When I start out my tomato seedlings indoors, they grow thin and leggy. Is there anyway to keep them growing with a thicker stem and stop them from turning so leggy? I think someone will know what I mean by this. I keep them in a window with lots of sunlight. Should I cut down on the light?

ahhh..nothing like a nice sunny window, so warm and bright hey? but the problem is that the plants will always try and reach the sun. so unless you are roatating them a couple times a day, they end up quite leggy, and this weakens them. i really cannot say enough about a simple tube of flouresent lighting, they grow so amazng under them, and you can put them soo low, so that they are almost touching the light...it is cool enough. if you do this for a min. of 18 hours a day, by the time they are ready to harden off, they will be very very strong. i use this for most of my veggies, flowers and herbs as ihave many many strong ones right now. hope this helps...have fun making babies!

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HAPPINESS is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony. ~ Ghandi

YOu need flourescent tubes of varying light lengths on a timer (12-18 hrs. per day) as close as possible to starting tomato seedlings. Raise the tubes ass the plants grow. Also, a little trick is to keep a small oscillating fan blowing gently across the seedlings. The draft makes the stems stronger . . . kind of like making the plants exercise. Do not overfertilize. Lots of potting or starting soils contain too much fertilizer. A very mild deluted solution of fish emulsion stinks but works great. The long leggy plants you have not can be slowed down but once they get that leggy you are kinda out of luck trying to make them stand up. (excuse me but viagra for tomato plants??) As Weezie said, they will do fine planted in shallow trenches almost to the top. Just be careful when weeding so you don't damage roots. Here in MN, I'll need to wait until April 1 to start maters from seeds. Just got about a foot of snow yesterday. Weezie? Where's that greenhouse you have??!

Thank you, Weezie. I hope you winter was healthy.

I have a tall table but a piece of plywood on sawhorses would be good in the basement. Suspend a couple of tubes of lights very close overhead on adjustable chains with a timer, buy a couple of electric heating pads, place seeded containers under a dome in the heating tray, and wait. When plants emerge, mist w water daily and put an oscillating fan on low some distance away. Once every ten days add some diluted fish emulsion. (it stinks but works well) If I could post a pic, I would. Easy to start 36 to 50 or more plants at a time.

Ciao Daisy and greetings from snowy Toronto. Yessss, we got more snow today, but I heard a rumour that next week things are going to move towards double digits again.

I have tomatoes growing on a picnic table my boyfriend set up in the southeast-facing window of our livingroom. On a warm day, now that most of the plants have their second leaves and are in 2" yogurt containers, I put a fan on them until the sun goes down and it cools off. The fan helps the stems grow fatter and stronger. In addition, if tomatoes are in a warm room, they'll get spindly. I'd suggest you pot them up into taller cups, like 16 oz plastic beer cups, the kind you get at a keg party. That will tell the plants to focus on making roots along the stem. Doing that and putting the fan on will slow things down somewhat. Also, when you put the fan on, you just want a little breeze, enough to make the leaves flutter, but not Hurricane Andrew.

Good luck,
Julianna

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No worries, Daisy

It's currently 11C and weather people are calling for some form of rain tomorrow afternoon, so I'm heading over to party packers to hunt for cheap dixie cups. I need to augment my yogurt cup supply as there is no way we're going to keep up with seedling needs.

So far, the forecast is calling for at least partial sun and no rain/snow for the weekend..crossed fingers because my raised beds are pleading to have their soil turned over and augmented.

Your babies should be much happier in deeper containers. They'll grow wonderful strong roots all the way up their stems. Just bury them all the way up to their seedling leaves and don't over-fertilize. If you go the fish emulsion route, dilute to 1/4 strength. Maters get sick on too much nitrogen.

Good luck,
Julianna

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Gosh, I'm not really sure, but thanks for asking. LoL, they are still alive! Yeh! A couple of them have leaves on the bottom which are turning yellow. I haven't overwatered so I'm not sure why. The rest of them aren't too bad, but then again they are still small. Lets see, a month and a half before they go out in the garden, so they do have some serious growing to do. We had a couple of nice warm days, so I put them outside in a box with plastic covering the top, so they wouldn't go into shock. How are yours doing? Wish me luck, as I wish all of you luck with yours.

Hey Daisy,
Was going thru the tomato posts today,
and came acrossed yours..............
Hows' the tomatoes doing???

Heck, I'm still planting some of my volunteers..
Geeshhhhh, I should be getting tomatoes by snow fall..

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Weezie

Don't forget to be kind to strangers. For some who have
done this have entertained angels without realizing it.
- Bible - Hebrews 13:2





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