Tomato Seeds

I started my tomato seeds back in February and now I have 21 healthy tomato seedlings! I'll show you how I started them and where they are now. First, it's important to use a germination mix instead of normal potting soil when starting seeds because you want a medium that is easy for young roots to push through. I used Johnny's Organic 512 Mix which contains 1/2" screened blend of sphagnum (brown) and sedge (black) peat mosses, compost, and perlite. The sphagnum moss holds moisture for the young plant, the compost adds nutrients, and the perlite aerates the soil so that young roots can move through it. The first step in starting seed germination is to make sure that you wet your germination mix well.

 

The way to tell if your germination mix is sufficiently wet, hold a clump in your hand and if it stays put then you've got enough moisture in it to start the seeds.

 

For two weeks I saved yogurt containers to use as pots because they are free and the perfect size for small tomato seedlings. You can recycle any plastic container as long as it is food safe because you wouldn't want any toxins in your tomato plants since you are going to eventually eat them. Be sure to thoroughly sterilize your containers before you put seeds in them too. If there aren't holes in the bottom of your container make sure you poke enough for water to easily drain out.

 

Next fill your container with the moist germination mix and tap it on a flat surface to release any air bubbles that may be trapped in the container.

 

Now you are ready for the seeds! You should make a hole in the germination mix that is three times the size of the seed and then lightly cover it. I put two in each container for the time being and then when they get too big to share the container I'll split them up. 

 

Seeds wait for the most optimal situation to finally germinate because they only have one shot. You can facilitate their germination by giving them an even, warm temperature which signals to the seeds that it is spring and time to start growing. Until little green shoots appear, the seeds do not need sunlight so don't worry about putting them near a window until then. I put my seeds in a plastic lasagna dish which created a small greenhouse and kept them above the refrigerator which created ample heat to mimic the warm spring soil. 

 

And then 12 days later look what happened!

 

These are the cotyledons, not the true plant leaves. The seed shot them up above ground to start absorbing sunlight to produce energy. At this point the seedling needs as much sunlight as it can get, at least 16 hours, which is a scary amount of light when you have a north facing Brooklyn apartment and it's the beginning of March. So to combat my apartment's lack of direct sunlight I decided to bring my seedlings to work where I have a west facing window on the 8th floor which gets a ton of light. My seedlings seemed to like these conditions better! Here they are at 19 days with true leaves starting to form.

 So, technically a tomato seedling grows in Manhattan, but I promise come spring the plants will be outside in the lovely Brooklyn air.

Thanks to my lovely boyfriend for photo help!