I got a little overexcited and planted my tomatoes about a month earlier than I think I should have. I’m keeping them well lit, and I’m making sure to move them into larger containers before they become root bound, but I think that I still have about 4 weeks before I could safely put them in the ground. Are they going to make it? Will it have negative effects on my fruit production? Should I just start over? I’ve certainly learned my lesson and will start later next year.
by Known-Caregiver1581
12 Comments
You only have a problem if you have determinates. Once those start flowering, you get what you get. Indeterminates are vines that never want to stop growing, and scoff at your worries about getting root bound. Indeterminates you could cut all off at the soil line, trim leaves, and repot up to their top leaves and they’ve probably be fine, and also might come back from the cut off roots.
I’ve made this mistake. You’ll be ok. These plants will be pretty sad by transplant day!
I’ve since sort of figured out there is absolutely no gain in being too early. Whatever you might gain in 2 weeks inside with a light the plants do in about 4 days outside.
With climate change it’s sort of getting harder to guess exactly when the best time is.
I did the same thing
As long as you’re giving them enough light and a large enough pot it’ll be ok. Tomatoes can recover pretty well from stunting. If they are getting unmanageable you can also trim their suckers. Then when time to move outside plant deep and remove any flowers when they show up before that. Another option if your freezes are borderline would be planting them out with frost cover but that’s always a risk.
Two years ago, I planted about 90 seeds too early and had a 100% germination rate. It was a nightmare – by April, I took tomatoes with me whenever I left the house; I was pretty much the Tomato Fairy: I was taking flats of starts to happy hours. I was leaving them in the beds of unattended pickup trucks at stores and on restaurant patios, lol. Luckily, I knew a gardener-landscaper who was happy to take 20 or so to various job sites, but it took a whole month to get down to just 5 plants. Now, I’m struggling to germinate just 6 heirloom varieties at a time, and I’ll probably be reseeding next week and behind for the season(please don’t let me down, Forgotten Heirlooms!), but that’s just what’s up because I’m not gonna ever have too many tomatoes again.
One year I started my tomatoes in January and I planted 3-4 foot long vines with fruit in April/May. They’ll be fine.
They look great now, but do you have a fan or some air movement on them? If not, add that. Keep up the good work but they’ll survive, tomatoes are tough little guys.
I start mine really early and put them on pallets with wheels. After I get them hardened off I’ll pull them outside during the day and back into the garage at night. Not sure that helps you but I have several large tomato’s already as well
If just be sure to plant them deep, they will be able to put out a lot of roots. I think you’ll be fine tho.
You will have some hassles because they’re going to get so tall, but you can get them through to planting. You can consider backing off on light to 8 hours per day. That will slow them down a bit. You will obviously need to have a space with far more room than that shelf quite soon. When I did this and got them too big too fast, I was able to get them outside most days for 4-6 hours. That helped quite a bit.
Mine were about 2 foot tall last yearwhen I finally put them in the ground, so your not dead yet
One option that might be worth considering, since you have a surplus of strong young seedlings that are raring to go, is to plan a few outdoors early with protection. I’m not sure where you are located, so that might be out of the question. I’m in NE Texas and usually plant some of my tomatoes at least two or three weeks ahead of our 90% frost free date. Here’s the approach I used this year: [https://www.reddit.com/r/tomatoes/comments/1j1rpc7/double_protection_for_early_planting_text_in/](https://www.reddit.com/r/tomatoes/comments/1j1rpc7/double_protection_for_early_planting_text_in/)
No, you are perfectly fine. Keep them watered. Give them 1/4 strength neptune harvest tomato veg, in water every 2 weeks. Keep a fan on them and let them get thicker. Rotate 1/4 strength fish emulsion every 2 weeks in water as well. Don’t let them go leggy, keep fan rotating on them. They are fine in these pots. You did great. Keep them watered, fed and wind is your best friend. Great job.