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This is the 1st part in a two part post on sowing tomato seeds over the Easter weekend. So if you’ve not grown tomato plants from seed before but would like to have a go then this is Tomato Lover’s easy Easter how to guide.
Today’s post is a list of what you’ll need and tomorrow’s a step by step guide on sowing the seeds. I’ll be planting my seeds on Saturday and will continue to write ‘what next’ posts as the seeds germinate and start their journey towards being tomato producing plants !
These are the items you’ll need :
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Tomato seeds (5 to 10 seeds depending on how many containers you want to sow)
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Compost
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Container – 10cm or 7.5cm pot or ¼ seed tray
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Labels/Pen
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Tepid water
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Roasting tray or similar ( to hold water)
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Cling film or polythene bag (the loose fruit and veg type from the supermarket is fine)
Seeds
As tomato lovers we want to be enjoying home grown tomatoes as soon as and for as long as possible.
Given the timings, to achieve this, choose a smaller sized tomato. In my list of top 5 home grown tomatoes there are 2 cherry sized varieties. Gardeners Delight and Sungold. Both delicious, sweet cherry tomatoes.
However both are cordons or indeterminates. In tomato speak this means as they grow they’ll need supporting and pinching out.
If you’re hoping for a more compact ‘plant and pick’ tomato. Something to grow in a tub, patio pot or from a hanging basket then other small fruited tomatoes to consider would be varieties of the bush or determinate type. Especially those described as dwarf or trailing dwarf. Tumbler, Garden Pearl (sometimes referred to as Gartenperle), Balconi and Totem are all varieties to look out for.
Compost
To date I’ve sown my seeds in seed compost but earlier this week I was having a good read of the backs of the multipurpose compost packs in the garden centre and they certainly all cite seed sowing as one of those many purposes! So if you’re planning on only sowing a few seeds it would seem to make sense to get a small bag of multipurpose compost and then continue to use it for filling the larger pots as the plants grow.
Container
Either a 10 or 7.5 cm flower pot or ¼ seed tray ( 20cm long ) .
All of these can hold 5 seeds each.
(If you have compost or containers left over from last year you might want to think about sterlizing before use to prevent Damping off disease . Click here for more information )
Labels
Again if you’re only planting a few seeds then you can fashion your own labels from cut up yoghurt pots or similar.
So that’s what you’ll need. Tomorrow I’ll post on how to sow the seeds.
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Great stuff, I just bought some seeds (herbs, peppers and, of course, tomotoes) and a giant bag. Got home and googled “tomato alicante growing uk” and found your site.
By the sounds of it I’d better sow my seeds this weekend! Here’s hoping for tomato growing success.
Hello Nick. Welcome to Tomato Lover. Thank you for getting in touch. With the weather this weekend sowing tomato seeds is a leap of imagination and faith! Sun – what sun ? But hopefully come the summer when we are picking and eating our own we won’t be able to remember the cold start 2009 got off to !
Sally