Starting Tomatoes from seed

[sparkles2307]

Hey! for the last 2 years I have tried starting tomatoes from seed, I get good seed, and follow the directions to the letter, and always end up with spindly yellow plants, even tho all the other plants I start in the same window do fine. How can I successfully do this without one of those horridly expensive gro-lights?

 

[inchworm]

Funny you say that. This was my first year starting tomato seeds. They really haven't grown much since they sprouted their first set of leaves and they are yellowish. I have a VERY sunny window. I finally stuck them outside, but I will probably buy some plants from the nursery this week.

 

[Rusty]

Tomatoes are heavy feeders. Yellow leaves may mean they need nitrogen.

HTH

Rusty

 

[digitS']

Tomatoes like it in the sunniest window with cooler than usual room temperatures . . . those things don't always go together.

"After germination and seedling establishment, move the flats to a light, airy, cooler location, at a 55 to 60F night temperature and a 65 to 70F day reading."

Plant Propagation from Seed

It's true with most temperate garden plants. We are the hot house tropicals (maybe along with our orchids ).

I'd like to know how many of us keep our homes at these temperatures during the spring. And, with a 70 room temperature, what a bright, sunny south-facing window temperature is going to be.

Yellowing foliage makes me think of not-so-wonderful soil mix. But, in much of the US, our climate allows us to set out not-so-wonderful tomato transplants and they still have time to grow well and produce good crops.

Steve

 

[sparkles2307]

We have 2 enormous floor to ceiling south facing windows... I set the plants in from of these. We keep our therm set at 67 all winter and keep it 72-75 during the summer. But the living room gets 73 degrees easy with those 2 windows, even in Feb! The soile I used was Miracle Grow veggie plant stuff... our soil is pretty sandy with almost zero organic matter even under the sod...we have to mix in truckloads of manure every year (thank goodness for our poop happy angus herd). I might still try to plant them, but I did get some from the nursery on Mother's Day too. Its just irritating!

 

[digitS']

The conditions all sound pretty good to me . . .

Maybe just a little too warm but that becomes a stretching issue - still, you've got lots of light.

Water? Setting them in a basin for an hour or so then allowing the soil surface to dry without any wilting of the foliage . . . couple/3 days then back in the basin . . .

S'

 

[NurseNettie]

Tomatoes are the one thing I've always been able to grow from seed. I started mine in early March and they are DYING to get outside. They've been on my sunporch for a week now and doing super. Last frost dates are first week of June here, so they've got a bit of time to wait before they go out.
Here's a few of them.

 

[farmerlor]

You should start with a seed starting medium specifically for starting seeds. It has zero nutrients in it and gives them a slower start so they'll develop good root systems. You're giving them too much fertilizer if you start them out in miracle gro and they grow too fast and get leggy that way. If you've got them in a window then I assume they're getting 14-16 hours of light and some darkness to rest. The rest period at night is important too as it adds a little stalkiness to the plant. Another good thing to do to keep the stems thicker is to have a fan blowing on them or if you can just run your hands over them a couple of times a day. Leggy or not you can still plant them, it's just going to be a little scary when you harden them because they may not stand up to even the slightest breeze. Some of my pastes are just genetically wispy so we generally plant them sideways as in dig a trench instead of a hole, lay the plant over and strip the leaves that will be underground and leave just the top four or five inches sticking out. The wispy stem becomes root and the plant grows stronger.

 

[sparkles2307]

OK so even tho they are leggy I can just plan on staking them from the get go and they might be ok!?!

 

[digitS']

. . . You're giving them too much fertilizer if you start them out in miracle gro and they grow too fast and get leggy that way. . . .

Miraclegro makes a seed starting mix.

I haven't used it but you are saying that you don't like it, right?

Steve