Start Tomatoes From Seed Indoors – Step-by-step instructions for growing tomatoes from seeds. Guides you through the process of growing seeds in the garden, curing them, and planting them in the garden! Find out how we grow hundreds of kilos of tomatoes every year!
Growing tomatoes from seeds is one of the most enjoyable activities for a gardener. Tomatoes are a very easy crop to grow and cook (hello tomato sauce! hello diced tomatoes! hello baked tomatoes!), storage, and snacking. Gardeners usually plant the same two or three varieties from the local garden store, but growing from seed opens up thousands of new succulent possibilities in your garden.
Start Tomatoes From Seed Indoors
There are many varieties of tomatoes, but there are two types – determinate and indeterminate. Determinant tomatoes, also known as bush tomatoes, are small plants (usually 3-4 feet tall) that work well for small gardens and bear all their fruit at once. After setting the fruits on the upper bud of the established plants, the plant stops growing and dies.
Germinating Tomato Seeds: Indoor Seed Starting Farm To Jar
Indeterminate tomato plants are monsters that grow and bear fruit until they freeze to death in the fall. Indeterminate tomatoes can grow to a great height, and although they usually reach 6 feet in height, especially hardy varieties and proper care can grow to 8, 10, or even 12 feet.
Choosing a variety of tomato plants can be a daunting task. Most people only buy 2-3 varieties available at their local garden store, but there are thousands of varieties. Raising the same Big Boys and Precocious Girls year after year can get boring. The best thing about growing tomatoes from seed is trying new varieties. We use Johnny’s Seeds for all our seeds. You can sign up for a free seed list on their website or at many other seed supplier websites. Once you have the list, you can choose the seeds. Dream big!
Our favorite varieties change from year to year, but we have a few perennial favorites. Our favorites from Johnny’s Seeds are usually San Marazano or Granadero Tomato Paste, Cherry Bomb or Favoritea Cherry Snack Tomatoes, and Brandywine Sliced Tomatoes.
There is much debate among gardeners about the best tomatoes. Obviously, this is a completely subjective debate, but it’s still fun to argue about.
Tips On Growing Tomatoes — The Mother Cooker
There are two types of tomato seeds – heirloom and hybrid. Heirloom seeds are obtained from tomato plants that have been exposed for many generations and naturally pollinated by wind and insects. The seeds are selected from the strongest plants and planted in the next season and the whole process is repeated every year.
Heirloom tomatoes have families that go back decades, some more than 100 years old. Hybrid tomatoes are intentionally cross-pollinated with other varieties to create a more productive plant. Think of it as children with traits they (hopefully) inherit from their parents.
Heirloom tomatoes are generally considered tastier and have more significant differences to choose from. Hybrid tomatoes are what most people buy at their local garden store and are bred for disease resistance at the expense of taste. Ultimately, it’s a matter of personal preference.
Tomato seeds are usually planted 5-8 weeks before the last frost. There are differences between different varieties, so read the seed packet for proper instructions. Here’s our New York Seed Calendar for Northeastern growers.
How Long Does It Take For Tomato Seeds To Germinate?
Sow tomato seeds 1/4 inch deep in 1 inch cells with soilless mix. Be sure to keep the greenhouse dome in place until germination – most seedling pots come with one. Tomato seeds germinate very slowly and reliably in cold temperatures, so it’s best to use a heating mat to keep temperatures in the 75-90°F range until germination.
One of the biggest problems for gardeners who grow seedlings of all kinds is that the plants can be too “leggy”, that is, thin and unhealthy. Leggy seedlings appear due to insufficient light and air. Use a proper grow light to prevent leggy seedlings (here’s how to make a grow light stand) and place a fan over the seedlings to simulate wind.
We gave up the fan and started cleaning the seedlings by hand once a day. Gently bending the young stems also mimics the wind and causes the plant to thicken to resist the wind (your hand).
After the first true leaves appear, you can lower the temperature to 60-70ºF and transfer the plant to larger flat or larger pots. We usually prefer bulkier plants, so we pot them in 3- to 4-inch pots, which gives more room for new roots to grow. Feed your plants with fish water or other complex water-soluble N-P-K fertilizer (see package for dosage).
How To Grow Tomatoes Indoors
After 7-8 weeks and with good weather on the horizon, it’s time to plant the tomato seedlings outside.
Tomato plants are sensitive to heat and may not survive or produce fruit if planted too early in the spring. Freezing can kill your plants completely. Find frost dates for your area by entering your zip code here. There is variation from year to year, but these dates are historically the first and last frost dates.
Tomatoes prefer to grow when night temperatures do not drop below 55’F. Plants will survive cold nights, but growth will slow until temperatures rise in the spring. If you live in a colder climate with shorter growing days, there are hardier varieties of tomatoes that can help extend the growing season. Here are tips on how to cover plants to help them see through the cold nights of spring and fall.
Tomatoes like to be planted deep. It goes against most gardeners’ instincts, but tomato plants are unique in that they can grow new roots from any buried part of the stem. These new roots strengthen the plant and help it produce more. Tomato is an amazing super plant!
Tomato Seed Germination 🍅 🌱 Unlocking Seedling Growth Potential
When planting tomatoes, you can bury up to 2/3 of the plant. Dig a hole and place the plant with or without buried leaves, it doesn’t matter. If you want, you can dig a horizontal trench instead of a hole and plant your plant in it. Make sure the top of your plant is a few inches off the ground. Fill the hole or trench with garden soil and water.
Tomatoes generally like to be spaced 24 to 36 inches apart. Without adequate space and ventilation, you may experience disease problems. However, it really depends on the type of plant, whether it is determinate or indeterminate, and how much space you have as a result.
Personally, we always break the spacing rule, usually leaving only a foot of space between plants. This is because we usually grow in small irrigated gardens. Once you know the rules, you can break them and find what works best for you and where you thrive. We farm in an urban setting, so we make the most of our space!
Tomato plants are usually supported by trellises or stakes. When they begin to bear fruit, the branches become heavy and need support to lift them off the ground. Props can be placed at any time, but it is best to do this a month after planting, when the plants are still small but firmly established and have not yet begun to flower.
How To Grow Tomato Seeds Indoors — Food Garden Life
I hope this post helps you learn how to grow tomatoes from seed! Now it’s time to plant – have fun! Growing your own tomatoes from seed saves you money and is incredibly satisfying. If you love to garden but feel like you’re enjoying yourself in the winter, I recommend starting your garden from seed. This will give you more time to tend to your garden before the weather.
By growing your plants from seed, you will discover a whole new world of tomato varieties. Your local garden center is a great place to buy seeds, but they have a more limited selection than buying seeds online. You want to make sure you order seeds from a reliable company. The similarity will be higher and you will be more sure that what you have been dreaming about for months will come true.
To begin your adventure in growing plants from seed, you will need a few materials.
Heirloom and open-pollinated are terms you’ll come across when looking for seeds. To understand them better, here is a brief definition of each.
Michael Potter: Tomatoes Part 1
Heirloom Seeds: Seeds have been grown reliably for over 50 years. You can save seeds from them and expect the same type of plants to grow.
Open Pollination: Seeds are produced by natural pollination of the parent plant by birds, bees, self-pollination, or other insects.
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