need plant help

[GIZZARDFARM]

I am not a lazy farmer at all but have never started my own tomato plants from seed, due to lack of space inside and lack of heat in my large shed. I do however start squash,cucs, etc in the ground from seed. my Question is where can i find AFFORDABLE heirloom plants other than brandywine which i can get locally. i am trying to find cherokee purple, black from tula, caspian pink, kellogs breakfast, aunt ginnys purple etc. I have found a site or two that have some of these but they range from 3 to 4 dollars a plant and as i plant 3-4 hundred tomato plants that is out of the question. help if you can

[Granny]

How about you should build yourself a hoop house to start those seedlings in? The $3 or $4 per heirloom plant seems to me not unreasonable given the amount of materials & work involved, but if you need 300 of them, you could easily build the hoop house, buy the seeds and supplies and have some change leftover.

The plans I've been looking at for hoop houses are running about $500 or so for a 14-footer, but I suspect that with a little searching around on the net you could do one for maybe half of that.

And you can get the flats you need really inexpensively at http://www.novoselmfg.com

[GIZZARDFARM]

Thanks granny.. I have kicked around the idea for a while about a hoop house, but as all my honeydos this winter have kept me busy i havent had the time, and here it is a couple of weeks until i need to start em. I have within the last 4 years discovered heirloom tomatoes. The first year i grew only a few Brandy wines and after tasting them I have become almost obsesses. the only other kind i have grown is black from tula which i also enjoyed. Last year i Started selling my produce (instead of giving everything away) at our new county farmers market. I sold enough for a BIG OLE RED Troybuilt Tiller. This year I am doubling my garden and hope to buy a used tractor this fall.. you are right a greenhouse is needed. i also have a 15x20 outbuilding in which i hope to run power..i i can get that done pretty quick i can use a space heater and use shop lights which should do nicely.. one problem with my job im on call 24/7 and dont get alot of time as i average 50-60 hrs a week...whew

[carolyn137]

And if you're still looking for reasonably priced plants with reasonable shipping costs, and nicelt packed, and a huge inventory of varieties, please consider selectedplants.com owned by Fusion, from Alabama, who posts here at TVille with that user name.

[Granny]

The hoop house patterns that I have been looking at are pretty much put together in an afternoon with some PVC pipe, a few couplers and a pot of PVC cement. I suspect it wouldn't take you a speck more time to just do the hoop house than it would do assemble all the shop lights and so on.

I would bang one together myself, but I'm not so sure my daughter would be real happy if I put up a hoop house on the front lawn and there is nowhere else to put one. The rest of the yard that is not the vegetable garden is either deep shade, the hen house (I'm debating winterizing that and getting some chickens) or the raised flower beds that are still (despite my intensive labor and brow beating of everyone else to assist in the weeding) over-run with lily of the valley. Guess I'm going to have to solarize them to be rid of stuff.

[Luvgardening2]

Can you look into nurseries in your area? I am LAZY and look for shortcuts. I purchase seedlings from a nursery that a friend of mine runs and I can get all the "heirlooms" and "hybrids" at cost. Quite honestly it would cost me more to produce these seedlings.

Also, I volunteer at the Arboretum and we started pepper and tomato seeds. We are going to have a HUGE sale in March. There were over 200 varieties of tomatoes. The first day they are $2.00 and by the weekend they are a buck. The pepper seedlings go for a quarter by the weekend.

My suggestion would be to ask around locally.

GL

Nancy

[dice]

How to build a hoophouse (instructions):

http://westsidegardener.com/howto/hoophouse.html

(Note: Doublecheck the measurements in the materials
list. There was one online that was wrong, but I do not
recall whether it was this one.)

I have known people to put these together without
glueing the joints. Cheap, generic 6-mil plastic is good
for about 3 years. I priced out the materials for a 10'x20'
at HD last spring, total was about $70 for the pvc and
plastic cover. (It would cost a little extra for the 2x4s
on the bottom of the sides that the example at the URL
above used, for 2' rebar stiffeners for the stubs that
come up out of the ground, and for the end clamps.)

Where to get custom pvc clamps for the ends:

http://www.atozsupply.com/Snap_Clamps_C106.cfm

Another possibility would be a coldframe with a 3' deep
manure pit under it. (The composting manure provides
heat that keeps the seedlings from freezing at night.)

None of this is as convenient as buying a flat of plugs
from some local nursery, of course. One would think
you could find them at some Farmer's Market around
Chatanooga. Maybe email Crabtree Farms and see if
they have tomato seedlings at the Chatanooga Market
(Sundays), how much are they, what kinds, etc. Here
is a list of nurseries around Chatanooga if you can find
a day to spend on the phone:

http://www.magicyellow.com/category/...anooga_TN.html

[johno]

www.abundantacres.net

I'd email them about such a large order...

[johnsonjrbm]

If you don't want to fool with PVC, you can make hoops from 16' cattle panels. If you make the hoops 6' wide, you can actually walk underneath them. I made a chicken tractor this way, using zip ties to connect the panels to each other. You simply cover them with plastic. When you're done for the season, you can just let them lie flat again.

[Worth1]

Hey gizzard its not to hard to plant seeds and grow them I know you have said you have never done it before.
If you don’t have the room can you find a green house/nursery that will grow them out for you?

Chattanooga isn’t that far away is it?
Maybe some folks would do it on the halves.
Friend’s maybe?
I am using someone else’s place to grow mine this year.

Worth

[gardenhappy]

We made ours for a 25x45 ' for 217.00,I have tons of room and love it!!!!! We're hooking up solar for heat this fall and winter and cooling beds for this summer.The plants are doing great as long as no wild boar eats them He's gone now so all is well again.We plan on putting up 2 more this year yet and growing all winter long.8)

[kimpossible]

Gizzardfarm - I'm going in a totally different direction here, but ...
I have had NO luck finding local sellers of Heirloom Tomato Plants & definitely don't rely on anyone but myself to supply my garden with what I want.
I start all my plants from seed, plus extra to give away. I plant about 100 tomato plants (plus the rest of the garden), and give away at least another hundred (I'm sure I could sell them, but working full time, I just can't make it work).
I have found that it doesn't take much room to start 2 to 3 hundred plants. I use rooms on the mainfloor of my house, where it is warm, for germination ( mainfloor laundry). You only need warmth for germination, not light. Once your seedlings have emerged you need to provide light. I keep mine in light & warmth on the mainfloor until the first set of true leaves, then I move them (& transplant when necessary) to my basement, a cooler environment, under grow-lights, on a three-tiered light stand, plus on any other horizontal surface that I can rig up (door on saw-horses, for example, with lights suspended on "S" hooks & chains for adjustment). I add an oscillating fan to provide ventilation & "tickling" for health and strength.

If you have similar environments, you could make the "starting from seed" thing work, and you have complete control of the varieties you need, at a fraction of the cost.

Just my two cents!

[Elliot]

3 to four hundred plants should put you in a bargaining position. I could contact the director of chileplants.com and try to work out a deal. I buy from them. The quality is great

Elliot