Looking for the best way to start your tomato plants from seed indoors – and have amazing transplants ready in time for your raised beds or garden this year?
Not only is the process of growing your own plants from seed fun and extremely rewarding, it can lead to stronger plants and far better results than when using store bought transplants. And contrary to what many may think – the process can be quite economical and easy.
But even more, growing from seed lets you have control of your plants right from the start! You have the opportunity to give your plants exactly what they need all along the way – and make sure they get the exact care they need before they go in the ground on planting day.
Even better – growing your own plants from seed can help save big on a gardening budget. Let’s face it, tomato plants can be expensive to purchase each and every spring. But seeds are far less expensive. Especially when you save them for multiple years.
But here is the best news of all – growing tomatoes from seed couldn’t be easier. As you will see below, it doesn’t require fancy lights or equipment. Nor does it have to be time consuming. In fact, by following four simple secrets – anyone can start and grow amazing tomato transplants in their home with ease!
The Best Way To Start Tomato Plants From Seed Indoors
#1 Start Your Seeds In The Right Soil
Just like tomato plants, tomato seeds need great soil to grow healthy and strong. If you plant your seeds in less than ideal soil, you will get less than ideal results.
Instead of starting seeds in garden soil, top soil or basic potting soil, it’s important to use soil specifically created for starting seeds. A good seed starting soil is light, airy, well draining and full of the nutrients seeds need.
Seed starting soil allows seeds to germinate quickly and easily. More importantly, the loose soil allows roots to expand freely and quickly. That same looseness also allows excess water to flow through and not rot out tender young seedlings. Affiliate Product Link: Espoma Organic Seed Starter Premium Potting Soil Mix
Heavier soil can make root growth difficult. It also simply doesn’t have enough nutrients in it to help seeds take off quickly. Without a doubt, great transplants really do start by planting your seeds in a quality seed starting soil.
Grow In Larger Seed Cells!
Last but not least, while on the subject of starting seeds in soil – it’s best to use larger seed cells to grow your plants in. Small cells may hold a lot of plants – but it will severely restrict early growth.
Using larger 2 to 3 inch wide and deep seed starting cells instead of smaller 1 inch versions can pay off with far better results . Larger cells allow for more root growth. Even better, they prevent you from having to transplant seedlings more than once – which can temporarily slow growth. Affiliate Link: Seed Starter Trays 300 DEEP Extra Large Cells
#2 Using The Best Light To Start Tomato Plants From Seed
Plain and simple – you can’t grow good tomato transplants in a sunny windowsill! The plants will certainly sprout, but they will grow long and skinny. And the result will be a “leggy” plant that eventually struggle to grow outdoors.
The key to growing strong and healthy transplants is to let them grow low and slow. And the only way to do that is with artificial lighting. Unfortunately, when tomato plants grow in a sunny windowsill, they reach for the sun. And because it’s far away, they develop weak and skinny long stems that bend and lean.
The good news? It doesn’t take fancy or expensive lights to grow tomato plants. Vegetable plants do not require special grow lights to develop. In fact, an ordinary fluorescent or LED shop light is perfect for giving young plants everything they need to develop.
Simply place these lights directly over top of your seedlings once they sprout. Keep the bulbs about 1 to 1.5 inches above the tops of your plants and leave on for 12 to 14 hours each day.
The cool, bright light will allow the plants to grow with ease. Even better, because it is right over top, they will develop strong, slow growth. See our article: How To Give Indoor Seedlings The Right Light – With Inexpensive LED Shop Lights!
#3 Fertilizing For Success
If there is one mistake gardeners make more than any other when growing their own plants from seed, it’s failing to fertilize plants when they are young. Fertilizing young seedlings with a light dose of liquid fertilizer every few weeks is crucial to developing strong, healthy plants.
Once plants have sprouted and have been up for about 14 days, it’s time to start fertilizing. But the key here is to fertilize lightly. For this, you can also use an all purpose organic liquid fertilizer. However, you will need to use it at 1/4 to 1/5th of its recommended strength for seedlings. Affiliate Link: Espoma Organic 8 Ounce Concentrated Tomato! Plant Food
Give your plants a regular feeding every ten to fourteen days until planting day. The extra nutrients will go a long way to helping give you transplants that are sizable, healthy, and most importantly, ready for planting day outdoors!
Listen To Our Podcast Below On How To Jump Start Tomato Plants!
#4 Watering – How To Water Tomato Plants When You Start Them From Seed
Last but not least, be careful not to over or under water your young tomato plants. When growing indoors, plants will usually need to be watered every day or two. The real key to success is to never let the soil get too dry – or stay too wet.
Allowing plants to dry out too much between waterings will lead to poor root and stem development. When roots dry out, they shrivel. And when they shrivel, they are unable to take in nutrients from the soil. Infrequent watering also causes stress on the plant that can stunt future growth as well.
On the other side, when the soil stays too wet, the tender roots of plants swell up. And when they do this, it also leaves the roots unable to take in needed nutrients from the soil. This can often lead to the tomato plant’s leaves turning yellow and even falling off the plant.
All in all, with good seed starting soil, proper light and a bit of fertilizer and regular water, your plants will reward you with amazing growth. Once planting day rolls around, be sure to check out How To Avoid The 5 Most Common Tomato Planting Mistakes – And Grow Great Tomatoes! Here is to growing your own tomato plants from seed this year. And, to having your biggest tomato harvest ever!
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This Is My Garden is a garden website created by gardeners, for gardeners. Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books and speaking for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. They publish three articles every week, 52 weeks a year. Sign up today to follow via email, or follow along!