Growing Tomatoes From Seed: What You Need To Know

Growing tomatoes from seed is always profitable if it’s appropriately done and well taken care of.

If there’s anything that motivates gardeners to take up growing tomatoes from seed, it’s the desire to reduce costs, save money and the certainty of planting the right tomato seedlings.

Planting tomato seedlings usually takes place during the latter part of April or early May for the spring crop and in mid-July for the fall crop.

Literally, there are hundreds of tomato varieties available on the market, only a few are suitable for growing tomatoes from seed.

Let’s discuss in turn what you need to know if you plan on growing tomatoes from seed.

Seed Variety Decision

When it comes to making decisions on seed variety, tomatoes are either determinate, meaning short internode grape tomato, or indeterminate, meaning vine-like.

Determinate varieties are usually grown in a pot or tomato cage as determinate tomatoes tend to ripen more closely together.

On the other hand, indeterminate varieties need a trellis to maximize outputs, also tomatoes on indeterminate vines ripen at different times.

Most tomato growers decide on tomato seed variety selection based on yield, fruit size, usage, uniformity, disease resistance, lack of physiological disorders, tastes, or the market demand for the type of tomato grown.

Popular varieties of tomato seeds you can plant include heirloom tomatoes, hybrid seeds, Roma tomato types, cherry tomato types, greenhouse type or beefsteak tomatoes, and many more.

Generally, tomatoes come in a variety of colors such as white, green, purple, pink, or dark.

Here are some popular tomato seed brands you may want to choose to plant; Brandywine, Pruden’s Purple, Peacetime Cherry, Mr. Stripey, Stupice, Moskvich, Green Zebra, and German Johnson.

Seed Treatment

Seed treatment is usually desirable before planting to minimize or eradicate common tomato disorders.

To minimize the occurrence of common disorders of tomatoes such as bacterial canker, bacterial spot, and bacterial speck, treat your tomato seed with chlorine.

If your tomato seeds have not been treated by the seed company, or in case, you pick up tomato seeds from tomatoes, dip the seed in a solution containing one quart of bleach, four quarts of water with one-half teaspoon of surfactant for just one minute.

Then, wash the seed in running water for 5 minutes and dry seed thoroughly before planting.

Plant your tomato seeds in nursery trays, or stocky containers up to 3 inches.  

If you are using a nursery bed, tomatoes grow well when the soil is plowed 8 to 10 inches deep to produce an appropriate plant bed.

Planting Tomato Seedlings and Ground Culture

Planting tomato seedlings is the next step after proper variety selection, a well-drained soil is the most desirable for growing tomatoes from seed.

Tomatoes are a warm weather crop that thrives so long they are provided with adequate water, and sufficient levels of sun and heat.

If you’re growing tomatoes from seed that are determinate varieties, space your tomato seedlings in rows 4 to 5 feet apart with plants 15 to 24 inches apart in the row.

If you’re planting indeterminate varieties, plant them in wire tomato cages, space your tomato seedlings in rows 5 to 6 feet apart with 24 to 36 inches apart in the row.

When transplanting, apply half a pint of starter fertilizer to each plant.

Alternatively, you can mix a tablespoon of garden gypsum into the soil before planting, this will help prevent the occurrence of blossom end rot in your tomatoes.

Pruning Tomatoes

Pruning aids achieving the optimum balance between vegetative growth and fruit production.

Proper pruning results in earlier maturity, fewer fruits that are larger and easier to harvest.

Without appropriate pruning, it will lead to a heavy load of smaller fruit, because the more vegetative growth tomato plants produce, the more fruit clusters, the smaller the fruit, and the later it will ripen.

Also, too much vegetation exposes your tomato plants to delay maturity and disease conditions.

Start pruning when suckers are 2 to 4 inches long. Do not prune your tomato plants when they are wet to avoid spread of diseases.

It should be noted that determinate varieties of tomato seeds do not require extensive pruning or a trellis.

Given good agricultural practices, indeterminate tomato plants will grow well without impediments.

Staking Tomatoes

Staking tomatoes is a practice of using wooden stakes and twine woven around the stakes to provide support and to train tomato plants to grow off the ground.

Staking enhances fruit quality by keeping plants off the ground, provides better spray coverage and easy harvesting.

Set up a stake of 4 to 4.5 feet long by 1-inch square, drive it into the soil about 12 inches between the plants.

Select twine that is weatherproof and binds well to the wooden stakes.

Fertilizer Application

Growing tomatoes from seed requires efficient fertilizer application. It’s highly advisable that you do a soil test prior to planting, this will enable you to determine fertilizer needs.

Apply lime if there’s a need to adjust soil pH to 6.5, then follow it with enough supply of N, P2, O5, and K2 O according to descriptions in the attached table.

The first soluble fertiliser application should be applied within a week after transplanting the tomatoes.

This will be followed with continuous fertigating until the last harvest.

Weed, Pest and Disease Control

Weed can be controlled with periodic hoeing because tomatoes are planted with wide spacing.

Diseases of tomatoes include ripe rot, bacterial canker, fusarium wilt, powdery mildew, early and late blight, bacterial speck and mosaic viruses, etc.

Sound means of controlling diseases include crop rotation, sanitation, and maintenance of adequate sprays of both bactericides and fungicides.

A sample fungicide spray schedule is attached below.

On crop rotation, you can check out our post on Plants to grow with tomatoes.

Harvesting Tomatoes

Harvesting tomatoes is straightforward, harvest your tomato when you notice its developed maximum colour for its variety when it hasn’t become soft.

Grab your tomatoes in the hand with the thumb and forefinger against the stem, to remove the fruits from the stem.

Tomatoes are very fragile and can be easily damaged, hence they are to  be handled with care when picking, sorting, packing and hauling.

You may decide to harvest your tomato for personal consumption or for commercial purposes.

For personal consumption, tomatoes harvested a little early will continue to ripen indoors. You can keep them in a closer paper at room temperature.

You may decide to dehydrate, can, and even freeze your tomatoes after washing and drying them.

Tomatoes harvested for commercial purposes need to be sorted or graded before going to market.

You have to pack them in the type and size container that fits market requirements. Uniformity in size, color, and quality are desirable features for the easy marketing of tomatoes.

Interestingly, we have come to an end as regards what you need to know about growing tomatoes from seed.

Find time to read our post on Plants to grow with tomatoes to widen your horizons on tomato cultivation.