Has anyone started tomatoes in small seed cells and grown them to seedlings ready for transplant in 6 or 8 weeks without them getting root bound or stressed?
I've always had decent success starting early in a cluster, then separating after true leaves appeared & potting up into good nutritious soil. Never an issue with losing plants, I nannied them and I made it work with a sunny south facing patio door & some outdoor time when temps allowed. They did ok but I don't think my plants thrived & pretty sure it was lack of decent light.
So, I've set up a grow station with decent lights (measured by PPFD) and I'm building a mini greenhouse. There are some space limitations and I don't have room for my traditional method of potting up and want to try the method in this vid. I'm growing around 40 tomato plants. Also soil has gotten pricey and potting up that many tomato plants has a price I'd be happy to avoid.
I like Lazy Dog and he leaves his hundreds of seedling in small cells and in mindful of the plants getting root bound and manages it through the amount of fertilizer he's feeding them. He says in the comments if weather is saying 6 weeks he hits them with fertilizer. If it's 8 weeks he holds back a bit.
by Davekinney0u812
10 Comments
Although I grow from seed, here in Portugal starter plants can be bought really cheaply, for 25c each or cheaper. They are normally great, healthy plants, and I am always amazed at how large they are for the size of the trays they are in. I think it is perfectly possible to sow in modules, without potting on and then just plant out, but it does require management and feeding. I tend to do something similar to you – sow in a bunch, separate and pot on and then plant out when they are a good size as that is what works for me…
So I always use the little cells and sew 2 seeds per cell and then pot them in 3 inch pots and sometimes again in larger pots before we are safely out of the risk of frost.
Every year I have nearly 100% success with my seeds and I have to cull half of my starts. I got to thinking. Those roots from the culled plants contribute to the root bound issues. The plants always seem to get pissy for a week or so after I pot them or plant them. I think this year I’m going to sew directly into the larger pots.
I agree that near planting time, small plants can be found that grow just fine, but the varieties are limited. That’s why I grow other varieties from seed, even tho it’s more work.
I watch Lazy Dog also, although I find myself disagreeing with Travis more and more lately. I still watch though.
I dont think theres anything wrong with starting seeds, especially tomatoes, less early. Seedlings dont need to be 18 inches tall when you plant out.
I do think that the small cells will tend to encourage circling very quickly. Starting less early can mitigate that a bit, but if your plants are making decent progress the roots should be growing vigorously.
I will say though that in the past ive had tomato seedlings stay in the 6 cell trays much longer than I planned and end up with a fair amount of circling. I pulled them out, roughed up the roots a bit, and planted them, and they seem to be fine. Tomatoes especially the roots are really tough, which is why planting them dense and separating after germination works so well.
Wow At $5+ a piece in the US it’s definitely worth to start your own. I use 6 cell bootstrap farmers and then pot up into hand packed soil/compost balls. I usually start 3 individuals per variety and pot up the best 2 and plant out the best.
Im in Canada so yeah it is. Tomato seedlings are also expensive here
I do that with some of my tomato starts every year, start them in “six-packs” with a soil volume of about 120 ml, and then plant them out directly when the outdoor conditions are right, skipping the intermediate “potting up” step into 3.5″ x 3.5″ nursery pots that I have traditionally used.
One thing I do with these is to visually check the roots by sliding them out and looking to make sure they aren’t becoming root bound. This is one I checked a couple days ago. It is getting to the “mildly root bound” stage, requiring water more frequently, and I will divide the plug and plant the two seedlings (and a few others) outside day after tomorrow, when the weather is sunny and warm, if the soil temp is 50 F or more. Right now we are having a cold snap. NE Texas.
https://preview.redd.it/duwkfjre42lg1.jpeg?width=426&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=809568943037446d937820ae783c103331d1824e
Starting from seed helps cut costs greatly in the US Midwest. It’s not 100% necessary depending on the garden you intend to have but it gives me better options in terms of varieties. Starting early is also not necessary, but I like transplanting plants that are pretty mature because they handle early season temperature swings well and really crank once the weather turns.
Look up @faridasober’s seed snail process. She makes spirals out of old packing materials. Uses way less soil, has lots of room for roots. Definitely worth a look
A LOT of this will depend on how your spring warms. ~~Lazy dog is in S Georgia IIRC, in British Columbia which has weather similar to where I am (Washington) and the transition from winter through spring is very gradual.~~ Correction – LD is in S Georgia.
So, for me in Washington temps warm very slowly over spring and I can’t reliably plant out until mid-May. Highs are in the 40-50F range now… but in April it might only be 45-55F and in May we often see 70 but often see 55F (all highs). It won’t reliably be in the mid 70s or higher until early July.
If you can’t plant out until mid-May and it warms gradually for the next six weeks that’s VERY different than a warmer region where you can plant out in April or earlier and by April or May it’s 75F+ most days.
For me I want well developed seedlings because I can’t rely on warm weather early. LD… can.
Now… does it matter more if the seedlings are farther along or are we OK fi they’re small but have very full root masses?