Tomatoes

ellebee1986

Hello everyone,

me and the kiddies sowed some money maker tomato seeds a week ago and they are now germinating very nicely. I just wanted to check, is it when the second set of leaves come through that I need to repot and do they need to go straight into the large planter Ill be using or into a smaller one first? Do they need any type of support as they grow?

Our learning curve was that haven't never grown anything before we sowed our propagator full so now have 24 little seedlings to repot lol whooops! Thats going to take up some room! lol

Thanks

misskool

you repot when the true leaves appear, these will be frilly compared to the seed leaves which have popped up. You go up slowly in pot sizes, if you pot the baby plants into their final pots you might drown them.

They will probably need a stake to keep them straight and you might need to support the branches with the fruit later.

money maker are indeterminate, so they will need their sideshoots removing but you've got a while to worry about these yet.

They can't go outside until the frosts are over so depending on where you are in the country, you might not want to keep all 24 on your windowsill.

and yay for growing your own

Leif

With chillis I germinate in a tray in a propagator, and then when the seed leaves appear, I use a tea spoon to transplant to small pots. The advantage is that at this stage the tap root is still short. Tomatoes would be similar. Most books say to do as per the previous post, but my method works fine. Oh and I plant the seeds on edge, seems to make it easier for the plant to push through to the surface. Also pre soaking the seeds can help. It also helps sort dead seeds, as they float. Live seeds float for a while then sink.

ellebee1986

Thanks to you both

I have 6 x 6inch plastic pots I have picked up from aldi yesterday would they do for the next stage? and if so would it just be one plant per pot or could this fit a couple?

poppysarah

100% germination rate from tomatoes every year here I think.

from seed tray I put them into a 3" max pot and then in May I put them out into bigger pots in the greenhouse with the heater on at night if it's below 10'C.

I wouldn't start them this early though. Else they get too big too quick for my windowsills.

Leif

poppysarah wrote: »

100% germination rate from tomatoes every year here I think.

from seed tray I put them into a 3" max pot and then in May I put them out into bigger pots in the greenhouse with the heater on at night if it's below 10'C.

I wouldn't start them this early though. Else they get too big too quick for my windowsills.

Yup, one seedling per 3" pot, then pot up when the roots have filled the pot.