Use a plant tag and permanent marker or a craft stick and pencil to write the tomato variety and date. ![]() Look on the back of your seed pack for the depth, but it’s likely a quarter inch for most tomatoes. Sprinkle some dry mix over the top of the seeds. Planting: Place two seeds in the center of the container.Baby plants need space to expand their roots. Tap to settle the mix-do not compress or squish down. Fill: Gently add your starting mix to the container, leaving some space at the top.It should feel like a wrung-out sponge (no drips). Add water little by little until just moist. I like to reuse 4-inch nursery pots that I scrub in hot, soapy water smaller-sized starter cells are fine too. Small pots, paper cups, and six-packs from a nursery are all acceptable containers, as long as they are super clean and have a drainage hole in the bottom. Don’t use regular garden soil since it contains natural fungi that could cause a condition called damping off. Using a soilless mix is very important when starting seeds indoors. Sterile, soilless seed-starting mix (available at most garden shops or home improvement stores) clean containers water trowel or big spoon seeds plant tags or wooden craft sticks permanent marker or pencil and a drip tray. To get started, first gather supplies, You’ll need: You’ll also be able to find a decent selection in garden shops. A wide variety of seeds can be can be found online. I always grow one or two cherry or pear varieties to share with my grandchildren and children visiting our community garden plot. ![]() Indeterminate varieties continue to produce and ripen over a long season. Plus I grow a few plum tomatoes for canning–I like a determinate variety that ripens all at once. I love tomatoes and like to plant mostly big beefsteak like ‘Cherokee Purple’, ‘Paul Robeson’, and ‘Black Krim’. They are great for salads, slabs, sandwiches, and everything! This variety can be pleated, fluted, or smooth. Beefsteak tomatoes are the largest, usually oval, meaty, and super flavorful.Slicing tomatoes are medium, round, and even-shaped-perfect for sandwiches, Caprese salad, and stuffed or broiled tomatoes.Paste, plum, roma tomatoes are oblong, meaty, and drier, which makes them good for sauces and canning.They also start producing ripe fruit earlier. Cherry, pear, grape tomatoes are small, have a concentrated sweet flavor, and are great for snacks, garnish, drying, and gardening with children.Think about what is the right tomato type or types for you. Tomatoes come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Four to six weeks before the last frost date is recommended. Growing them in New York City’s climate requires giving them a head start by starting indoors. Since the species itself, Solanum lycopersicum, is originally from regions close to the equator in Central and South America, your plants will need maximum sun and heat. Heirloom varieties like ‘Pole Moneymaker’, ‘Mortgage Lifter’, ‘Amish Paste’, ‘Black Cherry’, ‘Paul Robeson’, and ‘Aunt Ruby’s German Green’ are luscious globes of food history and chock-full of vitamins. It’s also a fun way to really engage in the growing process. ![]() While you can get good starter plants from nurseries and farmers’ markets, starting from seed gives you a much, much, broader selection. Nothing says summer like a homegrown, fresh-off-the-vine tomato, but raising your own tomatoes from seed means starting in spring.
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