When To Start?

Tomato plants can be very expensive these days given the rising cost of produce at the grocery store.  One way to save a lot of money is to learn how to grow tomato plants on your own.    If you’re like me, you might be asking yourself when is the right time to start thinking about getting your tomato plants ready for a healthy crop.  The simple answer is, right now!  The sooner you prepare the better off you’re going to be.

Get the Best Tomato Seeds

As you may know there are plenty of great tomato seeds on the market.  Your first step is to select a high quality seed.  While you might be inclined to purchase an inexpensive seed, I strongly suggest that you spend the extra money and opt for the highest quality tomato seed that you can afford.  Your crop and taste buds will thank you for it in a few months time!  Make sure that you buy your seeds from a company that is reputable and one that has a good track record selling vegetable seeds.  There are too many ‘fly by night’ companies offering seeds that tend to be of a poor quality so pay attention. I typically purchase about 20-25 seeds when needed but generally only use about 4-5 of them per season.  The remaining seeds I store in a cool dark place so that I can use them the following year.  This is a great tip if you would like to cut down on costs.

Planting Your Tomato Seeds

With your seeds in hand, you next step is to ensure that they get planted in a healthy environment.  A lot of this will depend on where you live.  In milder climates you may be able to begin your planting in late winter/early spring, while cooler climate areas will need to wait until mid to late spring (this is a general rule only).  You just want to ensure that when you plant your tomatoes outdoors, that there won’t be a frost that will destroy your seedlings.

A great way that I have learned to start my seeds is to use a seed tray.  Simply place a seed in each portion of the tray on top of some good sterile compost.  Next, consider covering your seeds with a soil moisturizing product like vermiculite and spread about one centimeter (quarter of an inch) of this great stuff over them.  The benefit of this product is that it keeps the soil damp and also allows for the seeds to get some sunlight which is important at this stage.  When you have completed this step, place your seed tray on a window-well.  Water these seedlings often and regularly (and watch them carefully).

Watch for Tomato Plant Growth

You want to watch for the growth of your tomato plants.  As the plant starts to develop and grow you will want to transfer them from the seed trays to a larger pot.  To transfer them, just remove the entire plant (careful not to damage the roots) and place them into a larger pot.  Make sure that you either use a new pot or a sterile pot – this will keep your tomato plants free from disease.  You will also use fresh compost for optimum growing conditions.

Grow Your Tomatoes

After a few weeks your plants will probably need to be transferred again.  At this step you can plant them outside (but ensure you can plant them outside – ensure that frost is out of the forecast), otherwise keep your tomato plants indoors for another few weeks.  Once you plant your tomatoes outdoors, water them regularly and often.  If you follow these steps you will learn how to grow big tomato plants.

Do you want to grow your own tomato plants?  To grow tomato seeds you’ll have to ensure that the correct steps are followed.  Outlined below are some simple directions on how to grow your tomato seeds.

In order to complete these tasks you will need:

1. Tomato seeds (your favorite variety)
2. Sterile potting soil
3. Seed tray
4. Individual pots (new or clean)
5. Water

Your first step is to prepare the soil.  Do this by filling your seed tray with sterile potting soil and fill the tray almost to the top.   Next, water the soil well so that it is moist.  You will then ensure that your hands are clean and you’ll place the tomato seeds (of your choice) into the mosit soil.  Cover the seeds with finely crumbled compost or with a thin layer of vermiculite.

In the next step you want to place your planted tomato seeds in an area that will receive a lot of sunlight.  A sunny windowsill will work well.  Ensure that you continue to water your plants daily.

In about 6 – 11 days you should begin to see your tomato seeds sprouting.  Of course this will all depend on the variety of tomato as some take a bit longer.  Allow your seeds to grow until it begins to plant and reaches a height of about two inches.

As soon as your plants are two inches, you can now transport them into a small pot or container.  To do this, fill your pot iwth sterile soil and then water the pot.  Wait about ten minutes and allow the pot to drain.  Repeat the process and water the pot again.  Wait another ten minutes and let the pot drain.  Then take your seedlings and carefully transport them to a new pot (one seedling plant per pot).  Be careful no to damage the roots.

Over the course of the next several weeks, water your tomato plants well.  Soon you will see your plants start to grow some leaves (this is a good sign).  Once your plants reach a height of about 6-8 inches you can safely transport them outdoors into your garden.  Just repeat the process and ensure to water them well over the next several weeks.  In no time you will be enjoying beautiful fresh garden tomatoes.

Want to learn more?  Get more information about how to grow tomato seeds here.

The tomato is probably one of the most commonly grown plants in a vegetable garden.  Knowing how to properly plant tomatoes can make a big difference in both the size and yield of you plants.  Here are some steps to plant some great tomatoes.

Step One

Pick your favorite tomato seed

Step Two

Choose a location to plant and prepare your tomatoes.  I suggest that you find a mature well composted section.  Work the soil by digging it up at least 6-12 inches.  Water the soil well.

Step Three

Place your tomato plants into the soil and water again.  Continue to water daily and watch your tomato plants sprout into a great tasting treat.

Hey, want some great secrets to growing great organic tomaotes? Listen carefully and I’ll spill the beans on some old-school tactics that still apply today.

Organic Tomato Secret #1

The first secret to growing organic tomatoes is to ensure that you are using micro-organisms.  Micro-organisms, what’s that?  By keeping the soil of your plants full of life (and by this I mean with worms and bugs) you are following the micro-organism secret.  You see, worms and soil bugs are great at creating micro nutrients which is a vital element for plants to survive.  These micro-organisms break down elements in the ground and essentially create good soil.  This is a good thing because a lot of soil today is bad or dead soil which has been treated with chemicals and it lacks much needed micro nutrients.

Organic Tomato Secret #2

There’s a lot of advice that suggests that you should be careful about watering your organic tomatoes.  I’m here to suggest that you should water you tomato plants often and regularly (when outdoors).  Especially when it gets extremely hot.  Under these conditions you should water your ogranic tomato plants 2-3 times per day. When you water your tomato plants you are also watering the worms and bugs that are in the soil.  The micro-organisms also thrive when the soil is watered.  I suggest that you make a watering schedule and stick to it.  Don’t be shy with the water.

Organic Tomato Secret #3

Use the right seeds.  Sounds simple, right?  for the best tasting tomatoes, you need to use organic seeds that are free of deformities.  Too many seeds today, especially the ones found in local garden stores are of the hybrid variety.  These seeds are marginal at best.  It is very important that you get your seeds from a trusted organic source that specialized in seed production.   I recommend ONE source only for great organic tomato seeds. Itʼs an online web-site called Tomato Fest.  Go check them out.

Get more details on how to grow organic tomatoes here.