Tomatoes From Seed

Well I thought I would try something new this year. I have always purchased little tomato plants and then set them out in the garden. This year, I thought I would purchase the seeds and start them myself. I have heard that it can be a little tricky growing tomatoes from seeds. I used a rotisserie chicken container as my temporary bed, put in some seed starter and planted the seeds. I then put the container in our laundry room until I just saw them poking through the starter mix. I didn't worry about the light. In fact, it was dark most of the time in there. It took about 1 week for the seeds to break the surface. Once they sprouted, I moved them to a southern facing window in our bedroom. I had read that new sprouts needed extra light time in order to become stronger. I decided to place a little clip on desk lamp next to the plants and keep it on every day for about 14 hours. I don't know if this actually helped, but the seedlings really grew well. It's been about 12 days now and it won't be long until I transplant the little plants into their own containers.

At this point, each one is about 1.5 inches high and has two little green leaves. Hopefully, they will survive the stress. After that, I have to harden them off by placing them outside for a short time everyday. We will see how it goes.