Potting Up Tomatoes That Were Grown From Seed Indoors Once They Are Bigger

Potting Up Tomatoes That Were Grown From Seed Indoors Once They Are Bigger
By Agnes Thompson

If you're like me, you can't wait for that first home grown summer tomato. So I start my tomatoes in late January. Pretty early, but I am determined to have a long tomato season. This will be batch no.1, and I plan to start another batch in late March.

So in my case, last year, I sowed three different types, Black Cherry, Stupice and Sungold. The first two of the three are heirloom and all seem to be good candidates for early harvest. Sungold is a monster producer of incredibly delicious cherry sized orange tomatoes. These are the toms that my kids would pick right off the vine and eat like candy last summer. One plant was not enough to keep up with the household demand, so of course this year I will be growing three.

A few weeks after sowing, your little seedlings will have turned into gangly teenagers looking to stretch their legs. Mine all germinated last year and since I let my kids help me sow them, there are several seedlings to each little pod. They had to be thinned! That was the hard part for me, getting rid of perfectly good seedlings. I just don't have enough room for 60 small tomato plants. I picked the 12 strongest and *gulp* tossed the rest.

You will have to do the same! Be realistic about what you can grow in your garden and/or pawn off on friends and neighbors.

So this is how you transplant your tomato seedlings:

The first step find good containers that are big enough for the toms to grow into. I use styrofoam cups, although there are certainly other more *ahem* environmentally conscious options, used yogurt containers come to mind -- the big ones, not the individual ones. Make sure they are relatively deep because tomatoes like to throw down long roots and you need to always replant the toms deeper than they were before, meaning some of the stem will be buried. Pop a couple of drainage holes in your containers before adding your potting mix!

Next up, pre-moisten your potting mix in a bowl, preferably in a sink, and preferably away from the prying eyes of anyone who has OCD in your family. Knead it a bit with your hands to get all the ingredients wet. Trying to moisten the dry potting mix once it is inside each little container is a nightmare.

Now pack your cups or containers full of mix, leaving about an inch of head room. Make a hole. I use a chopstick. A pencil works fine. Or you can spend $5 on something called and a "dibbler" and no, I am not making that up.

Now pop out your seedlings gently, and I mean gently. If you can avoid touching them while you do this, all the better. And yes, it's messy. If you have grown more than one seedling in a cell, separating the little guys from each other can be tricky. The roots may be entangled and since the one with the biggest roots is what you are after, careful not to break them. Use a teeny scissors to cut away seedling you don't want, don't pull the roots apart! Always choose the seedling with the biggest root system.

Now, GENTLY pick off all but the top set of true leaves. Then plop your little guy into the hole and pack the moist soil around it, covering the parts of the stem where the leaves were. Roots will grow from those points. Your little fella will look overwhelmed in his new digs, but don't worry - he'll grow into it.

Finally, when you're done, move them to the sunniest spot in your house, preferably a southern exposure with access to the great outdoors. Set up a simple T5 grow light system to supplement for cloudy days and keep it on for about 15 hours a day so your toms think they're in, ya know, Ecuador or something.

And on warm, sunny days take them outside for some sunbathing! Just don't let them get burned. Seriously, tomatoes can get sunburn. Before you know it they will be ready to move into the half-gallon milk carton size!

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