Tomatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow from seed. The seeds themselves are easy to handle and can be planted in any type of container you have around the house. I prefer to start 3 seeds in 2" cells (I have a lot of these types of containers from previous years). However, yogurt containers, milk cartons, & even egg cartons can all be used.
The key to starting tomato seed is to keep the seed warm & moist once it's planted. I plant my seeds in a sterile starter mix and cover my container with either a plastic dome or saran wrap. Not only does this prevent the soil from drying out, it prevents me from overwatering the soil as the seed is germinating.
Overwatering is one of the biggest mistakes that home gardeners make when starting seed. Seeds & seedlings really only require a small amount of water since their root systems have not developed well. Excess water encourages fungal growth that can kill newly established seedlings. The high moisture also attracts fungus gnats that can become a really annoying pest around seedlings.
Other than moisture, warm temperature is key ingredient to helping tomato seeds germinate. I like to keep my containers at about 75 F (25 C) and at this temperature, the seedlings usually emerge in 3 days.
Only once the seedlings are up do I provide them with extra light and cooler temperatures. If I keep my seedlings at 75 F, I find they grow very quickly and soon become spindly. So, I move them to a cooler area where the air temperature is about 60 F (15 C).
Also, if I only use natural light, they soon become leggy as well. Here on the coast, the quality and duration of natural light is just too low to maintain healthy seedlings. I place my seedlings under a fluorescent light fixture that has one cool bulb and one warm one and put the timer on so that the seedlings get light for at least 14 hours a day.
In about a week or so, I pot up the seedlings into their own individual cells. Each time I do so, I add some worm casts to the soil mix. I find worm casts to be the best source of nutrients without burning the seedlings.
 |
Go To Page: 1 2
