Tomato Seedling Container Height?
- Thread starter Christian
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2014
- Messages
- 11,488
- Reaction score
- 5,591
- Location
- La Porte Texas
- Hardiness Zone
- 8b
- Country
What determines transplanting is the temperature, both soil and ambient, not transplant size. In a perfect world you would want the largest, most mature transplant you could possibly have but in a tomato transplant beauty contest you don't want the skinny leggy ones, you want the shorter, stockier top heavy ones. All the container does is to keep the soil and roots in one place. Your container should have enough volume to ensure that the plants do not get overly root bound and is easy to maintain proper moisture content. I start my seeds in a flat, prick them out into a 1/2 cup container when they have their first true leaves and if and when they outgrow that I move them into a larger container. Many times a small transplant will catch up and even out grow a large transplant when the soil temperature is optimum. To answer you question yes, a 7" tall cup is a great size and hopefully your transplants need that much soil volume. You will know when you take them out to transplant if your cup was too big or too small by the size of the root system.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2016
- Messages
- 119
- Reaction score
- 22
- Hardiness Zone
- 12b - 13b
- Country
For seedlings almost any container that can remain moistened and warm is good. For grownups, the smaller the container, the more often you will need to water and fertilize them. I've got the best results with tall and not-so-wide containers, say 30cm wide by 50cm depth, pruning the "sucker" branches to control growth and maximize production.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2013
- Messages
- 3,476
- Reaction score
- 1,531
- Location
- Port William
- Showcase(s):
- 1
- Country
3-4" is plenty, in fact, if you want to grow tomatoes in grow bags, which can be VERY successfully done, you don't want any deeper for your seedlings.