Seed Starting: Tomatoes
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be going directly to the seed grower’s farm to personally pick up our seeds. But that is exactly what we did!! We were able to spend an afternoon gleaning all their garden, harvesting, preserving and seed starting wisdom. I’ve been growing for probably 10 years now, but there is always something new to learn!
Tomatoes are at the top of the list for me. I can’t pick a favorite. I love so many of them. This year I came home with 17 different varieties for us to try. Seems like a lot. But they all taste so different and I love to mix them up and they make amazing sauce with all their flavors.
When starting tomatoes it is super important to not start them too early. I am starting mine this week because in about 6-8 weeks we will be ready to transfer them into our high tunnel!! If you are planting your tomatoes outside please wait until only about 6-8 weeks before you are ready to get them outside. Any longer and they just get too big!! I’ve done it before and it absolutely works but they become a little harder to work with when they are so big! Mine also tended to go into a bit of shock during transplating outside when they were too big. Which slows down your progress until they can level themselves back out and go back to growing.
Here are a few tricks and tips to starting your tomatoes indoors. Yes, you can absolutely grow your seeds on that basement window ledge. I did it for years!! Just make sure you are spinning your trays every day. The plants will tend to grow towards the window and by spinning them you will get a straighter plant. When they start to get their true leaves, blow a gentle fan on them during daylight hours. This will help them get stronger and more prepared for heading outdoors.
Since we have a heated greenhouse I take the seeds right out to the greenhouse and plant them up. One seed per cell. Always labeling as I go. In the greenhouse I use a heat mat because we do let the greenhouse get as low as 40 at night. We also have grow lights set up to come on for about 14 hours a day. When I grew in the basement window ledges I never used a heat mat or grow lights and guess what… everything still germinated and grew!! We had a warm basement so it was always warm enough to germinate a seed. If your basement is cooler you may want to invest in a heat mat. Most seeds need a cozy 70-80 degrees to germinate.
I am so excited to watch these seeds pop and can’t wait to taste all these tomatoes this summer!!
Want to sample and grow some of these very same tomato plants? We are growing extra for YOU! Click the image below to learn more about when our market sale is and come on out and grab a tomato plant… or two.. or three!!
