Lowes or Home Depot?
Or somewhere else?

my advice: cheaper plants are just that... cheap. I always have trouble with tomato plant purchases at the box stores. Spend the few more cents and buy from Martha's or the Co-op.

CO-OP!!!

Farm Patch on S College usually has good choices/good prices.
CO-OP sometimes is a little too proud of their plants (and I'm a member).

Co-op is the cheapest I found. However, last year I bought half my tomatoes from Producers Co-op and half from Home Depot. The ones from Producers ended up being diseased. In the first couple of weeks, one by one they started dying off while the Home Depot plants right next to them flourished.

I thought Lowes had the best selection, but most of the varieties were kind of wilted.

I've bought at both Producers and Farm Patch. I like both

Time to plant tomatoes already? Seems like just the other day we were closing for freezes.

I've been here a long time, but I still tend to lose track of time and put our tomatoes in too late in the spring.

On a slightly related note, can I take a vote on whether or not my basil will come back? Last year I was convinced it was dead - nothing but sticks - and it came back with a vengeance. This year, sticks again. But part of me knows the winter was more harsh and that it should have some green somewhere already if it's going to get any.

We use it all the time, and I need to get a new plant in the group if these are goners. Thoughts?

quote:

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Time to plant tomatoes already? Seems like just the other day we were closing for freezes.

I've been here a long time, but I still tend to lose track of time and put our tomatoes in too late in the spring.

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It's not time to PLANT tomatoes in the ground here in the Brazos valley unless you are willing to gamble that we won't have another freeze (unlikely) and you are prepared to cover them up when we do. It is, however, a great time to buy the transplants and put them in larger containers (1 gallon size is what I use). Pick off the first couple of layers of leaves and plant them deep in a good soil. These you can keep outside while the weather is suitable and easily bring inside when there is a freeze threat. Then, when the freeze threat is passed, you can plant them in your garden and you will be that much further ahead in the growing season. I plan to buy mine this weekend. I actually wish that I had gotten them 2 weeks ago.

Homegrown tomatoes taste so good.

+ 2 Farm patch

Good question, summer. Will basil come back?

Charlie - two years I bought one basil plant for like $3.99. By the end of the summer, I had this amazing, gigantic shrub and more basil than I could ever use. Then winter came, and I was convinced I'd just have to buy another one because it looked VERY dead, but by the time spring was in full swing I had THREE giant shrubs of basil. I was a little amazed.

I'm just not sure that will happen again with the harsh winter.

BTW - are you at Village Foods on Saturday?

fresh tomatoes with fresh basil...yum!

I didn't realize basil would come back like that, but ours always goes to seed by late summer and we get new plants every year.

What varieties of tomatoes are you planting? We like to get plants from the TAMU horticulture club spring sale...but that may be why I tend to be late. Based on the advice here, I think I'll look for plants this weekend.

CO-OP was the least expensive.

$12.90 for a flat(36 plants).

Early Girl, Big Boy, Roma and German Striped tomatoes bought today at Co-op. Also anaheim, red and green sweets and tam jalapenos bought and potted into larger containers. Then I planted yellow crookneck, zucchini, cilantro, dill, pickling cucumbers, basil, thyme and okra by seed into peat pellets. I put these on a seed starter warming pad to germinate and be transplanted into the garden later. Man, I love gardening!!!!

I start my plants indoors on trays that can be easily moved in & out once they germinate on Groundhog Day, then transplant them outside during Spring Break. I often have to cover them once or twice after spring break, but they're still small so it's not a big deal

Just a word to the wise--I was talking to my brother near Corpus, and he told me he had checked lots of mesquite trees today and could not find a single green bud!
When I was growing up down there, Dad tried to start planting cotton by Feb. 22! And milo just as soon after that.