Tomato Plants from Seedshow to grow tomato plants from seeds

Tomatoes are the quintessential summertime garden favorite, and for good reason. Once you’ve tasted a home-grown tomato, no storebought tomato you’ll ever eat will taste as good.

The question of when to plant tomatoes really depends on your climate. But first, you must decide whether you will grow the tomatoes from seed or purchase them as plants at your local garden center.

Growing Tomatoes from Seed

Growing from seed is rewarding and less expensive if you have the right conditions and the time to put into the project. Germination requires warm temperatures, preferably between 70 and 75 degrees. I find those little round peat pot discs that expand in water especially handy; just drop seeds in the tiny hole on the top and soak the discs in water to expand. When the plant emerges 7-13 days later, you must put them in a well-lit area such as a windowsill.

Purchasing Young Tomato Plants

The advantage to purchasing a tomato plant that is already nice and bushy is that you will be eating those tasty fruits much earlier. Some plants may even have buds on them already from which the tiny green tomato will emerge. Beware of getting tomato plants on the cheap from the mega-retailers and big-box hardware stores as they generally don’t care for their plants as well as local garden centers do.

When to Plant

The very basic rule of thumb in when to plant tomatoes is when they have at least two sets of leaves, and when you see roots beginning to grow out of your starting pot. But then there’s the issue of outside temperatures.

When I was growing up in Washington, D.C., warmer temperatures generally came in late May to early June. That’s when my father would set out his tomato plants in the garden. But now that I live in Dallas, I can set my plants out in late March to early April. In a good year, I can even plant another batch of Heatwaves and plant them in early July for a second harvest in October.

The main consideration in when to plant tomatoes in your garden is your nighttime temperatures. Generally, do not put tomato plants out until temps at night rise above 40 degrees with no chance of frost. Tomato plants fruit most effectively between 70-85 degrees; anything below or above that is more difficult to get tomatoes to grow.

How to Plant Tomatoes

When it’s time to stick your tomato plants in the ground or in a 10 to 12-inch pot, bury the stem all the way up to the first set of leaves. The stem will grow roots, which will add stability and vitality to the plant.

It typically takes around 2-3 months for tomatoes to ripen on the vine. But once you taste how delicious home-grown tomatoes are, you’ll want to continue this fun summertime tradition for the rest of your life.

One of the greatest advantages of growing tomatoes from seed is that it affords the gardener the opportunity to grow a far greater variety of tomatoes than they could otherwise grow. It also enables the gardener to grow heirloom varieties that aren’t traditionally available in garden centers. If you plan to grow your tomatoes in containers, be sure to check out “Container Seeds.

When considering seeds, you need to know that a tomato variety that is determinate is one that will produce a large crop at one time, and will not produce much if anything after the large crop. Indeterminate varieties are those that produce an even supply of tomatoes throughout the growing season.

Determinate varieties may be a better choice for people in very warm climates. If night time low temperatures don’t go below 70 degrees, even though a plant may have many flowers on its branches, those flowers may not yield actual fruits.

When planning to start your tomato plants from seeds, it is vital that you do so ten weeks before you plan to plant them in the ground. The reason I recommend ten weeks is because that gives you eight weeks during which the seeds will sprout and grow, and you have an extra week if some of the seeds are slower to germinate. The tenth week will be used for hardening off the plants prior to planting them in pots outdoors or in the ground.

To harden the plants off, simply take the flats outside during the day and bring them back inside at night. If the seeds germinate quickly and the plants have reached a decent size by week nine, then you can use that week to keep them outdoors during the day and bring them in at night. The following week, you can leave them outside all the time, and that may keep them from suffering from “transplant shock when you do plant them in the ground or in pots.

To grow your own tomato plants from seed, you will need your seeds of course. You will also need containers to plant in. I prefer to use peat pellets because they are completely self contained. You simply soak the pellets in warm water and they expand. Once they have expanded, they look like a little sack that is filled with peat moss or dirt.

Peat pots are also very useful, but they can be more expensive. They are made of compressed peat moss and will decompose in the ground or in the pot. They add organic matter to the soil while adding a substance that will help allow