Here are some of my tomato babies (with our beautiful april snowfall in the background). They grew too tall for my seed-growing space in the basement so now they are sitting in my sunroom window. Technically, even a south-facing window isn't really enough light, but this is a sunroom with windows on three sides so I'm breaking the rules for a few days. Soon they will be going out to the unheated greenhouse, with lots of insulation and with me keeping my eyes on the weather forecast!
Here's what you should be doing with your tomato seedlings this month:
- after they have their first set of leaves, water with a dilute fertilizer (half-strength, twice as often)
- keep them under grow lights (one warm and one cool 40W flourescent tubes will do), with the lights always just a couple inches above the plants (if you have to put them in a window, keep turning them so they grow straight)
- repot them again before they will go outside (you can see I've done some of mine) - plant deeper each time and new roots will sprout along the stem, resulting in a stronger plant
- for indeterminate (vine) types, pinch off the sprouts that grow in the crook of each branch as soon as they get big enough to handle (see below). these extra branches will take energy away from the plant (for determinate types you don't need to pinch.)
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