Posted on June 19, 2009 in latest news
You just love tomatoes and need to have a fresh stock of them always. One of the best ways to ensure that is to grow them indoors.
Here are tips to grow tomatoes indoors
- Decide where to grow your tomatoes. Wherever it is, it shouldn’t be too cold. The temperature in the place should be in the 70s during the day and 60s during night. A table would be helpful, but is not necessary.
- Choose seeds of varieties that are crack resistant. Look for the words patio or container on the seed cover label.
- Germinate the seeds in small pots with seed starter mix. Peat pots are ideal, as they can be managed easily. Keep the mix slightly moist, but not too wet. Put 2 – 3 seeds in each pot. They should sprout in a week.
- You will need grow lights for the success of your tomatoes. Cheap grow lights will do.
- Put your grow lights on for about 12-14 hours a day. The lights should be about one inch over the soil. When the plant starts growing, raise your lights so that they are always about one inch over the plant.
- When the seedlings are 3 inches tall, transplant them into bigger containers. The size of the containers should be atleast 5 gallons. Add new potting soil to the container, dig a hole the size of the peat pot and place the peat pot into the hole. Firm up the soil around the peat pot.
- If more than one seedling has sprouted, remove the smallest ones. Place the stake or dowel rod into the soil, away from the roots of the seedling.
- Start adding the fertilizers at this time.
- Water the plants thoroughly, but not too much. Watch the plant for any weaknesses. If you find them, give the plant water and liquid seaweed. Place a container with a catch pan underneath to remove excess water.
- When the plants start getting yellow blooms, give them phosphorous.
- You need to pollinate the flowers. You can do this by placing an electric toothbrush near the flowers. Do this as long as the blooms keep coming up.
- Your plant needs some support. Remember the stake you placed in the soil? Attach the plant to the stake.
- Now you need to wait for the tomatoes to ripen.
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June 19th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
I’m a newbie and very interested in this. How much floorspace should I dedicate to growing tomatoes?