Indoor Planting Tomato's

[stano40]

This is my first time trying to start tomato seeds indoors before planting season.

I'm using a shallow 40 gallon fish tank with an overhead light. Seeds are planted in one of those starter trays you get from walmart or any garden center. Not one of those peat pellet type's you need to soak first before using.

The seeds have started to sprout and seems to growing fine. It's been about 2 weeks and I was wondering if the seedlings that have started should be so spindly looking. Will they thicken out over time?

bob

 

[joz]

Ideally, the light should be within 3" of the seeds as they sprout, and should be raised to juuuust clear the leaves as the seedling grows. The legginess you're experiencing is likely a result of the seedlings reaching for the higher light. They'll continue to reach if you don't lower the light closer to them. Or raise the seedlings closer to the light. Got a couple bricks, or some 2x4 scraps?

Intermittent light breezes (oscillating fan on a timer?) will strengthen the stems up, but don't blow them away!

 

[Collector]

we started ours indoors this year also, they were looking spindly for awhile but are getting stronger looking every time i see them. we are using a small fan on them for about half of the day for the last couple weeks, they are looking pretty stocky now.

 

[stano40]

I'll try that. This is what the set up looks like.

Thanks for the suggestion.

bob

 

[stano40]

Picked them up higher to the light at 3", plant tops may be a tad closer.

I do blow at them or brush the tops from an article I read that says it will strengthen them.

I'm using 40 watt bulbs.

How soon do I have to lower them?

bob

 

[bootstrap]

you may not want to have them in an enclosed tank, this will promote the growth of funk and not give them a good air or co2 exchange. looks like it may be possible to get way too hot in there. what are you using for bulbs, regular incandescent bulbs?

 

[stano40]

Those are 40 watt incandescent bulbs. I could go to a softer bulb, one of those swirlie kind.

bob

 

[patandchickens]

Honestly I think you'd be best off taking them out of the tank altogether (it isn't adding anything at all, unless you need protection vs cats and in that case you can make a cage of some other sort to put the plants and light in).

And possibly replacing your light too -- is that just a single fluorescent, like yer basic generic fishtank hood? It is clearly too short for the number of trays yo have under it, the light should extend *past* the end of the seed trays rather than vice versa or all the end seedlings will be underlit and spindly/leany; and probably want 2 parallel bulbs, again b/c of the am't of trays you have.

You can TRY keeping it the way it is, in which case certainly at LEAST raise the plants up closer to the light and open up more ventilation (maybe put the lights on a hardwarecloth top rather than the glass top that came with the tank?), but truthfully I think you're going to end up with weak spindly poor plants that way. A 2-tube shoplight is cheap and can very easily be rigged up into a very effective seed-starting setup.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[stano40]

The top on the tank is wire mesh. The tank is an old reptile tank, which is not the heavy glass aquarium.

Any closer to the lights and the plant tops would burn off. I'll change the lighting to a different bulb.

bob

 

[chris09]

If it was me I would get the plants out of the fish/reptile tank. They look to be stretching do to not enough light and maybe even the combination of low light, too much heat and a improper balance of O and CO do to little to no air movement.
Too much CO in will make the young seedlings grow fast but that and the combination of low light and high a temperature above 70 will make tomatoes grow fast, weak and spindly.

Chris