Are these ready to be transplanted?
- Thread starter ChelswannabeGT
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First of all, why are you growing 2 tomato plants in the same pot? That will NOT work.
How much longer will it be before you can transplant into the ground. They are ready for their final home but you can postpone transplanting for a limited time. Being a little root bound won't hurt tomatoes in the long run, but for goodness sake snip off the weakest of the two plants. DON'T try to separate them but if you feel you must, wash away all of the soil from around the roots first. As for the pots, neither, one because a 4 gallon bucket is minimal for a permanency and second because peat pots suck. If you want to use a pot that you bury use the ones that are made out of manure.
Got two in there because I didn’t know when to snip the weaker one but I did experiment and separated the roots of one. No wonder all my peat pot seedlings keep dying. Well crap this sucks guess I gotta start over again since I can’t plant outside basically until mid May cus of our cold weather.
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The reason your plants are dying in the peat pots is that they are starving for water. Peat pots have tremendous evaporation. If it were me and had another 6 weeks until transplanting I would snip off the smallest seedling and re-pot into a plastic 1 gallon container. I would also fertilize with a pelleted organic fertilizer mixed into the re-potting mix.
Tomatoes can go out much larger than that. Some of mine are over 2’ by the time I put them outside and they do just dandy. But you should transplant those into bigger containers if you’re gonna have them hanging out another 4 or 6 weeks. I start mine in 1gallon bucket sized pots and transplant outside once.
I just bought some cow pots and snipped the weaker ones gonna transplant into bigger plastic cups. Really annoyed about the peat pots, I don’t get why they are sold everywhere if they don’t work 
( I feel deceived lol.
( I feel deceived lol.
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In 6 weeks time your plants will be at least 2 feet tall, probably closer to 3. The plant will have a large root system so I hope you have really large cups. In 6 weeks a gallon pot will be just about filled with roots and to grow tomatoes successfully they must not stop active growth. You might get away with 1/2 gallon pots but that is iffy. Just remember that tomatoes grow exponentially faster and faster unless they are restricted in some way or reach their maximum size in the case of determinate plants. And you never want to restrict a tomatoes growth in any way if you want production.I just bought some cow pots and snipped the weaker ones gonna transplant into bigger plastic cups. Really annoyed about the peat pots, I don’t get why they are sold everywhere if they don’t work
Peat pots should be banned. I have tried to use them but many times the roots have a very difficult or slow time of growing through the peat. They are also supposed to go away after planting. I have dug them up more or less whole a year later. The reason they are still on the market is because people don't know about them and continue to buy them. The cow pots are much better as they decompose quickly but still have an evaporation problem. When you water you must really saturate the soil when using these things. I don't know if cow pots will last 6 weeks with correct watering. Plastic cells are much better IMO to start seeds and when re-potting plastic is the only way to go, again IMO.
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You can fade their growth back some with less light and by hardening them. They don’t really need 12-16 hours of light when they’ll grow with 8. People say to give them that much because after 10-12 hours all the magic starts happening in terms of plant defenses and growth mechanisms. With experience you can slow their growth down or turn it up, but do it gradually to avoid shock.
You all are awesome thanks.