A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Starting tomato plants

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?

DaisyM,
I am not too sure about how to keep them
from getting toooo leggy, other than more light for them...

But with tomato plants, even with a long stem,
you can bury them up to a couple of inches from
the bottom of the leaves...

They'll root any where's along the stem...

Hopefully someone else will come thru and give you some better ideas with the lighting you'll need!!!

Weezie

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!

I think sid hit the nail on the head. YOu need more light. You can buy a CFL (Compact florescent) for $10 at a home depot. It's basically just one of those "energy saving", spiral looking bulbs. Get the brightest one you can, with the daylight spectrum. They work better than florescents. They fatten those babbies up. And keep turning them as much as possible

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 [BLEEP] 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??!

HI BIG BOY!!!!!!!!!!

Want me to send you the URL again!!!

Here's the beauty I got last year for Mommies
Day!!!
Harbor Freight Greenhouse
(on sale still and still no shipping and handling over $50.00!!


Here's a new place I found, haven't ordered from there, but stuff looks pretty good!!

Northern Tool and Equipement (greenhouse\'s)

I'll find the hoop house I have my eyeballs on too!

I found it!!!!
Hoop House Greenhouse Kits.

Weezie

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

Yes, it has, a cold here or there, nothing
toooooo debilitating (**knock on wood)

All has been good as can be, and very patiently waiting for spring...

You know that greenhouse really needs some kind of heat in it...
Gotta find some way of heating it CHEAP!!!

Wish I had room in doors...

How's your tomatoes?
You don't start them yet do you???

My mom wants to get some kind of set~up in her
basement, not sure which way to go, or how big
or how small...

Weezie

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.

Thank you all for the replies. I started my tomato seedlings Mar 16th in the house. We still have snow on the ground. Groan, it's been a long winter... Normally our weather doesn't permit putting them outside until the end of May sometimes. I do have them in a sunny window. I also have overhead florescent lighting, but these lights are near the ceiling and there is no way I can get them closer, so I would have to set up a separate light. I wonder if my tomato's are thin because the room is very warm. My mother in law also grows tomato starters inside and her stems are thicker proabably because her house is a lot cooler. At present they aren't that bad, because they are still small. I usually have a problem in the last 3 weeks or so before setting them out. The neighbours probably laugh at my 2 foot scrawnies. They are hilarious, a long thin stem, with very few branches and leaves.

Will a grow bulb help? Will look into a fish fertilizer. Thanks again

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

Hi Julianna, thanks for the reply. Today I heard on the weather station that Toronto got all the snow. LoL, it's usally us that gets the bad weather, so I have to admit I was a bit surprised. Let's hope that you see the double digits very soon, I know we sure could use them after this long drawn out winter.
Hmm...a fan, why didn't I think of that? I'll have to try it. I usually transplant my tomato's a couple of times before they are set out, with the final size cup being a 7-11 big Gulp or Slurpy cup. Thanks again for the tip.

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

Hey DaisyM,
How's your tomatoes doing??
Very Curious!!!

Weezie

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.

My seeds are still in the package :rolleyes:
Still too cold for the greenhouse......
been tryin' to find something reasonable
in $$ to get a little heater to keep it warm
enough for the nights???
In a week or two I'll be able to I guess.

Watch the yellowing leaves.... this could nothing, as some of the older leaves turn yellow and die off, But it can also be a sign of other disease's..*if you spots on them, let us know*

Weezie

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.. :rolleyes: