Tomato seedlings - greenhouse or keep indoors?

[bridget mc laughlin]

HI potter , I have sown my tom seeds in early january, I keep them on my dining table as all the rest of my windowsills are full with seedlings.

[gardenplot]

I have just started mine off in house on window sill, will keep indoors till frost over about mid- may. then re-plant in grow bags in greenhouse.

[vegnut]

My understanding of this is if your tom seedlings grow leggy through poor light, and you are able to keep them alive. Then you will lose the first truss of toms, they won't flower.
Also fluctuations of temperature during the day & night are critical to the survival of toms. More so than any other seedling Aparently. So i wouldn't want to set them outside during the day, even in full sun this time of year, then bring them back inside for the night. Don't quote me on this. This is what i have heard in the past. I'll sow mine in late march, they always catch up and grow stronger.

[Vecten]

Tomatoes root from the stem so they can be planted up to the bottom leaves which will lose their legginess, although as vegnut says they may lose the lower truss. I sowed mine on December 29th but then I try to keep the greenhouse at around 50F. They are ready for final potting now.

[veg4681]

Tomatoes root from the stem so they can be planted up to the bottom leaves which will lose their legginess, although as vegnut says they may lose the lower truss. I sowed mine on December 29th but then I try to keep the greenhouse at around 50F. They are ready for final potting now.

You're new, welcome to the vine Vecten. I had a bit of legginess on few tomatoes or they were too young/tender seedlings straight from the heated propagator soon after they germinated so I either rebury them deeply or earth up in pots that wasn't filled high enough. I think the legginess was something you would have still got for later sowing and it's normal to rebury them deeply.

[Vecten]

Hi, thanks for the welcome

Yes, I don't have problems with legginess which indicates to me that there is enough light around in December for tomatoes, you just have to make the most of it.

I sow in December in a heated propogator in the greenhouse, take off the lid as soon as they germinate then grow on the seedlings with bottom heat. Mid January they go onto the bench in the greenhouse heated to 10 deg C. Mid February they are ready for their final pots. I should be eating tomatoes when most people are sowing theirs.

Seedlings sown on windowsills will not get enough light and they will be leggy, even if sown in March, it's unavoidable.

I think the fiver a week needed to heat a greenhouse for 3 months is great value. The pleasure I get from sowing early toms, peppers, cucumbers, greens, potatoes and salad crops at the bleakest time of the year more than compensates.