Beginner Gardening: Tomato Plants Now, 0 by Gymgirl

Gymgirl wrote:
Hey, Belle!
Long time, huh?

Here's the light stand I use, set up and ready for seed sowing on New Year's weekend.

Just to clarify, I START the seeds in the warm, sterilized, soil and water them in with tepid water, to maintain the heat the seeds need for germination. You're doing the same thing with your heat mat.

After they "pop", and up to the time they have 1-2 set of true leaves, they continue growing in the warm room. But, as soon as they get those true leaves, I move them into the COOL room, because the cold slows down their growth and makes them concentrate energy on getting "fat" rather than tall and leggy. Keeping the light so close to their heads (1"-2") makes it so they don't have to stretch upward toward the light. So, they grow nice and short and stocky (help from the breeze from the fan)...

As they grow upward, I move the light upward, too. Last season, I had 8" healthy seedlings, superior to the box stores, in a little more than 35 days from sowing the seeds! That was phenomenal growth for me!

My intention was to set the plants out by mid-February, but I ran into a major snafoo that I'll share with ya'll later. It involved applying too much fertilizer, too soon, and threatened the loss of my whole crop. I scrambled and tried radical measures to save the majority of those seedlings. I did, and they all produced bumper crops in the end. But, I won't make that mistake EVER again! Whew!!!!

Linda

It just occurred to me that I've not bought a single plant in 2011....wow.....wow....

Hugs!