Planting Tomato Seeds Indoors

Planting tomatoes from seeds is an economical and fun way to get tomato plants into your garden. Of course you can buy ready plants but it is much more satisfying to get tomato plants from seeds and be part of the process from day one. This is especially satisfying if you are using seeds that you saved yourself.

Another fun part is that you can start gardening much sooner since you can plant the seeds indoors months before you can actually put them in your garden.

Materials Needed
Soda cups
Tomato seeds
A nail and hammer (optional)
Water bottle
Soil
Marker (optional)
Saran wrap


Directions for Planting Tomato Seeds
1. Make a whole at the bottom of each cup that you will be using for planting. This is so the water can drain. You never want your plants to be sitting in water.

2. Fill your cup with soil about 3 quarters of the way. This is a great trick to strengthen the plant once it starts growing. Tomato plants put down roots when they soil. As the plant starts growing you can fill up your cup with more soil to encourage the tomato plant to put down more roots and strengthen the plant for when it is replanted in the soil.

3. Make 4 wholes in the soil with your nail.

4. Pour some tomato seeds from the seed packets into your hand. If you got more than four, put the rest back in the packet. Put one seed in each whole you made. The reason we use 4 seeds in each cup is to increase our odds that we will get seeds that germinate. We only need one good plant for each planter. If more than one germinates, we will be able to select the best plant and thin out the rest.

5.Cover the seeds lightly with soil.

6. Using your nail and hammer, make 3-4 holes in the cap of the water bottle. Fill it up with water and recap the bottle. Use the water bottle to water the seeds. The holes in the cap will allow you water the seeds gently.
Tip: Leave the water in your bottle for 24 hours before you water your seeds. This will allow the chlorine to evaporate. You don't want chlorine on your plants or seeds.

7. Label the cup with the tomato variety you planted. You can also mark the date you planted the seeds.

8. Put all your cups on a tray and cover them up with saran wrap. This will create a DIY greenhouse. A good place to put them while waiting for the seeds to germinate is on top of your refrigerator.


Enjoy and let us know in the comments how you did. Quick Video Description: Start your tomato plants indoors using seeds a cup and soil.

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Category: Tomato

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