My seedlings are over 2' tall and have exceeded my grow light height.
Can I top them down 6-8" without harming them? They are growing several inches a week and I'm still at least 2-3 weeks away from planting outdoors.
by Hot-Sherbet-2
30 Comments
159551771
If they are indeterminate and you want huge plants I wouldn’t. But that could be just me.
drtythmbfarmer
Yes you can. Deer help us out with that every year.
BigRedTard
Don’t top them. When you plant them, plant them deep.
Stt022
Plant them very deep or in a trench.
nodiggitydogs
Yes…. super crop them …or lst them…keep them more stout the taller they get the less light that will penetrate the plant
Midnight-Rambler69
Harden them off and lay them down in an S shape without breaking them.
ObligationSea5916
Yes, bury them deep. If you’re putting these in the ground burry them half way up. If you’re putting them in a pot, place the root ball on the bottom of the pot before placing any soil in the new pot.
You CAN top them but they will just double in mass from that point and could become too top heavy even for the tomato cage.
Status-Investment980
They are stretching for light. They aren’t growing due to vigor. You should start to harden them off, just to see if they will make it.
highergrinds
You can, but you’d be making some crazy bushy tomatoes that will now grow wide and not tall. Lots of pruning involved. They do not have enough light so they’re reaching like crazy.
Ajiconfusion
I’d just bury them deeply in bigger pots for the time being. Remove some of the lower leaves and bury as deep as possible.
danilluzin
Honestly if your last frost/acceptable temps are still month away maybe consider starting a couple of backup seedlings.
Enough-Inevitable-61
These are not seedlings anymore. Those are plants and need to be planted outdoor asap.
kerberos824
These are not seedlings and haven’t been for some time. They’re huge!. What are you growing in? What is your light?
Budget_Llama_Shoes
They didn’t exceed your grow light height. They exceeded your table height. Put them on the floor, let the grow to the light, support them with a free standing inverted tomato cage and some bread ties. When you plant them, go AS DEEP AS YOU CAN. Each of the little hairs on the stem will make a new root. The more roots, the thicker the stem (in your case practically a trunk) the thicker the stem, the more nutrients get to the leaves and fruit. Barring unforeseen weather or pest issues, you’re going to be eating a lot of tomatoes this year. Please post your yield this autumn, because it’s going to be epic.
kutmulc
Seedlings?? They’re full-on tomato plants!
They need to go outside, when is your average last frost date?
MoltenCorgi
You’re not digging a hole deep enough to plant these so they look normal. I mean you could, but that’s a lot of work. I suggest laying them all on their sides now and bringing the light WAY lower, to just a few inches above them. They will put a bend in the stem towards the light. When they are ready to plant, plant them horizontally. They will do better this way as the roots will be closer to the surface where it’s warmer. Remove any leaves that will be buried (but I’d wait until planting, let them photosynthesize in the meantime.)
Next year, keep the plant light just a couple inches above them. They shouldn’t have been allowed to get this leggy to begin with.
uiet448
Yes
dianesmoods
Honestly, I’d take cuttings to plant when the weather allows, and discard the rest of the plant. So you could either root some nice big suckers or just the top 20-30cm of the plants. Buys you some time and space.
mkr48
I started mine too early last year so i kept up potting them- they ended up in the bigger containers that you’d pay a lot of money for at a greenhouse. But I have a “6 week greenhouse” and used a heater so they were ok until planting season… end of May
7937397
I’d repot them. Maybe in a deep bin/bucket for now. Even a cardboard box since in only needs to last a couple weeks. You can make cardboard dividers to keep the roots from getting too tangled.
Set that an appropriate distance from the grow light, or even better, begin hardening off, even if that means taking them inside every night
Entire_Dog_5874
Don’t top them; when it’s time to transplant them, trim the bottom leaves and plant deep.
Acceptable_Tip_1979
I think Epic Gardening did trench planting for tomatoes and got the same results as just transplanting, but delayed. My suggestion: plant some regular, some deep, some Trench. This may stagger your tomato fruit development. Either way get them into the ground
reggie_veggie
I’ve had this happen before. if these are indeterminate varieties, you can cut off the top 6 inches and plant them in new pots. they will root and grow fine as long as they get enough of the grow light. the original plants will also sprout some suckers that will be the new leaders and grow fine. I’ve done this before and planted both the original plant and the cutting, and after a couple months you’d never know which was which and both got to 20 feet tall. if these are determinate varieties, ignore everything I said because I don’t grow those and don’t know how they work lol
theuserman
Also in Ontario, jfc dude when did you plant these things, in Feb? Lol.
DenningBear82
Yeah bro, you need way more light.
My tomato starts were super tall and leggy last year, so this year I cranked up the amount of light. The bulb you are using-I use 6 of them now. My tomatoes are also trapped indoors due to the late spring, but this year they are thick and bushy with strong stems and normal internodal spacing.
I also discovered you can use LED shop lights in place of grow lights, which cuts the price by over half.
Cosmos_908
You started too early
NPK532
Take cuttings, clone them and when they root, put them in the same size container and use those for transplanting outside and the ones you got there for taking clones from.
But you can absolutely chop that down to almost nothing and it’ll keep growing as long as conditions are right in terms of light and nutrients.
I chopped this seedling down to nothing but the stem and it came back in less than 2 weeks to what you see there. Tomatoes are insanely resilient.
Why not experiment and top a few and leave the others for planting deep? That way you will have a first hand answer to your question. Probably either will be fine but then you will know for sure.
Boost_speed
You need significantly more light.
These are super leggy/thin/weak looking plants.
SvengeAnOsloDentist
You definitely can top them, particularly if you’re growing them up a trellis and will have to be keeping on top of pruning them, anyways. Topping is primarily not ideal because of the structural issues it can lead to, but for indeterminate tomatoes grown with support that doesn’t really matter.
30 Comments
If they are indeterminate and you want huge plants I wouldn’t. But that could be just me.
Yes you can. Deer help us out with that every year.
Don’t top them. When you plant them, plant them deep.
Plant them very deep or in a trench.
Yes…. super crop them …or lst them…keep them more stout the taller they get the less light that will penetrate the plant
Harden them off and lay them down in an S shape without breaking them.
Yes, bury them deep. If you’re putting these in the ground burry them half way up. If you’re putting them in a pot, place the root ball on the bottom of the pot before placing any soil in the new pot.
You CAN top them but they will just double in mass from that point and could become too top heavy even for the tomato cage.
They are stretching for light. They aren’t growing due to vigor. You should start to harden them off, just to see if they will make it.
You can, but you’d be making some crazy bushy tomatoes that will now grow wide and not tall. Lots of pruning involved. They do not have enough light so they’re reaching like crazy.
I’d just bury them deeply in bigger pots for the time being. Remove some of the lower leaves and bury as deep as possible.
Honestly if your last frost/acceptable temps are still month away maybe consider starting a couple of backup seedlings.
These are not seedlings anymore. Those are plants and need to be planted outdoor asap.
These are not seedlings and haven’t been for some time. They’re huge!. What are you growing in? What is your light?
They didn’t exceed your grow light height. They exceeded your table height. Put them on the floor, let the grow to the light, support them with a free standing inverted tomato cage and some bread ties. When you plant them, go AS DEEP AS YOU CAN. Each of the little hairs on the stem will make a new root. The more roots, the thicker the stem (in your case practically a trunk) the thicker the stem, the more nutrients get to the leaves and fruit. Barring unforeseen weather or pest issues, you’re going to be eating a lot of tomatoes this year. Please post your yield this autumn, because it’s going to be epic.
Seedlings?? They’re full-on tomato plants!
They need to go outside, when is your average last frost date?
You’re not digging a hole deep enough to plant these so they look normal. I mean you could, but that’s a lot of work. I suggest laying them all on their sides now and bringing the light WAY lower, to just a few inches above them. They will put a bend in the stem towards the light. When they are ready to plant, plant them horizontally. They will do better this way as the roots will be closer to the surface where it’s warmer. Remove any leaves that will be buried (but I’d wait until planting, let them photosynthesize in the meantime.)
Next year, keep the plant light just a couple inches above them. They shouldn’t have been allowed to get this leggy to begin with.
Yes
Honestly, I’d take cuttings to plant when the weather allows, and discard the rest of the plant. So you could either root some nice big suckers or just the top 20-30cm of the plants. Buys you some time and space.
I started mine too early last year so i kept up potting them- they ended up in the bigger containers that you’d pay a lot of money for at a greenhouse. But I have a “6 week greenhouse” and used a heater so they were ok until planting season… end of May
I’d repot them. Maybe in a deep bin/bucket for now. Even a cardboard box since in only needs to last a couple weeks. You can make cardboard dividers to keep the roots from getting too tangled.
Set that an appropriate distance from the grow light, or even better, begin hardening off, even if that means taking them inside every night
Don’t top them; when it’s time to transplant them, trim the bottom leaves and plant deep.
I think Epic Gardening did trench planting for tomatoes and got the same results as just transplanting, but delayed. My suggestion: plant some regular, some deep, some Trench. This may stagger your tomato fruit development. Either way get them into the ground
I’ve had this happen before. if these are indeterminate varieties, you can cut off the top 6 inches and plant them in new pots. they will root and grow fine as long as they get enough of the grow light. the original plants will also sprout some suckers that will be the new leaders and grow fine. I’ve done this before and planted both the original plant and the cutting, and after a couple months you’d never know which was which and both got to 20 feet tall. if these are determinate varieties, ignore everything I said because I don’t grow those and don’t know how they work lol
Also in Ontario, jfc dude when did you plant these things, in Feb? Lol.
Yeah bro, you need way more light.
My tomato starts were super tall and leggy last year, so this year I cranked up the amount of light. The bulb you are using-I use 6 of them now. My tomatoes are also trapped indoors due to the late spring, but this year they are thick and bushy with strong stems and normal internodal spacing.
I also discovered you can use LED shop lights in place of grow lights, which cuts the price by over half.
You started too early
Take cuttings, clone them and when they root, put them in the same size container and use those for transplanting outside and the ones you got there for taking clones from.
But you can absolutely chop that down to almost nothing and it’ll keep growing as long as conditions are right in terms of light and nutrients.
I chopped this seedling down to nothing but the stem and it came back in less than 2 weeks to what you see there. Tomatoes are insanely resilient.
https://preview.redd.it/ehfpn5unj8ue1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c87f746a3573024af36574a572748e005240849
Why not experiment and top a few and leave the others for planting deep? That way you will have a first hand answer to your question. Probably either will be fine but then you will know for sure.
You need significantly more light.
These are super leggy/thin/weak looking plants.
You definitely can top them, particularly if you’re growing them up a trellis and will have to be keeping on top of pruning them, anyways. Topping is primarily not ideal because of the structural issues it can lead to, but for indeterminate tomatoes grown with support that doesn’t really matter.