by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: September 18, 2008   Last Updated: April 11, 2009

Growing your tomatoes from seed takes a little work but is less expensive than buying the plants. But the best reason to grow them from seed is the many different varieties you can afford to grow. Getting the first ripe tomato in the spring is no accident; it has everything to do with timing and the type of seed that is sown. First of all, you sow your seed indoors in February in a basement window, a sunny window or in a indoor seed hatchery, and if all go well, by the time of the last frost around the middle of May or the first of June you will be ready to transplant them out of doors.

Although if you are really intending to take the first tomato prize for the season you must be brave. Set that plant out, or at least a few, and be prepared to cover them when the temperature drops. Those extra hot days of sunshine, which is a must for tomatoes to grow, will indeed give you and your tomato growing race a few laps ahead.

Yet first, you must know how to grow them inside, as well as outside, and what kind to grow and what to expect. Whatever your area your seeds need to be started at least eleven to twelve weeks before planting time. There is no need to make hard work out growing tomatoes by seed. Early in the year, at gardening centers you will find all kinds of help. From there you will find peat cubes, peat pots, jiffy-7 pellets, seed starting kids, flats of every description.

Or if you are a recycler, you probably have a stash of growing containers. Actually, all you really need is a flat filled with a loose growing medium - soil with lots of sand or prelite, or crushed limestone, or a tray of little pots filled with soil. You can make this as fancy or as simple as possible. Simple is a pot of loose soil and seeds sown and place in a sunny window. Or, artificial lights and a heated container may work quite well as a tomato seed incubator.

The seeds themselves make most of the difference: The early varieties are a must if you want to break your neighbor's record of always being first to have a ripe tomato. The earliest still will need 50 days to mature. The Rocket is one such variety and is a medium sized tomato but will grow well in tubs. That means on cold nights you can bring them back inside.

My source of information is "All About Tomatoes" and is an old book - but a thorough one with nothing left out about tomatoes - of the Ortho Book Series. Since its printing there are newer varieties and better resistant varieties but still what hasn't changed is the necessity for an ample amount of growing time. There are some late growing varieties of tomatoes that require over seventy-five long eight hour sunshine growing days. It's useless for me to list all the varieties, it's best you browse according to your location, and your interest.

Take your pick. But choose a later variety and new seed. No sense sabotaging your best effort by using last year's varieties. This year's may be an even better improvement. The best way to find out what grows best sooner or later is go online and search out tomato seed facts and select the ones acclimated to your growing conditions. Or, an even better tried and true method is to buy from your local source who knows what is better for that particular growing location.

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