Tomatoes – Starting Your Own is Easy

For years  — the only vegetables I didn’t raise from seed were “early” tomatoes and peppers.  I reasoned I couldn’t get the soil warm enough for germination and couldn’t supply them with enough light to get them to grow. I would always buy a few plants at a local nursery in April to get me started.  As the weather warmed, I’d start more tomatoes and peppers from seed.

And then came a year I was unable to get the starter plants.  I figured I’d just have to wait on the weather. Fortunately,  a friend who starts his tomatoes and peppers early brought me some. Had it not been for our friend, I wouldn’t have had tomatoes until August that year; not to mention peppers.

After that I resolved to make an attempt to start tomatoes and peppers from seed in late winter —– proper conditions or not!  Also resolved not to buy anymore starts — ever — so I left no room for failure.

Anyone Can Do It

Happily, I’ve been successful and if I can do it with the poor conditions I have — just about anyone can.  So – take heart and get out your pots (or flat), potting soil (or gro-mix) and tomato seeds.  You still have time to get some great tomatoes going. I’m starting another batch tomorrow as well.

(By the way – if you’re new to seed starting — be aware that you have to wet the gro-mix well BEFORE you plant the seed.)

Plant in Flat or a Pot

I planted 5 seeds of 5 varieties on February 26 in rows in a flat and marked each row with the variety name. Tomatoes appreciate a bit a light to germinate — so I just barely covered the seed.

Top of Refrigerator

Believe it or not, even if your house is rather cool (and ours is) you can get the soil in the flat warm enough to germinate the tomatoes by placing it on top of the refrigerator. That was hard for me to believe because my refrigerator top felt cool, but for some reason it warms the soil in the flat just enough for germination.  Maybe it’s just because heat rises.  Anyway – it works.

(If you have radiant floor heating, put your flat on the floor. It’ll work.)

The seeds all germinated in about a week.

They need light

Immediately I moved the entire flat to our enclosed back porch which was about 60 degrees in February and March.  The flat got direct morning sun only.  Those tiny little seedlings were stretching for the light.

Hardening-off

We had some nice sunny days the first of March so I made the decision to get them hardened off right away since I figured they’d get a lot more light outside.  It didn’t take but two days to get them use to the outdoors.  (Had there been a lot of wind — it may have taken longer. ) I brought them back inside at night.

Newbie note:  You must “harden-off” all plants started indoors to get them use to the outside.  Wind, hard rain, and severe cold can kill your seedlings.  Even when the weather seems perfect — keep an eye on them until you know that they are going to be ok. The sudden transition even in good weather can be quite a shock, so be ready to bring them in if it looks as if they are taking a turn for the worse. Depending on weather conditions this can take up to a week to ten days.  (I got lucky.)

Repot

I repotted them in bigger pots when they were only 3 days old!!  Didn’t even wait for them to get their set of leaves as you see recommended.

Protection

One of my small makeshift cold frames made the perfect cold-weather home for the potted seedlings. They’ve been under the cold frame every night since.  If it’s really warm during the day I take the cold frame off.  If it’s cool I lift the cold frame with a brick so they’ll get the air and stay hardened off.

Options

I don’t want to repot them again. So I’ve already started to move them to the garden. A plastic gallon jug serves as a mini-cold frame over each seedling until the weather warms a bit.

Whatever method you use to start seed keep a few fundamentals in mind:

• Don’t start your seed too early.  Here in Virginia mid-February to the end of February is early enough.  One of the reasons I think I was successful even with improper conditions was because I didn’t  plant the seed until the end of February.  Nice weather at the beginning of March certainly helped as well.

• Keep the soil moist, but not soggy. After seedlings germinate it’s a good idea to either water from the bottom — or water from the top and let things dry before you water again.

• Keep air moving. (Use a little fan when they are still inside the house)

• Transplant each into their individual pot when they get their first real leaves.

• Harden them off before putting them outside.  Have a back up plan (like my cold frame or plastic jugs) to protect them from cold, hard wind and driving rain until they’re mature enough to take it.

• They should go into the garden no later than 8 weeks from germination.

Proper Conditions

If you’d like to start your tomatoes in February next year and have the room to set up proper lightening conditions in your home, you’ll need a fluorescent light that you can adjust to hang 2 inches above your seedlings. Keep the fluorescent light on about 12 hours a day. If the weather stays cold you can keep them under your light until after the last frost date and then harden off and move to the garden.

Or Not

Or – if like me — you just don’t have room for the proper lightening set-up — follow my procedure and try your hand at starting them anyway.  It’s easy and cheaper. And with a little luck, I can almost guarantee you’ll get much better plants than those commercially grown.

_______

All content including pictures is copyrighted by TendingMyGarden.com.  All rights are reserved.