Well today we're going
to talk about planning tomatoes from seed indoors. If you're a beginning
gardener and have always wanted to plant
tomatoes from seed but are intimidated
to do so, there's no reason to be intimidated. It's super easy, it's
quick, and most of the time you could use materials
that you already have around your own house. The big advantage that I like
about starting my tomatoes from seed is that I could
plant many different varieties, many different heirloom organic
varieties, that you wouldn't find at your normal
big box store when you go to pick up those
little tomato plants starts. So I would highly recommend it. And you get some wonderful,
different colored, wonderful tasting
tomatoes when you start your plants from seed. So here's what we're
going to do today. I'm going to plant about
50 varieties of tomatoes this year. Most of the tomatoes
I'm starting from seed are plants that I've
gotten-- or seeds that I've gotten over the years
for Baker Creek Seed Company. But I am going to plant
some new varieties to me this year that some viewers
were generous enough to send me seeds for. These are from a Charm City
Balcony Gardens Channel. She shared these seeds
with me and I'm really excited to grow them. If you haven't checked
her channel out please go and do so. She's got a great channel
on container gardening and she plants
some amazing things in containers, so
definitely check her out. The other couple of varieties
that I'm going to plant are from Praxxus from
his seed giveaway, which I know many of you
probably participated in as well. And he sent some great
seeds out this year and I also have a
packet left over from last year, which is my
very favorite tomato so far. It's a Yellow Cherry. It's super sweet and delicious. So I'm really excited to
get these seeds started. Let me show you
how to get started. What I like to do is plant them
in these little red Solo cups. Now If you don't already
have these around your house you can buy a fairly large size
pack at Target for around $4. You get them anywhere,
Walmart, wherever you happen to see these. Costco for a
super-duper big pack if you want to plant
a whole lot of seeds. But how I like to
start is by, of course, putting a drainage
hole in the bottom. Very important that you
have adequate drainage for your plants. So, super simple. You take a nail, you take
a hammer of some kind, and you simply pound
a hole in the bottom and there you have it. So easy it couldn't be easier. So then next you want to fill
your cup about 3/4 of the way full with soil. So I'm going to go
ahead and fill this up. And I fill this up
about 3/4 of the way full because I am going
to add soil to this cup as the tomato seed grows. The reason why I do
this is because tomatoes will put down roots wherever
their stems touch the soil. So as they grow I will
add soil to the cup, the tomatoes will put
down roots along the stem, and the tomato plant
will be nice and strong before I transplant
it out in the garden. So now for the seeds. The first seed I'm
going to plant, and I am super excited
about these tomatoes. I've heard so much about these. They're wonderful tomatoes. They're the San Marzano variety. And I'm really
excited to plant these because I make a ton
of spaghetti sauce out of my tomatoes. And from what I have
heard the San Marzano is one of the best
tomatoes-- tasting tomatoes-- for spaghetti sauce. So I'm super excited to grow
these for the first time this year in my garden. So all you need to do is pour a
couple of seeds into your hand. And I'm going to plant about
four seeds in each little cup. You can see these seeds
are super, super tiny. All you need to do
is-- where's my nail? Is make a little indentation. I just like to plant two seeds
on either side of the cup. And that way you hope that
one of them germinates. Usually I'll get two or
three germinating per cup. And then I can just take
the strongest seedling and plant that one
out in the garden. OK. I just dropped my two
little seeds into each hole. Going to cover them up there. And let me put these extra
seeds back in the envelope. And then how I
like to water them is I have this
water bottle here, which I have filled with water. And I have uncapped it and
let it sit for about 24 hours. And the reason why I
do that is because it allows all the chlorine to
evaporate out of the water. And it's a lot better
for your plants if you're not putting
chlorine onto them. So then what I do is I cap
it, and this is so handy, you can leave it right
next to your seedlings. And I've taken this
nail and I just pound about three holes
it right into the lid. And it makes a
little handy waterer, your own little watering
bottle for your plants. And then you can see it
just waters it real gently. Get it nice and moist. OK. The next thing
you're going to want do is definitely label the
tomato variety you planted. Because if you're planning
a lot of varieties, like me, you're not going to remember. So I'm just going to write
on my cup San Marzano. And I like to write the
date on here because-- oops, it's February. Because I like to see how
quickly they germinate. And that way it lets me know
when I can put them outside, as well. So I'm going to set this here
in this reflective aluminum foil baking pan. Maybe have some these around
your house as well like I do. And I'm going to go ahead
and get this pan planted out with the red Solo cups,
and we'll be right back. OK. I've got my tomatoes seeds
started in my red Solo cups here in this aluminum foil pan. And one thing I
forgot to mention at the beginning of the video,
which is very important, is when to start
your tomato seeds. Now I like to start mine about
eight weeks before I'm going to put them out in the garden. And you want to make sure
you check your last frost date in your area and start them
about eight weeks before that. But it's important not only to
look at your last frost date but what the average
temperature is at nighttime around
that time of the year we're going to be getting
them into the ground. For example, I'm going
to plan on planting these in the ground around April 1. Now we really don't
get much frost around here except for
very light frost. But around April 1 is when
the nighttime temperatures start being around
50 degrees or higher. And tomatoes need
warmer weather at night. And so that's a really good
time to go ahead and get them planted into the ground. So the seedlings will
grow and sprout probably in about a week or so. But until they do I'm
going to make a little mini greenhouse here out of a
couple of pieces of Saran wrap. And all I'm going to do is
just fold the Saran wrap up over this aluminum foil pan. And that will keep the
moisture and the temperature high underneath here, and
will help these little seeds germinate just a
little bit quicker. So let me show you are where
I'm going to put this tray now to help my seeds germinate. Let's go into the kitchen. OK. I like to put my tray of seeds
on top of the refrigerator until they germinate with my
little mini greenhouse cover here. Because it tends to be a
little bit warmer on top of the refrigerator and
I just think it kind of helps them along a little bit. Plus it just gets
them out of my way. So there we have it. Take about a week for
them to germinate. As soon as they germinate
you want to definitely take this cover off because otherwise
they will get too hot and die. Now let me show you
where I like to put them after the germinate. Well, a lot of people
use indoor grow lights or an indoor grow
room for their seedlings. And I don't have any grow lights
so I just use what I have, and that's my south
facing window. This windows gets a ton of
sun, maybe 8 hours a day. So this is where I keep
all of my seedlings until they're
ready to go outside into my mini greenhouse. And these tomatoes actually
started on the 15th of January, which is about two weeks ago. They're already doing very well. So that's all there is to it. It's quick, simple,
inexpensive way to start your tomato
seeds indoors. So thanks a lot for watching
and we'll see you next time.