Starting My Tomato Seeds

Starting My TOMATO Seeds!

Personally, one of my favorites to grow are Tomato! I love fresh tomato. Love it on salads, on a Caprése, in salsa's and more! AND, I love trying to grow and harvest as much as I can during the summer, to make some meals for mid winter, out of my own home grown tomato. Last year, I made a ton of PASTA Sauce for freezing, and canned my own Salsa to serve during those cold winter months.

Tomato come in two basic kinds, Determinate, meaning types of tomato that grow relatively the same height and all the fruit come in at the same time. Think of Roma, and PLUM TOMATO types, like San Marzano. The advantage of these are, a big harvest at one time to make big batches of sauce at once. Indeterminate tomato are varieties that grow, until either the cold and frost gets them, or they die from disease. I plant LOTS of each, and often use some of my indeterminate types for making sauces and salsa's as well!

Most years, I plant Tomato seeds March 15th, for transplanting outside 1st week of may, and a harvest some time around end of June. This year, I am going to try and do TWO plantings of Determinate, Plum Type tomato:

Roma Tomato, and Ukrainian Purple Plum
I started with 8 or 9 of each type of seeds, in some seed starter, on January 22nd. These are growing indoors under LED Grow Lights and on Heat mats, for warming the soil. Eventually, when the seedlings get to big for my grow light shelves, I have an indoor Sunroom wiht LOTS of windows, for growing. The outside temps will most likely be close to planting season, so things should be fine by then, and my Plum Tomato experiment, should allow me to have more tomatos ready sooner, as well as a healthier plant.

By planting indoors, I can take advantage of growing for an additional 2-3 months before my seedlings go outside into cooler soil. Hopefully, the seedlings are healthier and stronger.

I'll also start some more Plum type tomato Seeds, March 15th (6 weeks from now). I will also sow the entire lineup of my TOMATO SEEDS too.

ONCE the Determinate tomato is done growing and fruiting, the plant dies. That means, this first batch of tomato plants will die, probably end of July! I will have another batch of PLUM type tomato for making sauces, already growing and ready for End of August, as well as the rest of the 15 varieties of tomato plants I am sowing in 6 weeks!

Check out the video, and see how I sow my two Plum Tomato Seeds! Please let me know in the comments, do you have FAVORITE TOMATO you grow? Let me know, below! My gardens are in Zone 7a/7b New England.