Where are you located?

Eastern North Carolina

North Carolina encompasses plant hardiness zones 6a to 8a. Could you be more specific about your location? What is your last frost date? What are your usual temperatures at this time of year?

Goldsboro North Carolina, last frost is usually Mid April from what I’m searching. It’s about 45-60 this time around. I too have no room for more light aside from my seed starters. Can they go outside and in during the day?

You should not plant them in the ground until all danger of frost is over, that means not before the mid April in your climate. In the meantime, soon you should start hardening them by putting them outside, at first for two or three hours when the temperature is the warmest, and increasing gradually their time outside until you are ready to leave them outside for the night, if temps are not going to drop below about 45, and the weather otherwise is favourable (no strong wind or heavy rain).

When inside keep them on the window seal or close to the window to ensure as much light as possible, tomatoes like sunlight. No artificial lights are needed. When outside in hot sun shade the pots, but not the plants, to prevent the soil from getting too warm. I use a narrow strip of cardboard for that.

You may get different advice from someone else, it is up to you what you decide to do. I am just sharing with you my personal approach. In my climate everything is just shifted one month ahead since my last frost date is about 20th of May.

Here is how my tomatoes looked like before going to the garden in 2018.

One more thing, I always start my tomatoes in good container soil in 4" pots. l re-pot them into one gallon pots at the end of April. Since then they have 3-4 weeks to grow strong root system before going to the garden. Aha, and every time I plant them a little bit deeper than they were before. My garden is 100% organic so I never use synthetic fertilizers or other chemicals.

Btw, you could get more responses if you edited your threat to put it also in Growing Tomatoes forum.

Good luck!.

Thanks so ouch for the detailed response! Your plants are beautiful hope to ge there. Found this spot that gets good light during the day, thanks again

Do you have a fan? I would recommend running it when the plants are in the house to strengthen the stems. If not, you can brush them lightly with your hands a few times a day, so they are prepared for the wind.

Joe, I'm just north of you in Va and typically I'd place my seedlings outside on warm days like we are expected this week (70's Yeah!), probably a bit warmer down there too. I'd leave them outside only during night time temps above 50F. Acclimating them to outside conditions is a good start (sun, wind, temps). But as mentioned above wait for the ground temp to be around 60F before planting outside, they will only sulk in cold soil.

PS, if your seedlings have only been exposed to indoor lighting then it's best to acclimate them slowly outside starting with exposing them to dappled sunlight for a couple of hours as a start, or place outside on warm cloudy days.

Sounds great i think that’s what I’m going to do! Greta advice.