Raised garden beds are an excellent way to grow all kinds of vegetables, especially if you have limited space or poor soil quality, and growing tomatoes in raised beds is a great way to get bumper crops each year. But when I was building my first raised garden bed back in 2016, I wasn’t sure…
Like most gardeners, I want to grow the biggest, most productive tomato plants each year, but in order to do so, I’ve learned to pay close attention to the transplanting and repotting process. If you transplant your tomato seedlings too early, you risk damaging their fragile root systems. If you transplant them too late, you’ll…
One of the most challenging things about growing plants from seed is making sure your soil stays warm enough and moist enough to encourage high rates of germination. Heat mats are an easy solution when it comes to keeping soil warm–or waiting until it’s appropriately warm outside to direct sow your seeds–but it’s difficult to…
Have you ever planned out your garden, then realized you weren’t exactly sure how many plants you needed to feed yourself and your family? When I was a beginning gardener, I remember times when I either underestimated or overestimated how many plants I needed in my garden, particularly tomato plants. I love tomatoes, and I…
When it comes to growing tomatoes from seed, the most important thing you can do is to make sure you’re giving your seeds and seedlings the appropriate amount of water in an appropriate way at an appropriate time. The goal is to water them just enough to encourage germination and healthy growth but not so…
One of the easiest mistakes to make when you’re relatively new to growing tomatoes from seed is to overcompensate and water them too much. If you’ve ever done this, you know what happens next. The water saturates the seed cell and either runs off the top or pools below, and the soil turns into a…
If you’re relatively new to growing your own tomatoes from seed, you’ve probably heard how essential warmish soil is to good germination rates. Cold soil will encourage seed dormancy since seeds are genetically programmed to remain inert during the winter, which is why it’s important to germinate tomato plants in soil that’s at least 65…
If you’ve decided to grow your tomato plants from seed this year—instead of purchasing seedlings at your local garden center—you’ll need to find some quality seeds, but more importantly, you’ll want to get the very best germination rates possible. This is why heat mats are a must-have for anyone growing tomatoes from seed. Heat mats…
If you’re planning to grow tomatoes this year, you might have wondered whether it’s better to buy tomato plants or grow your own. Maybe you’ve walked into a garden center or your local home improvement store and seen their potted tomato plants. Or maybe you’ve glanced at the websites of various seed supply companies, wondering…
If you’ve ever grown tomatoes from seed, you know how much fun it can be. You select the exact varieties you want to grow, you put the seeds in the soil, and you wait for those tiny seedlings to emerge. Unfortunately, some seeds won’t germinate no matter how hard you try, so in order to…