Tomatoes are warm-
A home gardeners tomato crop begins with compact vigorous health seedlings 5 to 7 weeks old, grown in 4" or larger growing pots. Growing your own seedlings insure quality and varieties not commercially available. However, if you decide to buy your seedling from a commercial source, buy early, compact plants growing in 4" pots. If the seedlings are grown to normal transplant size in small pots they will not perform well. We've grown a lots of tomato varieties over the years. I sow our seeds in flats indoors during winter. I start my seedling in mid January in the Greenhouse. Sow the seed about 1/4" deep in your soil. The seeds should be started about 6 to 8 weeks before your average last frost date in your zone, or your planned transplant date. Make sure the seed starting mix is a light sterile soil mix with a liberal portion of Perlite or Vermiculite to maintain moisture.
I always plant twice and as many seedlings as I will need. The extras are sold to offset the cost of growing my seedlings and give some away to friends. During the day, keep the seedling flats next to a sunny window after they have germinated. Move to top of the water heater or refrigerator at night if you do not have a greenhouse. A heated greenhouse will produce ideal, controllable growing conditions. I also use supplemental overhead florescent lighting. Here in Southeast Texas our winter days are too short to produce healthy plants. Never allow your lights to burn more than 16 hours per day. A cheap electrical timer is the key to success here. Seedlings must be allowed to have a period of rest to grow properly. Hang your lights 1½ inches above the tops of the seedlings. This will prevent the seedling from becoming leggy. Raise the light suspended by a chain as the plants grow. Do not allow the soil to dry out. Feed seedlings every other watering cycle. I prefer feeding my young seedlings with Fish Emulsion or liquid seaweed. If you notice your seedling leaves turning purple this is the result of phosphorus deficiency.
HOME GARDENING WITH TOMATOES
While not technically a vegetable tomatoes are usually the most widely grown and rewarding vegetables in your backyard garden. Tomatoes are technically atomatoe, vegatable family, tomatoe seeds, Horticulture vegetables, Climatic Requirements, optimum tomatoe growth, planting tomatoes, nutrients, soil, disease problems fruit, however, they belong in the vegetable patch.
GROWING TOMATOES
Tomatoes vary in size from the tiny and sweet cherry style tomatoes to big juicy and meaty beefsteak tomatoes weighing more than a pound. This is great for gardeners as it gives us so many options of different varieties to grow.
