Tomato seeds

[Garder Newbie]

Hi everyone,

I'm totally new to gardening. I bought some organic potting soil from Gardener's Supply and I have some Tomato seeds, can I plant these directly into potting soil and place outside. I'm in the Bay area in CA, so it only drops to about 45F most nights?

Will this work?

 

[zigs]

Welcome to the forum

Keep the seedlings indoors till the weather warms up as Tomatoes don't like anything below 10C, the plants just stall.

 

[BoPeep75]

I am in Tennessee, but I put my tomato seedlings out for as much sun as they can get in the daytime and then bring them in at night, even if it’s in the 40s or 50s just because things could change and also it can get kind of windy here. If it’s windy and wet, it makes it feel much colder than it actually is.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I am in Tennessee, but I put my tomato seedlings out for as much sun as they can get in the daytime and then bring them in at night, even if it’s in the 40s or 50s just because things could change and also it can get kind of windy here. If it’s windy and wet, it makes it feel much colder than it actually is.

Keep them 70f if possible. Maybe get a heat mat? Google for lists of germination temps for veggies.

 

[Luther Heggs]

I'm a new tomato gardener as well, appreciate all the questions and answers.

 

[Chuck]

I'm a new tomato gardener as well, appreciate all the questions and answers.

One thing most tomato gardeners fail to understand or take into consideration when planting tomato seedlings is soil temperature. No matter the ambient temperature, it can be 70F+, if the soil temp at root depth is below 60F the seedling will either fail to grow or grow very slowly and can possibly stunt the plant. 65F and up is the ideal soil temp. One should invest in a good soil thermometer as most all vegetables require a certain soil temp to either germinate seeds or grow from seedlings.

 

[Luther Heggs]

One thing most tomato gardeners fail to understand or take into consideration when planting tomato seedlings is soil temperature. No matter the ambient temperature, it can be 70F+, if the soil temp at root depth is below 60F the seedling will either fail to grow or grow very slowly and can possibly stunt the plant. 65F and up is the ideal soil temp. One should invest in a good soil thermometer as most all vegetables require a certain soil temp to either germinate seeds or grow from seedlings.

thanks, I've been doing a ton of research. I bought a plastic window sill peat pellet thing, and it's worked great so far. I'd heard that heirlooms would difficult to grow, and while I'm a long way off from getting tomatoes, there were 12 pellets and all of the seeds have sprung up. It's been exciting to watch.

I'm going to have 4 in those bag planters with handles so I can move them in and out till it's warm enough to leave them out, a month of so from now.

The others will be in smaller pots I'm giving to my neighbor and friends. Don't have enough room to plant all 12, but maybe I'll find room for a couple more.

 

[headfullofbees]

It's not that heirlooms are difficult to germinate; I've found that open=pollinated varieties have a better rate than hybrids.
The real problem with heirloom tomatoes is lack of disease resistance, which can only partially be mitigated with the use of trichoderma and aspirin.