Do garden centres bring in tomato seedlings early enough?

If your garden centre still is bringing in tomato plants at the "traditional" time, maybe now is the time to tell them that times have changed. With the use of protective water-filled coverings such as our KOZY-COATS you can be planting tomatoes outside a good month before the usual date!

That means that if you live around Windsor or Vancouver, you can be planting tomatoes outside early in April! For the rest of Canada and the Scandinavian countries, for instance, that means the end of April or early May!

It has been remarkable to find that some garden centres even in milder regions don't have tomatoes ready for sale until the second week of May!

Obviously, they aren't tomato specialists and it's up to their customers to tell them that they want to be picking ripe tomatoes in June, not August.

One more point: Most garden centres also don't offer any of the REALLY EARLY TOMATO VARIETIES for sale. Some tomatoes mature EVEN BEFORE SUMMER BEGINS, if they're planted under KOZY-COATS. Those are the kinds of extra-early tomatoes garden centres should be offering. Varieties such as Glacier (which we offer as Free Seed), Stupice, Siberian, etc.

Some garden centre growers just need to be educated as bit on this subject. Their reward will be happier customers and your reward will be a delicious home-grown tomato on your dinner table BEFORE SUMMER BEGINS (June 21)!

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