Tomatoes are one of the most popular plants to grow in the garden at home because they produce masses of fruit that taste so much better than anything that you can buy from the supermarket. So if you were growing a plant you may be wondering whether it is possible to plant the seeds directly into a garden bed or is it absolutely necessary to plant them into a seed tray.
It is possible to plant tomato seeds directly into the garden at home, however, it is rare for gardeners to do this because tomatoes are generally heat loving plants that take a while to get going. Therefore most gardeners tend to start tomato seeds off in seed trays indoors as that will ensure that you get an early harvest..
This is particularly the case in regions that have relatively short growing seasons because tomatoes take around 80 to 120 days for the first tomatoes to be harvested in most cases. This means that typically it is best to plant the tomato seeds indoors, particularly if you live in a location that has a season that is less than 6 months long.
What Is The Best Way To Plant Tomato Seeds?
As mentioned earlier in the article the best way to plant tomato plants is in a seed tray indoors as that will ensure that the plants maximize their growth rate. To ensure that you get relatively consistent environmental conditions it is highly recommended that you use a humidity dome as that will help to retain moisture and produce a relatively humid-environment.
To plant the seeds ideally you should be filling the seed tray with a good quality seed raising mix rather than homemade compost or dirt from the garden as this will ensure that there are no pathogens in the soil and the tomato seeds are not competing with weeds.
The other problem with using homemade compost is often tomato seeds from the compost will germinate in the seed tray so if you have a specific variety that you were growing there is no way of telling whether the seedling that appears is from the compost or from the seed that you planted.
Once the seed tray is filled it is important to push the mixture down into the modular cell to form a solid plug as that will aid in reducing the level of root disturbance when the plant is transplanted later on.
The tomato seeds should be planted at a depth of approximately a quarter of an inch into the soil with their being 2 to 3 seeds per cell to ensure that you get at least one tomato seedling germinating in each cell to make the most of the indoor space that you have.
Once planted tomato seeds will typically take around 7 to 14 days to germinate provided that the temperatures are warm enough. If more than one seedling appears in a single cell within the seed tray it is best to select the strongest seedling to grow on and remove the other ones.
During the period that the tomato seedlings are in the seed tray it is important to ensure that the soil remains moist and the seed tray remains in a warm location that gets at least a couple of hours of sun per day. However, if you don’t have a space like this indoors we recommend investing in a grow light which will ensure that the plants will get all the light that they need.
When Is The Best Time To Plant Tomato Seeds?
The best time to plant tomato seeds will vary significantly depending upon the region in which you live, however, as a general rule the best time to plant seeds is approximately 6 weeks prior to the last frost of the season. This is the ideal time if you are planting in seed trays because it means that the seedlings will be ready to plant out into the garden as soon as the weather permits.
If you are planting directly into the soil outdoors then you must wait until the last frost of the season to ensure that the young seedlings are not damaged by frost. However, if you have a cloche or a row cover to protect the seedlings from frost you can plant them a little bit earlier though their progress will be quite slow if the temperatures at night again are still getting quite low.
How To Get An Early Harvest From Your Tomato Plants?
If you are planting tomatoes at home, usually most people want to get fruit as early as possible in the season, so what can you do to bring your harvest forward. The first and most obvious thing to do is to make sure that you plant seeds indoors rather than directly into the ground as they will simply grow faster indoors particularly in the early part of the season.
The second thing to do is to make sure that you actually protect the seedlings when they go out into the garden with a cloche or a row cover because these structures will increase the temperature of the soil around the plants ensuring that the plants grow at an accelerated rate early in the season.
The next thing to do is to ensure that the location selected for plant gets at least 6 to 8 hours of sun per day and is in a relatively sheltered location ideally near brick walls as they will absorb heat and increase the temperature around the plants early in the season.
Additionally, it is important when growing the plant to ensure that you pinch out side shoots very regularly as this will slow down the rate of production as plants that are left to their own devices tend to produce huge volumes of foliage and stems rather than fruit and flowers.
The other factor that can significantly affect how early you get fruit is the particular variety that is selected. In most cases, smaller tomatoes such as cherry or grape tomatoes tend to mature earlier than slicing and beefsteak tomatoes which are much larger because it takes longer for the fruit to reach its full size.
However, if you want a medium sized tomato that does mature relatively quickly I would highly recommend tigerella which produces fruit after 80-90 days which is relatively early in the season.
Can You Use The Seeds From Store-Bought Fruit To Grow Tomatoes?
In addition to purchasing tomato seeds from your local garden centre you may also be wondering whether it is possible to grow tomatoes from the seeds from store-bought fruit. The answer to this is yes, these seeds will germinate quite easily, however, there are a couple of downsides to doing this.
The first is that many of the regular slicing tomatoes that are sold in the supermarket have very little flavor so they are not the ideal choice if you’re growing them at home.
I personally have had the experience of having a tomato plant pop up from my compost and then allowed it grow to produce tomatoes that look absolutely perfect from a visual perspective but have very little flavor and taste.
So if you are going to do this I would highly recommend that you only keep seeds from cherry tomatoes as they are significantly sweeter than the slicing tomato sold from the supermarket.
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