How tall should tomato seedlings be before transplanting

Once your tomato seedlings are sufficiently large inches and all risk of frost has passed in your area, you will need to transplant them to their final home for the rest of the season. This transplanting stage is also necessary if you purchased tomato seedlings from a nursery. Before this stage of transplanting, your tomatoes will need to be hardened off, which will be explained a little further below.

If you are growing tomatoes in pots for the whole season, this stage is also used to describe the process of planting your tomatoes into their final, large pot outside. So you have started your seeds in seedling trays or individual pots and they have successfully germinated. Before you reach the point of transplanting them outdoors there are several waves of repotting that need to happen first. Knowing when your tomato plant is outgrowing its container is a skill best learnt through experience, but a general rule is to transplant tomato your seedlings into a bigger pot when their height is around two to three times the height of their container and have their second pair of leaves.

It is better to pot up tomato seedlings earlier than needed rather than too late when the plant has already started to become rootbound, at which point the likelihood of root damage is greater. In the two or so months that you keep your tomato seedlings indoors before transplanting out to the garden, you should repot them three times. If you work better on a time frame, you can estimate a repotting every three weeks but adjust this schedule as needed.

Transplant your seedling into a container that is 2 inches wider in diameter than the previous pot. Always make sure your pot has excellent drainage and has been sterilized since its last use to prevent the spread of disease.

The best method for unpotting is to place your palm over the top of the soil with the tomato stem poking through two fingers and flipping the container upside down. Avoid handling the stem or yanking on it, as it is a very sensitive part of the plant.

You can lightly press on the bottom of the pot or around the sides to gently massage the soil block out, but be careful not to damage any roots. Place your seedling right side up of course into the new container. If the first node of the plant is sitting too low below the rim of the pot, you can put a little soil at the base to boost the plant up. The first node should be in line with the top of the pot so that as much of the stem can be buried as possible.

Fill in the pot with soil until about 1 inch from the rim while transplanting. Your soil mix should be nutrient rich, have excellent drainage, and be light and fluffy. There is no need to compress the soil or pack it really tightly, as once it is watered the soil will firm up and become more compact. Place your newly transplanted tomato seedling in a location that receives full sun for optimal growth.

Greenhouses are the ideal place for starting seeds and caring for seedlings, but you can keep repotting tomato seedlings indoors even as they get quite large as long as they have grow lights that are continuously adjusted for the height of the plant. Water your tomato seedling thoroughly to help it recover from the shock of transplanting and firm up the soil.

It should be fully saturated until water runs out of the bottom, and then allowed to dry out a little before the next watering. The most important part about this type of transplanting tomato seedlings outdoors is making sure it is warm enough outside, as a cold snap where temperatures drop to zero will almost certainly kill your tomatoes.

About days before you plan to transplant your tomato seedlings, you need to acclimatize them to the outdoors so they are used to temperature fluctuations, wind, rain, and all other weather conditions they would have been sheltered from indoors. The more time you give your seedlings to adjust the better, and the traditional way to harden off is by bringing your seedlings outdoors everyday for two weeks and increasing the amount of time they spend outside by one hour each time.

The first day they should just spend an hour outside, the next day two hour, etc. For the first few days they should be kept in a sheltered spot next to a wall and gradually exposed to more intense conditions like direct morning sunlight and wind. If you are short on time, you can expedite this process by hardening off using a cold frame which should have your seedlings ready for transplanting in just one week.

How long do I keep the heating pad on under my starter tray? They are in our basement where it is usually 64 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit at his time of year, mid April.

Thanking you in advance, John. Hi, John! You can take them off the heat matt now. We usually take them off when all have sprouted or the maximum time for sprouting has passed. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. About Privacy Policy Shop. This post contains affiliate links. Read our privacy policy here. Transplanting Tomato Seedlings There are several reasons why we make the extra effort to start our seedlings in very small containers and repot them at least once before they go out into the garden.

When to transplant tomato seedlings Tomato seedlings are ready to be transplanted when they have their first set of true leaves or at least 2 sets of leaves. Caring for transplanted tomato seedlings After transplanting, continue to care for your seedlings as you did before transplanting.

Hi am Willy, l have started tomatoes growing in one arce of land. How many boxes of tomatoes can I get. The Million Gardens Movement doesn't just help you grow a garden, we're also bringing gardens to kids across the country — and you can help. Learn more at milliongardensmovement. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.

This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and are used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Million Gardens Movement , Plants. By Brian Barth on May 14, Brian Barth.

Find a sheltered place outside where the seedlings can sit in filtered sunlight, out of the wind. One option is to string a shade cloth overhead and on the windward side. Take your tomato seedlings outside and leave them in this protected place for a few hours on day one.

Bring them back inside. On day two, leave them outdoors for a little longer. Continue taking them back and forth each day, leaving them out a little longer each time and slowly increasing their sun exposure by inching them out of the shade. After five or six days of going back and forth, leave the seedlings out overnight for the remaining four or five days. Keep an eye on the weather and bring them in if there is any danger of frost. Soil Preparation The warmer the soil is, the faster they will grow.

Using a Rototiller or a digging fork, loosen the soil to a depth of at least 8 inches. Spread 2 or 3 inches of compost over the surface and thoroughly mix it into the soil.