How to Grow Celebrity Hybrid Tomatoes
Celebrity is a classic all-purpose hybrid tomato variety. It is a mid-early tomato, and will continue to produce throughout the season. Determinate usually means that the vines are more compact and that it produces during a limited period, but this is a vigorous determinate tomato and it will give you 8 oz. tomatoes all summer long.
With VF1F2NTASt breeding and hybrid vigor, Celebrity is resistant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Verticillium wilt, Fusarium wilt races 1 and 2 and root knot nemotodes; it tolerates a wide variety of conditions. Can, freeze, eat, or cook with these tomatoes; Celebrity will become a favorite variety in your garden.
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Things You'll Need
- Celebrity tomato seeds
- Small and medium peat pots (or substitute)
- Potting soil
- Tray or shelf
- Plastic wrap or lid
- Vegetable fertilizer (or organic substitute)
- Tomato cages
Instructions
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Start Your Seedlings Indoors
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Obtain your seeds over the winter. Six to eight weeks before your last frost, fill small peat pots with soil.
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Put three seeds in each pot and cover with 1/2-inch of soil. Firm the soil around the seeds and water gently and well. Cover your pots with plastic wrap, or the lid to your seedling tray.
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Place your pots in a warm location, a spot that stays above 65 degrees F during the day and doesn't drop below 50 degrees F at night. Check your pots daily, to maintain their moisture and warmth, and to watch for emerging plants.
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Remove the cover once the seeds have sprouted and reached the bottom of the lid.
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Put your seedlings in a sunny spot during the day time. Make sure you rotate them, so they don't grow in one direction toward the sun. Maintain soil moisture and make sure they stay warm at night.
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Choose one seedling per pot when plants are 2 to 3 inches tall and have two or three sets of leaves. Use scissors to snip the others off at the soil line. Transplant them to larger peat pots. Continue keeping your plants warm and in the sun.
Move Your Plants Outside
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Move your plants outside when danger of frost is past and night temperatures consistently remain above 55 degrees F. If there is any chance of frost, bring them back indoors at night. Allow your plants to be outside for two weeks, to "harden off" or adjust to the sun and wind of the outside environment.
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Pick a sunny garden location where you will be growing your tomatoes. Dig the holes as deep as your plants are tall. Mix the soil in the bottom of the hole with a small amount of fertilizer, then mound the soil in the bottom of the hole.
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Put each tomato plant in the hole so that the top three sets of leaves are above the surface of the hole. Gently remove all leaves and stems below that point. New roots will grow all along that stem. Add soil to the hole and fill it to within an inch of the top. Water thoroughly. Add enough soil to completely fill the hole, then firm the soil down around the plant, leaving a shallow bowl-shaped depression around the base of the plant.
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Place a tomato cage (or other support) around each plant. Make sure the cage is secure in its position. Water your tomatoes once a week, about an inch of water, more often if they are dry or wilting. You should be picking tomatoes approximately 75 days after putting your seedlings into their final growing spot.
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Tips & Warnings
Putting your pots in a tray makes them easier to move around. A vegetable seed starting tray with a plastic cover is perfect.
If an unexpected late frost is forecasted, protect young plants with plastic sheeting or other cover.
Tomatoes are very picky about temperature. Don't try to rush any of these steps.
