Starting tomato plants from seed is not just about getting an early start to enable a longer harvest, important as that is. And it’s not just about avoiding diseases, either, though that’s also a good reason. The most important reason this year just may be that garden shop tomato plants are totally unaffordable or unavailable, particularly in the varieties and quantities we desire for being as self-reliant as possible.
The first step in starting your tomato plants from seed this year is to actually get the seed. And while I’ve got a nice supply of tomato seeds from previous years, there are a couple of new-to-me varieties I want to try out this year. So in addition to the San Marzano that I always grow, I’ll also start a few other varieties—a yellow pear (cherry) tomato that always produces prolifically for me, maybe a yellow or orange tomato, and definitely a Green Zebra, simply for the novelty. I’m also going to grow a couple of Long Keepers and see if I can have fresh tomatoes into January of 2023. As of mid-December 2021, I’ve still got a few San Marzanos ripening on the counter, so maybe keeping a Long Keeper into January won’t be too much of a stretch.
Before getting into the particulars of raising lush, healthy tomato plants, you’ve got to begin with the right seed. I love paste tomatoes—there’s far more flesh and far less water, and the San Marzano Gigante is my favorite. However, in my new location with a shorter season, the Gigante has a bit of a drawback. The days to harvest is 90. If I take into account what some website (can’t remember which one) said about the frost-free days in my area, well, basically, I can’t grow tomatoes here. However, we are in our own microclimate with temperatures sometimes 20 degrees warmer than in the valley below us, and fortunately not quite so hot in the summer. But still, calculating 90 days from the normal transplanting date of June 1 gets me to September 1. There isn’t much time to bring in a crop. I should go with one of the smaller San Marzano varieties that matures 2-3 weeks sooner. But I probably won’t, because there are ways to extend the harvest.
The first is to start tomato seeds early. Most guides say to start tomato seeds 6-8 weeks before they’ll be transplanted into the garden. For people around here, that means starting the seeds April 1-15. Well, April 15 is my target for putting them in the ground, so I start earlier. And I want large, leafy plants with well-developed roots. So I start my tomato seeds February 1-15.
My favorite method for starting tomato seeds is in peat pellets. They seem to hold the right amount of water perfectly, and my tomatoes started in them always do well. But you don’t need peat pellets. And you don’t even need special seed starting mix from the garden shop. You can simply use sterilized soil from your garden. And be sure that your pots have been pasteurized also before planting. You don’t want to introduce any diseases to your garden.
Start double the number of tomato plants you want to end up with to account for casualties as well as giving some away to friends. Tomatoes germinate best at temperatures of 70-80°F, warmer than most of us keep our homes in winter, but even the coolest of houses have a couple of warm spots. A common place for germinating seeds is on top of the refrigerator. That’s inaccessible for me, so this year seeds will be placed on the mantle above our wood stove insert. If you truly do not have a warm place for germinating seeds, you might consider investing in a heat mat for seedlings.
The first set of leaves, cotyledons, will emerge in 7-10 days. (True leaves begin developing a few days later.) At this point the seedlings will need to be placed under grow lights or in a very sunny window. As none of the windows in this house gets enough sun in the winter for growing much, so we got some LED grow lights. If possible, keep the plants about 2 inches under the lights for maximum light coverage and a little bit of heat from the lights. Keep the lights on for 12-16 hours per day. Water as needed.
When the plants have 2 sets of true leaves, it’s time to transplant into a larger container. I prefer milk cartons, but we don’t get as many of those as we used to, so we’ll probably be using pint-sized sour cream containers for the first transplanting and quart-sized yogurt containers for the second transplanting. With each transplanting, aim more for taller containers rather than wider ones. You want to send the roots deep. My progression usually goes something like this: peat pellet to small yogurt or sour cream container (about 6-8 oz) to a deeper yogurt container or milk carton.
Each time I transplant, I put a shallow layer of soil on the bottom to cushion the roots. For the first transplanting, remove the first leaves, the cotyledons, carefully, making sure not to strip the leaf down the stem and avoid taking some of the stem with it. With tomatoes, all the little hairs emanating from the stem can develop into roots. (This is the only plant that does this. Transplanting other vegetables deeper than recommended may actually kill the plant if it doesn’t retard its growth.) Set the tomato seedling on top of the thin layer of soil and carefully fill on soil around it. Water well and fertilize lightly every week. This step may be repeated a couple of times before the tomatoes are eventually planted in the garden.
And finally, be the wind. Tomatoes and really all plants need the wind to help develop strong stalks. So brush your hand gently over the tops of the tomato plants a couple of times each day.
This process will yield large, lush tomato plants at a fraction of the cost of buying them, and at the same time they will be healthier and without the risk of bringing home diseases or pests. Good luck!
Links to related posts:
How to Pasteurize Potting Soil
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