Growing tomatoes to planting stage

Growing to planting stage
Tomato plants need as much light as possible, so keep them in a conservatory or on a sunny windowsill (but don’t leave them behind the curtains). On warm, sunny days you can put them outside, but don’t forget to bring them inside at night. Ideal temperatures at this stage are 15°C at night and 20°C minimum during the day.

Growing to planting stage

Tomato plants need as much light as possible, so keep them in a conservatory or on a sunny windowsill (but don’t leave them behind the curtains). On warm, sunny days you can put them outside, but don’t forget to bring them inside at night. Ideal temperatures at this stage are 15°C at night and 20°C minimum during the day.

Your plants may need to stay in their pots for several weeks until the weather is suitable for planting. Space them so the leaves don’t overlap. They may need liquid feeding, especially if you have used seed compost to pot them up (it is usually lower in nutrients than potting compost). Use a proprietary high potash tomato feed made up according to the label recommendations. Typically they will need feeding from about 4th true leaf stage, but if the bottom leaves start to turn yellow or purple, this can be a sign that they are running out of nutrients (purplish tints can also be due to low temperature).

Although you can successfully plant the seedlings directly into the soil, we recommend that you pot them on first.

You will need one pot for every seedling – at this stage allow about 10% extra. Pots with a diameter of 13cm (volume 1 litre) are a good size. You can use the same compost that you used for sowing, but you may need to liquid feed the plants if you are growing them for several weeks in the pots.

Fill the pots to the brim as the compost will settle once it is watered. Make a hole deep enough to take the roots without curling. Plant them so that the cotyledons are just above the surface of the compost. Do not firm them in – water them in gently. Check them every day and give them a light watering as required. Make sure the leaves are dry before evening, as the seedlings are more likely to ‘damp off’ (rot) if they go to bed with wet leaves.