subject: Turning Seeds Into Tomatoes [print this page] Turning Seeds Into Tomatoes Turning Seeds Into Tomatoes
When you decide to venture into tomato gardening, there are pretty much only two ways through which you can see your plan come to fruition. You can either, buy seedlings and proceed to replant them or you can cultivate your own tomatoes from a scratch, scratch here being from the seed stage to the plant stage.
There are assorted species of tomatoes, so it goes without saying that there are seeds for most, if not all, of the tomato varieties. Special attention should be paid to the seeds that you intend to plant as they will be the precursor to your final product.
Once you have identified your seeds, take a tray and put a soil and compost mix then water it adequately.
Proceed to plant the seeds inside the tray and place the tray at a warm location indoors, say a windowsill.
Ideally, the seeds should remain indoors in the tray for at least 6 to 8 weeks.
Since tomatoes normally like moisture, you can add a nylon film onto the tray. This helps the soil to retain water thus aid in the germination of the seeds. As soon as the seedlings start sprouting, remove the nylon film but continue watering them diligently so as to avoid wilting and drying out . If you replant them in a pot, make sure they are always rotated in order to gain enough sunlight.
During the transplanting, due care must be taken since the roots are tender and can easily be damaged. Lifting should be by way of their leaves and not their stems. Dig a hole that would large enough for the plants roots then seal the hole with potting compost.
Nudging the compost tenderly around the roots ensures excellent contact linking the soil to the roots.
For seedlings still in smaller pots indoor, once they have reached about 8 inches, you have to transplant them in bigger pots or containers. Around this time is when the seedlings are hardened. Hardening is where the seeds are gradually exposed to outdoor climate that is much harder to contain than the indoor one.
Hardening is accomplished by having the seedlings placed in the open air for a few hours each day.
Once the seedlings mature to the point where they are sporting nearly 6 leaves and the outdoor temperatures have risen you can then transplant them into a garden. Make sure that only the 4 highest leaves are protruding, as for the two bottommost leaves; bury them with the stem and roots.
Tomato plants have the capability of developing strong a root system along the stem. This will then aid the plant in becoming stronger and capable of bearing the burden of the fruit. The effect of this will be a bumper harvest.
There you have it, the journey that our seeds have taken into becoming mature plants that will someday yield a bountiful harvest of big, ripe, juicy, organic tomato fruit.
