Starting Tomatoes from Seed
Tomatoes, Solanum lycopersicum, continue to be one of America’s favorite garden vegetables. And here at my Bedford, New York farm, it is also among my biggest summer crops.
With seed starting well underway in my greenhouse, this week my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, began planting the tomatoes. Quick to germinate and grow, tomato seeds are best sown indoors several weeks before the last frost. There are hundreds of tomato varieties available as seed, and choosing them for the garden may seem daunting. When selecting our seeds every year, Ryan and I consider type, size, disease resistance and general growth success in our region.
Enjoy these photos.
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- We usually grow about 120-tomato plants each summer. Our selection includes determinate tomatoes, which grow to about three-feet tall and indeterminate tomatoes, which grow up to about six-feet tall. I like large tomatoes best, but we also include a selection of medium and small tomatoes and one or two cherry tomatoes.
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- Some of this year’s varieties come from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. These are Chocolate Pear’, an indeterminate tomato that is rich and flavorful. We’re also planting ‘Indigo Cherry Drops’, a striking, dark-blue variety with red flesh. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
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- Here’s ‘Chocolate Pear’ – it has a unique color and pear shape. (Photo from Johnny’s Selected Seeds)
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- ‘Sunpeach’ is very sweet with excellent flavor. ‘Indigo Kumquats’ have a very sweet flavor with a surprising, tart kick of acidity.
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- ‘BHN 871’ is a a larger, later season plant with good disease resistance. They average about 10 to 12 ounces each and have flattened globe-shaped tomatoes. ‘Skyway’ is a large, organic beefsteak-type with broad disease resistance.
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- This is ‘BHN 871’ – they are such attractive golden-orange tomatoes. (Photo from Johnny’s Selected Seeds)
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- Two other seeds we are growing are ‘Charger’, large, 10 to 14 ounce red tomatoes. They are lightly ribbed tomatoes and have very good flavor. And ‘BHN 1021’, a bright-red slicer with good texture and high disease resistance.
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- ‘BHN 1021’ is a flavorful determinate variety. (Photo from Johnny’s Selected Seeds)
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- ‘Damsel’ has late blight resistance and excellent flavor, ‘Big Beef’, the top choice for fresh market beefsteak tomatoes and ‘New Girl’, an early intermediate tomato with great flavor and disease resistance.
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- Damsel produces an average eight to 12-ounce, globe-shaped fruit with beautiful, pink skin. (Photo from Johnny’s Selected Seeds)
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- ‘Big Beef’ are large, mostly blemish-free, globe-shaped red fruit. (Photo from Johnny’s Selected Seeds)
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- ‘New Girl’ tomatoes are smaller – about six-ounces. (Photo from Johnny’s Selected Seeds)
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- Ryan fills the trays with a proper seed starting medium. Never use garden soil, which often drains poorly and may harbor disease organisms. He then begins placing labeled markers to indicate where the seeds will be planted.
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- Ryan carefully decides how many plants he will grow of each variety. Each cell will get two seeds. Later, the stronger of the two will be transplanted into a larger pot and eventually moved to the garden.
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- Next, Ryan uses his fingers to create shallow holes in each cell.
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- Tomato seeds are quite small. There are about 30 to 40 seeds in a packet – Ryan will save any extra for next year.
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- Ryan carefully drops two seeds into each cell. You can start your seeds in just about anything that holds soil and has drainage holes. We like these trays from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. They come in a variety of sizes and can be used from year to year.
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- Each cell is filled about three-quarters to the top with seed starting mix.
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- Once all the seeds are in their appropriate cells, Ryan covers the seed with about a quarter-inch of mix.
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- And then pats the mix down to ensure good seed-to-mix contact.
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- I am fortunate to have a commercial grade Urban Cultivator that can provide the right amount of light, heat and water to my seedlings. I have been using this Urban Cultivator for years and love how easy it is to use. http://www.urbancultivator.net/
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- Seeds germinate best at warm room temperatures that range from about 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
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- Next, Ryan covers the trays with plastic domes, also from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. They fit perfectly onto the seed starting trays and create the best chamber of warmth, and humidity for germinating seeds.
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- And in a couple weeks, these seedlings will be big enough to thin, a process that keeps the strongest, healthiest seedling and weeds out the weaker ones. I hope this inspires you to start some of your vegetables indoors. Please share your comments below.
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