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Step 1
Sow tomato seeds indoors for tomato gardening six to eight weeks into the future. Fill peat pots or other small vegetable starting containers available at gardening stores with a sterile potting mix. Lightly moisten the mix. Poke a hole one fourth inch into the soil. Drop a tomato seed into the hole and cover. Add a few more drops of water. Place the containers in a sunny window sill or four to six inches beneath a grow light or fluorescent lights. While they don’t need light to germinate, they need light the very moment they starting poking out of the soil or they’ll become leggy. By placing them near light at the beginning, they’ll benefit from its warmth, and will have light even if they sprout before you’ve noticed. Keep the planting mix moist but not soggy. Never let it dry out. They’ll sprout in two to twelve days.
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Step 2
Sow tomato seeds for direct outdoor tomato gardening. Read your tomato seed packet or go online to research the final size of your tomato seed variety. If you don’t know (perhaps a friend has given you some old tomato seeds), be safe and plant your tomatoes four feet apart. Before planting, moisten your tomato gardening area lightly. Then poke one fourth inch holes into the soil, making the holes the distance apart your variety calls for, or four feet apart if you’re not sure. Cover with soil. Keep moist until they sprout, from two to twelve days. Thin to just one plant per hole.
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Step 3
Sow tomato seeds for year-round greenhouse tomato gardening. Tomato gardening indoors allows you to sow any time of the year, possibly with the help of grow lights during the darkest winter days. Choose crack resistant tomato seeds for indoor greenhouse tomato gardening. Fill a planting tray with sterile potting mix. Moisten it lightly. Poke holes about two inches apart and one fourth inch deep. Drop a tomato seed into each hole and cover. Keep moist until they sprout. If you’re doing tomato gardening in a winter greenhouse, put your tomato seedlings four to six inches under grow lights as soon as they sprout. When they have their first true leaves (the leaves that look like real tomato leaves rather than just simple teardrop leaves), transplant them to their permanent growing position. With this type of tomato gardening, you can better control the temperature, and if at all possible, sow your tomato seeds in an area of the greenhouse that allows them to have as close to 80 degrees F. as possible. This is their ideal sprouting temperature.
Comments
Merriment said
on 7/16/2009 Good information and instructions for sowing tomato seeds. 5*
edieness said
on 7/15/2009 Great tips on How to Sow Tomato Seeds.
kristara said
on 7/12/2009 Great gardening tips! 5*