mom.
And I planted 8 Market Miracle from Daphne.
I have 2-4 Purple Cherry Tomatoes from my sister in China to plant after they size up a bit. They only sprouted recently.

My plan for support this year is to have each tomato wound around a piece of twine attached to a stake and a frame. Using some posts and strapping my husband made the frame. He has nails in every 8 to 12 inches. The next step is to get or make stakes and tie twine from the stake to the nail. Then I'll be training each tomato around the twine. You can see the frame we built over the red walls of water.

The four tomatoes I planted at the beginning of the month are doing well and are almost blooming. They are 2 Chelsea Cherry Tomatoes and 2 Green Zebras.

Now it is time to get the cucumbers, zucchini, and winter squash in the ground. The digging for those beds awaits me this week.