Last Friday I got an email from Dave over at the Horticulture Center. He said that the baby tomatoes were ready to be repotted into larger, 4 inch pots. This is the part where I explain how crazy and busy everything has been, but I know you all have heard it so you can fill in the details. Needless to say it was about three days later than I wanted it to be before I could square off a block of time that I thought would be sufficient (how long does it take to report 85 tomato plants?!) and that also fit in his schedule.
When I got over there the above picture was what I found. The were in great shape. We didn't have a 100% germination rate but we got darn close. Most of the plants germinated four of the five seeds. Many did all five. We had one particular variety that only germinated one of the five seeds and I left it with Dave knowing he had a much better chance of success with it.

I got to planting. In an effort to streamline the whole process I decided to go with numbering the pots and working from a key. Of course this only works if you have been diligent about keeping the key in a safe place. So far so good, but it's not my strong suit. I quickly fell into a routine and with the aid of some good music (NeverShoutNever!) it wasn't long before I was cruising through the pots and dirt. I tell you what, large scale potting works best when you have a huge horticulture center and big tables, tons of pots, dirt, portable water sprayer, and rolls of labels. Yeah, I know, I don't normally have that stuff either. I've been found on the front porch with a bag of dirt, a recycled solo cup and a spoon!

I did leave Dave one of each of the plants labeled with their actual names. I would never have space to plant all of them anyway and if I have massive garden failure I still have the chance of having a tomato taste test by the end of the summer.
After about an hour of packing, planting, pressing, and labeling pot after pot I got to the end of my tray of seedlings. I potted even the littlest, sickliest looking ones (especially them). They are remarkably different even at this state. They are going to live on my front porch for another couple of weeks. Then off to wherever they will live out their tomato destinies. I will keep you posted.