Quote:
Originally Posted by joseph
I experience only advantages to starting tomatoes early... I have tried direct seeding tomatoes many times with extremely poor results every time. It's too hard for me to find tomato seedlings in a field full of weeds. The bugs eat the heck out of them. Transplants start out with a 6 week head start on the weeds and the bugs.
The highest market prices for tomatoes at my farmer's market are paid for the first fruits to show up at market. Loosing 2 weeks worth of tomato income would suck.
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That is very true about the higher prices..
People will pay a premium for the first "red" fruit, then they always say the flavor has something to be desired, or it's not as juicy as it should be, or the fruit is kinda' small etc. They will discuss it with the grower on the next visit to the market. The grower will tell them it could be weather related and so on... This goes on until the first REAL tomatoes show up...about 2 weeks. Then the early producer wonders where his customers have gone.