It’s way early but this was on my mind. The “conventional wisdom” for starting tomatoes was 6-8 weeks before planting, but I find 4-6 is more like it. Any earlier, and I have leggy plays with blooms on then bursting out of their containers before I can plant them. What are your experiences?
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4-6 has always worked out well for me. Even with that, they sometimes get away from me and get a little leggy. Next time that happens, I’m going to try Joe Lamp’l’s trick of snipping the tops and re-rooting them in water. He claims it usually works out better than trying to save the root bound, leggy plants.
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I guess it depends on how much of light you can provide for them. If natural light is an issue I would start it 5-6 weeks before planting outside. If I plan to move them to heated greenhouse or have bright south-east windows and not too high temperature, 8 weeks is just fine. In that case I will use half-gallon pots.
I do mine under an 8-tube HO fluorescent light in a 63 degree basement. However, the light fixture is still over 400 actual watts, so it warms the area underneath to the upper 70s.
Due to plants getting too leggy, I have started tomatoes usually in April. Despite the late start, sometimes they still get that way, because I usually have to wait for the soil to dry out enough in May to plant them. The last three years we have planted out around Memorial Day, and got good crops. If they are too leggy, I just plant them in a deeper hole.
Peppers are a different story, especially the hot ones. I think I’m going to start mine next month, some folks may have already started theirs. I had quite a few super hots that didn’t give me a fully ripened crop last year because I started and planted them too late. Talking about Habs, Ghost Peppers, 7-pots. Still got a bumper crop of red Cayenne and Fish peppers, tho.
Peppers I usually give 10 weeks less it’s an habanero or other chinensis, those need more.
Leggy plants are not a disadvantage. Plant them sideways a couple of inches deep and leave only a few inches above ground. They will root the full length of the buried stem and be even stronger growing.
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That’s true, but since I start them under a grow light, they actually get to the point where they don’t fit under the light anymore.
I plan to start some outside, with protection except when it gets pretty warm, in early April or so. Mother’s Day is planting time here so that’s about 6 weeks.
I typically do mine in February under lights, but I take them off the heat mat once they get their true leaves, and set a small fan to keep air circulating on them. I’m in a warmer zone now, so I may bump that back to March.
If you have a powerful grow light it will keep the plants from getting too leggy. Just keep in mind they will grow wider as well and if you don’t have enough square feet of light they will crowd out each other and get leggy from that.
That said I agree that leggy plants are not necessarily that bad, I grew leggy plants for years and buried all but the tops when planting.
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Here in zone 9b, I always sow seeds in the greenhouse in mid-March, and plant out mid-April unless it’s still cold - would then delay to early May. But you could go later without any major problems. Yes plants get leggy, and crowding them on the greenhouse bench will cause them to elongate even more. Keep plants well spaced on the bench, and use a fan to blow plants to keep them moving gently. This will help them get stocky. If you need to delay planting, take stem cuttings and simply re-pot them…they will all root quickly. I have done hundreds of these and they always work.
April-May, sometimes June. The Spring time weather doesn’t break out of the 60°s here until that time but then our harvest period usually extends through November.
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Depends on the tomato(es), besides your climate and growth conditions. My early ones are cold-hardy or varieties that grow reasonably well at low temperatures. I start the earliest Feb 14, at the beginning of March some more, those that I don’t like transplanting early April. Have growth lights and bottom heat, but haven’t installed or used these yet. Zone 7b.
I start tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds in early March. In late March and early April, I can keep them in garage and move them to morning sun in the morning. I do not transplant them to large pots.
I start my tomato seeds in small peat pots near the end of February on a window shelf in the house. Once they start their second set of leaves i move them out to the unheated greenhouse and set them on heat pads and also cover them with vented plastic domes. When 4 or 5 inches tall i repot them deeply into pint containers then again deeply into gallon pots. Finally into their 7 or 17 gallon homes. Seems like lots of work but im only keeping a dozen or so and sharing the rest.
For having plants flowering to be planted, my calendar is marked for Feb. 14th. I’ll have 12" - 16" plants that are pretty thick in a gallon-sized & fabric-grow-sack with flowers on Mother’s Day/second week of May each year. Some varieties may take a few weeks more to set flowers.
I’ve been using (3) sets of shop lights I wired long ago for LED lights. (2) bulbs per shop light for a total of (6) bulbs.
Just about what I do. My zone 7b-8a says my last freeze is late March. Whatever! Last year it was April 15. Year before was April also. I use a T8 led and still get leggy. Biggest problem for me is hardening off.
Do any of you start a succession of tomatoes so you can have harvests later? I think I planted some store bought small ones around July 1 last year, I’d guess those were started around May. They produced a ton before the last freeze
It also depends on climate. Tomato won’t fruit in hot summer if day temp is 90+ and night temp is 70+. So people in Texas and Florida do two crops and avoid the summer.
Sometimes I dig up volunteer plants in mid or late June. They start to fruit in mid September to frost. I plan to do so next year.