I can't say on the broccoli because I don't grow it, but aside from legginess the toms and pepper look pretty good to me. The soil looks a bit on the wet side, but I assume it's because you watered after adding more soil...let it get quite dry before watering again. The pepper should be ok, it will grow a bit slower than the toms. It would be nice if you could add another lamp on the other side, and removing the valance, at least during the day, would help...you need every little smidgen of light you can get(but I understand about privacy, lol). Also letting a fan blow gently on the plants can help sturdy them up. You'll have to decide to pinch out the extra toms or separate them when potting up. Expect to add more soil later on, or transplant to deeper containers up to the bottom leaves(both toms and pepper), but you still have time.
You have to make do with what you have(been there, done that), and all things considered, you're doing fine.

They need much more light. Leave the light on all day. You don't need expensive grow lights. They should be ready to plant out at 6 weeks. These are just 20 days from planting the seeds.

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My set up is a wire shelf unit with shop lights suspended from the upper shelves. Worked great last year. Doing well again this year and invested in more shop lights.
Keski

It's not too late to winter sow your tomatoes. Mine haven't germinated yet. Tomatoes don't actually need the freeze/thaw that some seeds need to germinate, so you can still start them now.

Once up, they will grow much more slowly than indoor sown plants at first, but they will catch up once the weather gets warm. They will also be stronger and don't need hardening off. I experimanted with both indoor and WS last year, and found that after transplanting in the ground, the WS plants caught up with the indoor sown ones by June. Harvest was the same for both.

I'm not doing any of my tomatoes indoors this year (after many years of indoor seed starting), all of them are outside. I expect germination any day.

Peppers did not do well with WS, they grew too slowly.

Your broccoli can go outside now. Harden them off by bringing them outside a little longer each day for a week. Yours are very leggy and will need some support.

lights are needed, but simple fluorescent types work fine, you do not need to invest in expensive "grow lights". a $25 "shop light" fixture will do, your local hardware store will have them. most are 48". hang it from the shelf on that setup and adjust the height (chains provided with most fixtures) to keep the lights an inch or two from the tops of the seedlings as they grow.

if you can open that window and get a little breeze on the seedlings from time to time that will help them too.

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noinwi - I took your suggestion and took the valance off. No one uses that room right now. I also added a second lamp from my living room to the other side (my hubby thinks i'm nutty). I didn't turn them off this morning. Also I started with several of each tomato and when one looks much worse than the others I pinch it, the ones that have more than one left I can't decide which to get rid of. lol

I am definitely thinking of investing in a shop lamp. Not sure for this year or just wait til next. If I can start hardening them off and putting them outside (covered) that is probably my best option. I have a clear tupperware tub in the basement I could empty and then put it upside down to act as a dome over the plants. Its supposed to be in the 60s this weekend so that might be a good place to start since I keep my house at 68 it won't be too much cooler outside. That would work wouldn't it? Or do they have to start from seed outside?

Also I have a ceiling fan in that room I could also turn that on for some air circulation. But opening a window on a warm day would work too. We just need another one of those. :)

taz-thanks for posting the pictures of your plants, I have been trying to find dated pictures of plants with their 'age' so I could see how mine compared. Everyday they seem to have more leaves but are still too leggy i guess.

Thanks everyone!

If you put the plants outside, keep one end of the clear tub propped up for circulation, and lower it at night. It can get too hot under there very quickly in full sun even on a cool day. You'll be in 'baby-sitting' mode until you can plant them into their final homes be it the ground or larger containers.
Shop lights are the best way to go for starting indoors, but "expensive" is relative to the budget. Being on a fixed income, I can't squeak out an 'extra' $5 some months. Just do what you can and start a list of gardening needs for next year. Peruse the garage sales and thrift stores for usable stuff...light fixtures, containers, etc.
Good luck with your babies and keep posting with your progress.

You may already know this, but if you are on a tight budget, you might want to start your plants in toilet paper rolls (and paper towel rolls). Once the plant is ready to go in the ground, just bury the entire thing and the toilet paper roll will decompose. I've been doing this for some time, and works great. Also, you can bury your tomatoe plants up to the top leaves and that will help with the leggy-ness. Hope this helped - good luck!

Trill-I have never heard of that! So could i stick toliet paper rolls on them now or is it too late? lol

noinwi-Yeah I know what you mean. My husband isn't working right now so most months we are in the negative. My seeds are mostly 20 cent things from walmart I am surprised they came up as well as they did! I am definitely going to put a shop lamp on my list to be looking for next year. something 24 or 36 inches should fit on that rack i already have.

Meanwhile if anyone is interested Aldi is having an awesome sale this week on gardening stuff. But there is nothing I really need (stuff i want but don't need). Link for anyone interested: http://aldi.us/us/html/offers/offers_04_06_2011_ENU_HTML.htm

You would actually use the toilet paper roll instead of a little pot, so yeah, it's too late after you've already planted them, but if you start anymore seeds - just put the soil in the roll and then plant the seed, water and watch it grow. I put several rolls in a shallow pan, tray or some kind of container (it helps hold them up if there are several together) then fill with soil and plant the seed. I used to cut slits in one end of the rolls and would fold them togheter to make a bottom - but now I don't even do that, just keep the bottom open and pack the dirt in. Google 'starting seeds in toilet paper rolls' and you will get all kinds of sites to look at. If I could figure out how to post a picture, I'd show you my seeds that I've started in tp rolls.

trill, once you have uploaded the picture to [anywhere] just write an IMG tag into your post, a la:

<img src="http://www.website.com/picture.jpg">;

Or just copy the HTML code for the picture at the hosting site and paste it here. Not all of the hosting sites supply the HTML code but photobucket is one that does and also has the most options for editing IMO.

Hi SpringAngel,

I've got two shop lights from Lowe's which cost me $12 each. They are 4 feet long and I have them sitting on a concrete mixing bin ($4.99 @ Lowe's). The entire thing sits on a dresser in my dining room. I keep the lights on 14-16 hours a day. DH grumbles but he knows the little seedlings will soon give him great big tomatoes. I will post a photo tonight. You can also use one shop light and drape foil over it to bounce more light to your plants.

Cheers,
DL

Definitely would benefit from more light. My shop light from home depot was about the same price-- 10 or 12 bucks. If you don't want to get a light, I'd recommend getting them outside.

Thanks for the info on posting pictures. I use picasso for on-line photo albums, but if I can't do it through that, I will try photobucket. I will be trying this tonight! Thanks!

Thanks again for all the comments! Since adding my second lamp (with compact florescent bulb) and keeping them on 24 hrs I already have a ton more leaves on my tomatoes and my broccoli is standing up straight instead of pointing at the window. I also pinched the second tomato plant in the two pots so now I just have one in each pot. The ones I kept had thicker stems (barely) and bigger leaves.

I also turned on the ceiling fan today on low. I hope that helps. This weekend is supposed to be warm but rainy. I want to start hardening them off under a plastic tub. They will get a lot more sun once they can hang outside all day. :)

Dancing-thanks for the info on lowes. I will definitely have to check them out for next year. I want something i can put on my rack that I have. I think its a pretty rack I'm sure I can rig a light on there somehow. :)

Trill-I use photobucket too and like it alot. :) Can't wait to see your pics!