“If I Plant it, it will grow”.
This year I am doing something I’ve never done before – start tomatoes from seeds inside! I saved seeds from my heirloom tomatoes last year and I also purchased several different heirloom varieties from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (their catalog is breathtaking!). I disinfected my containers with a solution of water and bleach, moistened my seed starting mix and planted 20 tomato plants. All went well, except for one mistake! It is always a good idea to read through all instructions first instead of going step by step. I only wanted 20 tomato plants in my garden. I followed the instructions to plant 2-3 seeds per container thinking I would just cut away the tomatoes that looked to be the weaker seedling. Well, that is not what followed in the instructions … it told me that once the “true leaves” of the tomato appear to transplant each of the tomatoes into a 4 inch pot! Yikes!! That would mean I’d have 60+ tomato plants (all my seeds germinated)! I will transplant more than 20 and give some away to friends and plant less next year.
Tim built me shelves for my plants and I bought double light fluorescent light fixtures for my plants. The tomatoes germinated in 7 days, with my seeds that I saved germinating first! They are thriving under the light which I leave on approximately 16 hours per day. It is fun to watch them grow and now will be ready to transplant as the first true leaves have emerged.
Tomatoes transplanted after first true leaves
I’m hoping for tomatoes like I had last year! Grow baby grow!
It has been almost 1 month since I planted the tomato seeds and they are thriving!
Tomatoes not quite a month old!
This weekend I purchased two more square foot cedar bed kits at Home Depot (they were on sale) and added them to the existing 4×4 bed and look what we came up with! Now I will have plenty of gardening room to plant everything I love.
Spring is really taking its time here in NE Ohio. I looked at pictures at the same time last year (check it out here and learn more about square foot gardening) and all the leaves on the bushes and trees were out fully by now! I can hardly wait to start planting outside … but I think I’ll have to patient and wait a few more weeks.
Happy gardening!
Pasta Princess and More 
It lucks like you are off to a great start. I see that you are growing Black Krim. It is the first to germinate and the first to bloom out of the heirloom tomatoes that I grow.
Thanks Karen – I can’t wait to try the Black Krim! As I am writing this the tomatoes have taken off like crazy and are almost too tall to put under the light! They got really big really fast! Next year I will have to start later.
The plants looks so healthy, I still wait for the warm weather to sow my tomato seeds.
Thank you. I think that I started my tomatoes too early they are really getting big!! But maybe once I plant them outside I will have tomatoes sooner. 🙂
It is so cool to watch nothing but dirt and water make such an amazing “thing” as a plant, don’t you think? One thing about being a gardener – we truly have hope, since we know that is all there is in waiting for the seeds to grow, and produce such a great bounty from very little more than dirt, water, and some sunny days. Hope you have a great yield from those plants. They look happy!
Yes, I do think it is amazing. You totally get it! My tomatoes are extremely happy and have grown so much since this posting! They are getting so big that I almost wish some of them would slow down until I can get them outside!
Just remember it is OK for them to get so big, since they like to get planted about 3/4 of the way “under ground”. We just started to plant our goodies today, since it is now past the be-dreaded April 15th timeframe for planting in Atlanta. The weather can fool us here, getting warm then a sudden freeze. That should not be an issue now (we’ll see, right??!!) Happy gardening! Can’t wait to see pics of the bounty of the garden.
Do you plant your tomatoes in a “trench”? I have seen this and read about it but have not yet tried it. I think I may try this method on some of my tomatoes this year and see how they do. Happy gardening to you as well … send some of that sunshine our way!
Have not planted in a trench. We do plant tomatos in large pots, which seems to work on our patio. Then, others go in the ground. Plus, we have the 1/2 plot at the Community Garden. It is only 1 mile away, but there is something about walking out to our patio and “picking dinner” that we so enjoy! Here’s some sunny weather – just for you! LOL!
Thank you for the sunshine! lol
I love the lattice idea for the garden bed, keeping it neat and tidy! Thanks for stopping by Caramelize Life. I am psyched to check out your site…we love pasta in our home and it’s about the only thing our German exchange student will eat 🙂
cheers!
Rachelle
Thanks Rachelle for stopping by and for the follow! You will find a lot of pasta recipes here – hopefully your exchange student will like them too! 🙂
I live in india.veggies prices are rapidly increasing day by day because of recent floods that ruined tomato farms and many other farms.i have plajed few seeds in a small plastic glass nd i hope it will grow soon.
Thank you so much for the nice compliments! 🙂 Let me know how you like it! Have a great day.