Best way to grow tomatoes from seed?

Question

step by step advice. When to plant outside. No seedlings yet, and I have yet to choose the seeds. Which tomatoe seeds are the fastest and easiest one to grow?

Answer 1

Easiest and fastest -- cherry/grape tomatoes, Early Girl, Patio, and Big Boy. Hardest - plum (Italian), heirloom, and yellow varieties (although it is worth trying a yellow variety for their sweetness and less acidic content). Patio tomatoes are great for small spaces or pots, but don't have the flavor as other varieties.

Soak your seeds in a moist paper towel until they swell and/or start to pop, and then place in a seedling mix (regular soil and even regular potting soil is too heavy and will slow down root growth, and most topsoils contain no nutrints) twice as deep as the seed length (about 1/2 inch). Tomatoes like warmth, so start your seedlings in a sunny window or in a cold-frame. Don't worry if they become too leggy. When you have two sets of real leaves, they are ready to transplant. Transplant the seedling horizontally with just the top leaves out of the ground (more roots will develop on stem.) Prepare the soil well adding composted manure and peat. If your tomatoes are ahead of your garden (or the outside temperature) you can transplant into a larger pot until ready to go outside -- bury the seedling, and then rebury the plant when it goes outside.

As seed starters, you can also buy peat pots, etc. You can roll up newspaper into little cuplets also. Avoid using cardboard (egg cartons, paper towel rolls, juice boxes), as these items contain formaldehyde, chemicals and other toxins in their manufacture, and tomatoes are the most notorious for absorbing noxious elements...if they don't kill or stunt the plant first.

If your plants are ahead of the season, you can cut off the bottom of a milk jug and use it as a little greenhouse and overnight protector.

For the best tomatoes on the block, plant your toms around a "compost" ring -- a round of wire in the center with your plants equally around it, and continually throw grass clippings, non-pernicious weeds, peat, etc. into the ring. Make a 'Jersey Well' out of an old soda bottle (punch holes around the bottle at varying heights) and bury bottle in the ground in the middle of your compost ring and water/feed through the bottle (tomatoes need consistent moisture or you will get cracking in the flesh). As the plants grow, tie them to the wire in your compost ring for support.

(...and, there is no 'e' on the end of tomato, only when plural).

Answer 2

You will need to buy the following items
a bag of soiless mix, 2 florescent shop lights and 1 shop light fixture, enough light weight chain (thing dog chain) to be able to hang the light fixture from the ceiling so that it will be no more than 1" from the tops of the seedlings. A seedling flat preferably with a dome lid. A mister for watering the seeds/seedling (get a 1 quart pressure sprayer) You can get all of this at any box store garden center.

Plant seeds in the flat filled with the soiless mix. Plant no more than 3 seeds per cell. Water lightly with the sprayer set on fine mist. Put the dome over top and put the seeds on top of your fridge as that is usually the warmest place in the house. Check daily for germination. Once the seeds have germinated (takes 5 to 12 days depending on how warm things are (the warmer it is the faster things will germinate) it is time to get them under the lights that you have already hung from the ceiling. Take the dome off of the flat and hang the lights so they are no more than 1" away from the tops of the plants. raise the lights as the plants grow so they are always about an inch away. This will insure they plants are stocky and bushy and do not get weak and leggy (which will happen if you use sunlight through a window). Oh yeah, if more than one seed came up in each cell choose the best looking one and destroy the rest by cutting them off at soil level (don't pull them out as this will harm the roots of the plant you want to keep).

Do not over water but try not to let the cells to dry out completely

Keep the plants at 70F to 80F for best growth.

Start no more than 8 weeks before you plan on transplanting

10 days before transplanting (which should be after the threat of frost is gone and the garden soil is at least 70F-meaning warm to the touch) start hardening off the seedlings. this means bringing them outside for longer and longer periods until they are out doors 24/7. This is extremely important to do as plants that are not hardened off generally die a day or two after being transplanted. Start by putting the plants out out of wind and direct sunlight for 4 hours a day and increase that daily until they are in full sun and out all day and night. I do this in cold frames but you can do this with no such protection.

Transplant the seedlings deeply so only the top 4 leaves are out of the ground. This will allow the entire stalk to make roots and will make for a stronger plant. Mulch well with straw as soon as the plants are in the ground. I like to see 6" around the plants which will cover them a bit but they will grow over the mulch. The mulch keeps soil born diseases at bay, keeps weeds down and also moderates soil temp and water evaporation. Mulch is very important for successful tomatoes.

If you are growing indeterminant tomatoes you will need to stake them. These get too big for tomato cages (which are made for the determinant maters that don't get very big). I use 7" fence stakes pounded into the ground. Some people make rebar cages for their big plants. Indeterminants can grow up to 12' long and will weigh well over 100 pounds when loaded with fruit.

Answer 3

Early girl is a nice tomato.
Plant in the spring when you will no longer have a freeze. I live in Va. and we plant April 1 and gamble on the freeze and April 15 for a sure thing.
Start your plants inside about a month earlier.
Tomatoes like full sun.
Start the seeds with sterile soil like a bag of miracle grow.

Answer 4

New seeds. Sterile soil - go to a nursery and get Metro Mix 360. Sterlie pots - New styrofoam coffee cups with a hole in bottom as your pots. Start indoors in Febuary. They need to ATLEAST 72 degrees in your house and will need light when they emerge. Plant after the last frost. If you have a late frost date in yyour area, start later as they may get too leggy.

Answer 5

Buy the starter soil discs, soak them in water, and put the seeds in the starters. Keep the soil moist but not muddy.
When the plants are about 8" tall, they are ready to be planted.

Answer 6

get some carboard egg cartons, fill with topsoil, place 2 seeds in each section, set on a cookie sheet, water, till carton is damp, as they grow, keep carton damp, when there about 7 or 8 inches tall plant then out side, [after the last frost. ]
i like Big boy,

Answer 7

here is a link that should help you http://wywy.essortment.com/planttomatoes_runk.htm