Upper Canada Seeds

44 Macklingate Court
Toronto, Ontario
M1V 1A1
416-447-5321
email: uppercanadaseeds@rogers.com
Order on-line at uppercanadaseeds.ca

2013 Seed Listing

Hi gardeners! Last year wasn’t a bad year for tomatoes, although we’ve had better. Once again I grew tomatoes here in Toronto and the results weren’t bad but they still seem to do much better at the farm. Maybe a few more years of conditioning the soil will make some improvement. The tomatoes at the farm did well. The small greenhouse once again proved to be most beneficial. I did have a disaster with my first crop of seedlings…I lost everyone to damp off disease. Fortunately I was able to recover with a second planting but I ended up being a couple of weeks behind schedule. Once again this year I expect to have seedlings for sale. As usual, I expect them to be ready to be picked up around the end of May.

The interest in heirloom tomatoes continues to grow although the prices in the stores have begun to level off. We don’t sell hybrid, chemically treated or genetically modified seed. All of our seeds are organically grown, and most are heirlooms. Our tomatoes are grown for their taste instead of appearance, uniformity, concurrent ripening or long shelf life.

We dropped quite a few varieties this year and have added quite a few. Of the new additions, I’d recommend Café Brule and Don Juan. Both are good sized cherry tomatoes with excellent production and taste.

As always, we have no shipping and handling charge, and all applicable taxes are included in the price. Our prices are unchanged from last year. I have a limited supply of most varieties so please give me a call if you want to purchase bulk quantities of any variety. Each packet contains 20 to 25 seeds. We’re still offering a ‘Mystery’ packet of tomato seeds. We took leftover seeds from a number of varieties and mixed them together so you don’t know what you’ll end up with. We no longer offer Relen’s Sweet Pepper seeds.

Last year we grew a lot of seed for a company in the UK. Unfortunately, they changed their mind, which was quite disappointing, and as a result we’re left with a bunch of seeds we could sell in bulk at very reasonable prices. The varieties we have are Black Brandywine, Black Cherry, Yellow Brandywine, Tiny Tim, Cuban Black, Gardener’s Delight, Great White, Green Sausage and Black Krim. If you’re interested in a bulk purchase of any of these varieties please let me know.

Our mailing list is never shared. Happy gardening in 2013! Below are some tips for starting your seed and growing your own tomatoes.

The best time to start your seeds is from April 1st to April 15th. I’ve found that 6 to 8 week old transplants do best. I move them to a 4 inch pot after about 3 weeks, and plant them a little deeper than they were before. Roots will grow out of the stem that’s now buried and you’ll end up with a stronger root system.

When planting in the garden, I soak the roots before planting and you should plant deeper than they were in the 4 inch pots. The space to leave between the plants depends on the variety. A very small plant like Tiny Tim needs only about 18 inches from plant to plant; larger plants like Amish Paste or Red Brandywine should have 5 feet in each direction. Indeterminate plants should be staked or caged to keep the fruit off the ground and reduce the risk of disease. They should be pruned but I don’t always do this. To prune tomato plants, pinch off any growth coming from where the branch meets the main stem. Pruning can increase yields, but very acceptable yields can be obtained without pruning. Keep the weeds down and look forward to a great harvest!