Tomato Planting

[Oklahoma Tomcat]

We live in an area with a long growing season our last frost in late April & first frost in November. We planted a portion of our garden right before the heavy spring rains hit nad they drowned the garden seeds. The soil is only recently been dry enough to work and plant again. I have only tomato seeds and cannot at this time buy tomato plants to get a jumpstart. Is it too late to plant the tomato seeds? If I do plant them, what precautions should I take to help the plants grow well. We have to grow organically due to health reasons so non-organic products (i.e. fertilizers) cannot be used.

Thanks in advance, Joe & Paula Jones

[Moe Jones]

I got some good ideas from this site:

[p-nut]

Oklahoma Tomcat blurted out in alt.home.lawn.garden:

Why not go to a local greenhouse or lawn center and get 1or2 already started. I picked up two Bonnie plants recently for $7 (hybrid Bigger Boy's)

[EXT]

In most areas tomatoes are not planted directly into the soil as seeds. They need to be started indoors in order to give them long enough time to mature and fruit. Tomato seeds are relatively expensive for many varieties which would make it hard to plant individual seeds spaced apart properly to grow, unlike some small plants where you put lots of cheap seeds in the soil and weed out the surplus.