Tomatoes
How to Grow Tomatoes from Seed
How to plant seeds. If you plan on planting your tomatoes in the GROUND,
plant seeds about an 1/8 inch deep in a quality, sterile soil mix in a
sterile container. Reason: give your tomato children a chance to grow up
a bit before they face the wicked critters in our soil (Root Knot
Nematodes, Caterpillars, Soil Born Diseases). If you are planting your
tomatoes in a POT and using sterile soil and sterilized pot, you can sow the seed directly into the soil.Keep seeds in the SUN and MOIST until they germinate.
Germination. In
our FL summers, when the highs are in the 90's, seeds can germinate in a
few days or up to a few weeks. However, in our winters, with highs in
the 60's, it can take them 3-4 weeks or longer to germinate. They want
to be toasty warm. After growing lots and lots of tomato varieties, I
find that the Everglades variety is the most finicky to germinate and
will only do so when IT wants to, not when you want it to. Non-growing
seedlings and soil have been thrown out and days later tomatoes are
growing in the remains. Transplanting. Five
weeks after they germinate, they are ready to go in the garden or in a
pot. Plant them very, very deep leaving only the top few inches of the
plant above ground so that the stem can produce more roots. Seedlings
can be planted sideways in the ground if digging deep is not possible.
If you planted your seeds in a pot, you might want to add some soil
around the stem of your tomato.