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Shall I start sowing tomato seeds indoors..!

19 years ago

Shall I start the seedling process now..!

I am In Seattle region.

ANd the temp outside is in 40s.

Pls advise...

Comments (5)

  • 19 years ago

    Absolutely - if you have a heated green house! I'm in Portland and generally don't start mine until mid April. I wait until early/mid June before transplanting.

  • 19 years ago

    It depends on what you have to ameliorate the temperatures outside, or grow them longer indoors. I start seeds under fluorescents fastened to metal shelves, and plants can only get 11" tall before they reach the lights. I start them about Feb. 15 because I have growing tunnels to plant them under outside. I set them out at 11" on around April 1-7 or later if they take longer. The tunnels are called TunLCover and are 18" tall and wide double-walled plastic, 20' long, with wire ribs at intervals that you push into the ground. They protect the plants from frost and snow and keep them warmer. One problem with growing tomatoes up here is the low night time temperatures in summer. That causes the days to maturity to be much longer than the published length for tomatoes. I feel like plants need the early start provided by the tunnels. Some people may buy larger plants grown by a greenhouse and beat my tomatoes to getting ripe but for starting your own seeds it helps to be able to extend the growing season.

  • 19 years ago

    I don't know if this will be of any help, but it works for me. I'm Zone 7/8ish and this is the way I do it.
    Tomorrow I'm going to sprout my Tomato seeds on moist paper towel, inside a margerine container in a warm spot. The seed usually sprouts in 5 to 6 days, sometimes sooner. I then prick them out gently and plant in 21/2" pots.
    They stay on the kitchen windowsill until they get 3 sets of true leaves and then they go into 4" pots.
    At this time I take them out to the greenhouse, (minimal heat in my greenhouse). They stay in the 4"er's until the roots fill the pots. I then repot into scotch pots, the tomatoes stay in these until they are planted out.
    I grow my tomatoes in a raised bed planter that is cut into a bit of a slope, the top of the front of the planter is waist high, the back ground level. The soil warms up very early. This planter also has a fibreglass roof over it, we have to deal with tomato blight up here and the roof keeps the foliage dry.
    Because the soil is warm I can plant my Tomatoes out May 1st. I dig a generous hole throw in a handful of Dolamite Lime,and scratch it around. The tomatoes are unpotted, I remove some of the lower leaves, lay them on their sides and bury them so that just the very tops are sticking out.
    I put hot caps over the plants for a couple of weeks. I don't fertilize till after the caps come off. The tomato plants usually have flowers when I plant them out, Most years we have Tomatoes in July. Celebrity, is the Tomato I grow, they don't need much staking.
    Boy can I ramble on:-).

    A......

  • 19 years ago

    I started my tomatoes Tuesday. They are on heat mats in peat pellets; lights will go on them as soon as they sprout. They will be put into 6" square pots as soon as their roots fill the peat pellet. They will stay under lights (they are also in a sunroom so get natural light as well). I'll transplant them into a hoophouse mid to late April. Last year we had fresh salsa on the 4th of July (from Stupice, my earliest). The hoop house keeps them going until hard freezes in October or November. A simple hoop house design can be found online-

    Here is a link that might be useful: Portable Hoop House

  • 19 years ago

    Good ideas, aftermidnight and silver creek. Blight protection would be nice.

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