Starting Tomato Seeds

Tomatoes may be my favorite vegetable (or fruit) to grow. I started tomato seeds in February this year. I've started tomato seeds in February for the past two years as well. Some have told me that it's too early, but so far it has worked just fine. I don't start all of them at once. I start about 7 seeds every two weeks until I have all I can handle for transplanting and the space under the lights is taken up.

I start the seeds in peat pellets. Once they have grown their second set of leaves, I transplant them into yogurt cups using seed starting mix with a little bone meal added in. I plant the seedlings up to the shoulders of the first leaves if there is room and then pinch off the first leaves. The stems of tomato plants will send out roots when covered with dirt, so plant tingmupmto the shoulds of the leaves helps them to develop a nice big root ball. My seedlings used to have a tinge of purple on the underside of the leaves shortly after they grew in, even when I gave them some plant food. After I started adding the bone meal on a tip from my friend Tara Stainton, the leaves of my plants were lush and green right through planting. Now I mix about 1 tbsp bone meal with the seed starting mix in a bowl with water at each transplanting. The bone meal supplies phosphorus in the largest quantity and a few other minerals in smaller quantity.

Once they have grown to what I deem a suitable height I transplant them up to their shoulders again into oatmeal containers that I cut to an appropriate size. Once transplanted, I pinch off the lowest leaves again to allow the plant to send some energy back to root development. I discovered oatmeal containers last year. I had just purchased some biodegradable pots that just didn't seem big enough and the store didn't have anything bigger. On the same day I was transplanting, we ran out of oatmeal and I was carrying the container to the recycling bin. It occurred to me that it would work much better than the smaller containers I had just brought home. They are also essentially free, which is even better!

By the time the plants are hardened off and ready for the garden, the containers are most often a little soft from watering. When I place the tomato plant in the hole I can usually peel back part or all of the container so that the roots can be immediately free to spread. I left the containers completely in place on a few of the plants last year and it did seem to stunt their growth for a period of time, compared to the ones where I partially or completely removed the containers.

Tonight I will be dreaming about tomato and mustard tarts with gruyere, fresh salsa, salads, tomato and cheese sandwiches and all of the tomato sauce and tomato soup for freezing and canning. Maybe this is why tomatoes are one of my favorites to grow - their versatility and as a result of their easy preservation, their ability to provide some summer flavors during the cold winter that necessarily closes out our gardening season.