When to Pot Up (Repot) and Transplant Tomato Seedlings
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- čas přidán 22. 03. 2022
- Have you ever wondered how much difference correctly timing the major milestones in your seedlings' lives really makes? I have! Let’s take a look at how when you pot up (repot) and outside nighttime temperature impact the growth of tomato seedlings.
Potting up is an important step in the care of some warm weather vegetables like tomatoes and peppers. It's often done around the the time the seedlings is 2-3 inches tall or has a full set of true leaves.
Transplanting should always be done in accordance with a well-vetted planting calendar, but there is a major difference between planting as soon as the seedling won't die from from vs. planting when they'll thrive.
To illustrate, we compare growth (height, foliage, stem thickness, color) across four difference tommy toe tomato plants grown in preparation for the 2022 growing season.
Check out the video for a fun comparison and a few easy takeaways for your garden this year. And as always, happy planting!
Written article version of this video if you'd rather read than watch: nextdoorhomestead.com/blog/ho...
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There is no reason this video shouldn’t have a million views. Quality is awesome, hope your channel blows up soon!
What a lovely thing to say! Thank you Brittny, I'm so so happy you enjoyed it - this was a fun one to make =)
And lots more to come this year!
I love this comment so much =).
I get a lot of feedback that there's too much info/talking in my videos. I think I'll just call it nuance from now on!
More informative than 20 other videos I've watched. CZcams is just oversaturated with tomato videos. Just search growing tomatoes. This channel will blow up once the algorithm sees what we do. :)
In the whole world there are less than million people who seed tomatoes. 😊
Very informative thanks one thing the one you left outside was potted very small you showed it only had one true leaf at this stage the root is really thin and weak and easily damaged this could have led to the stunnted growth apart from temp
I love objective data rather than "opinion". Thankyou for taking the trouble to run this mini experiment so we have empirical evidence to make our decisions. You wont believe how many books and YT videos I've scoured to find reliable information like this.
Thank you for the kind words! You know, I keep trying out this same experiment (meaning, putting out a few tomato seedlings early) and the results just blow me away. The differential this year appears to be even bigger and the only real difference is one group gets brought in at night and on cold days. It's just huge how much of a negative impact temps below 50 (or some threshold around there) makes.
Anyhow, cheers and best of luck in the garden this year!
thanks mate. i learned something now :D and yes i actualy have few plant outside in shiny spot and one inside and that inside one is twice bigger.
It's always wild to me what a huge difference it makes!
Repoting ASAP - thanks for this, thanks for the articles and science-y bits ❤
No problem! Best of luck with your tomato starts =)
Such a fun process^^
Thank you tremendously! I love to see results *with a timeline* of events, not merely a video showing one particular step. I have tomato seedlings in a 72 cell tray myself right now, so this info is awesome to help me. It is my first time trying that.
Loved this video. Learned so much. Wish I saw this a month ago when I started my seedlings. I'm just now transplanting. Lol, now I know. I'll start some new seedlings tomorrow with your tips and hope I get the same results, thank you!
I'm so glad it was helpful Jessica! If you have a long season, there is still pleeeeeenty of time to grow another round. I normally add some extra nightshades in mid season too 😁
Best of luck!
I wish I had found your video a few months ago! No matter; the next time I grow tomatoes, I will be able to apply this new information. I waited much too long to transplant in the past. Lots of plants are more forgiving, and will eventually grow through their "rootboundedness", but it seems tomatoes are permanently stunted. The nighttime temperatures tip makes perfect sense, and I was literally thinking about this last night. I decided to harden off my seedlings during the day only for now, and bring them in at night, and then I watched your video, and I'm confident I made the right decision. Thank you for the concise and very useful video!
You are most welcome! And thank you for sharing such an insightful comment =)
I have absolutely found it necessary to bring in tomatoes at night during hardening off, so I think you made a good call!
Thats what hardening off is. You always bring them inside at night. Just putting them out night and day is just planting them out. Hardening them off you take them inside during high heat and out of direct sunlight in the mdiday as well as bringing them inside at night. Unless you have a cold frame and you can leave them in there just fine ...
This year I noticed the same thing with my tomato seedlings. I work at a greenhouse operation where we seed & grow trays of tomatoes, peppers, and watermelon for farmers. I seeded some personal tomatoes in a 105 tray. Long story short I found a volunteer tomato plant (THS44) in a separate greenhouse growing in a pepper tray and decided to put it in a small pot similar to yours and grow it out for a week or two before planting it in my garden. I put it in the same greenhouse as my other tomatoes in the same soil mix, getting the same fertilizer, sunlight, heat, etc. and the one in the pot TOOK off. It was getting 10/12/26 fertilizer which is what we use for watermelons so that definitely gave it a boost but so were the plants in the 105 tray. Now that plant has been in my garden for a week or two and it is still continuing to put on growth faster than all the other tomatoes which weren't potted up. I still have some in the 105 tray and instead of planting them directly into the ground I'm going to re pot them given this new knowledge.
Wow, thank you for sharing - I find these kinds of stories fascinating! It sounds like you have a lot of experience looking at seedlings ;)
Can I ask if your 10-12-26 fert is a custom mix or purchased commercially? I don't think I'm familiar with any products in that ratio.
Cheers!
@@NextdoorHomestead Yes it is a custom blend. From what I’ve seen it’s actually quite good for tomatoes assuming you want your plants to grow fast. Canopies branch out well, the roots are vigorous, and the stem is beefy. Of course it would be especially beneficial to pot up with the plants being fed that much. Also I forgot to mention this but I found a second tomato plant in a 288 cell pepper tray (a different tray but from the same seeding therefore they were the same age) and planted it in my garden that same day and it’s not growing very fast. It’ll eventually grow and be perfectly fine but it will definitely be delayed.
And you’re correct I have spent countless hours looking at millions of seedlings lol. I’m there every step of the way from seeds in a bag/bucket to millions of lush & healthy plants. Over 100,000 individual trays a year with cell sizes ranging from 72, 105, 288, and 338. Obviously growing that amount of plants we grow in the smallest cell size we can to maximize space. If we seeded everything in say 36 cell trays we’d need like 100x more greenhouse space. Since we’re growing them in greenhouses we can start before the last frost and have them ready for the field around 150-190 days before the first fall frost.
My overall assessment is that potting up speeds up growth and makes the plants transplant better. They seem to establish and start spreading their roots faster. When I was about to plant my tomato in the ground and removed it from the pot I noticed larger yet less dense roots on my re-potted plant and they fully held the soil intact. That’s usually my way to tell if a plant is ready for the ground; when its roots have fully enveloped the soil and you can pull it out and the soil plug is a perfect mold of the container. Makes it easier to plant and tells you that the plant is ready for a bigger home.
@@Acaidiathx for your story, i am now on that problem, idk why my seedling just thin and tall, had leaves but need 30+ days to make it 3 :c. I saw many tomato videos that are under 30 alr bulking, but why mine not??
Then i found this video and your story, rly thx for u guys.. i thinl i would make it this way, re-pot with new mix-soil then after a bit bulking, the time to move it out ✊✊..
I grow outdoors. Even my seedling area is outdoors. In the tropics btw. I use a long deep pot to plant several seeds. Add soil as they grow. Your information is so accurate. I do have a large tree covering most of my "open greenhouse." I just slowly move them (right) to the place that gets more sunlight as they grow. Always sunny here. Always. Lol. I'm lazy to pot up. It might not be ideal but it works for me. Might try potting up in the future.
"in the tropics" you say!?! Try Canada, you spoiled SOB (just teasing, jealous really!).
Thank you. I have been searching for a video or website to answer these questions. Great video and information.
So glad it was helpful Gerald. We've got another one on planting tomatoes/peppers/eggplants for tomorrow if that's what you're working on =)
Cheers!
Great video! Love the scientific rigor and breakdown.
Yes! Thanks for stopping by and glad you liked this style. I need to make some more "experiment" videos =)
Thank you so much for this video!!
Absolutely fantastic information and I learned so much. Thank you!
Perfect =) Such a nice thing to read - thanks for taking the time to share a kind word!
Ive learned frm a 80 year old nursery man that tomatogrowth is determined by te constant temperature of60 degrees or better at night in green house fr the growing action of te plant does not stop and restart in fluxuating temperatures so larger nd greener plants wt a constant temperature above 60 degrees
It's a really important note! We gardeners focus a lot of frost dates and not enough on nighttime low temperatures!
Beginner gardener here lol when you said big tomatoes and small peppers are extra work I was quite excited because I like small tomatoes and big peppers😂🎉
Hahah, me too for the most part. Cherry toms are my jam =)
A large number of my tomatoes have been stick as your small one, thanks for the video!
You're welcome! Having rerun this experiment, I can confirm it blows my mind how poorly tomato seedlings put out too early do. I really wish garden stores would stop selling them so early in the season.
Thank you for this video ☺️
Thank you for watching =)
And you're most welcome!
Wow!!!! This was soooo hepful!!!
Awesome! So glad to hear it =)
Great information!!! Thanks!
Glad you liked it! Hope you get some killer toms this year
this is so helpful i got to transplant my plants soon
Awesome! I hope planting goes smoothly for you =)
This is excellent. Ty.
thank you for your video 😁
I start my own seeds for everything and save seeds most of the time as well. Your video is right on point. Perfect information and you deliver it very clearly. Thanks so much and I hope your channel continues to grow. New sub here:) Happy gardening!
Well thank you very much for saying so! So glad you've joined up and I hope you enjoy the new videos.
More importantly, HAPPY GARDENING =)
Thanks, will repot my tomatoes tomorrow.
Fun! I just got mine into the ground actually =) Love these things...
That's a lot of good information, but the actual date and temperature zone would really help for comparisons.
Heya! Totally fair - I'll take better notes if we do another experiment along these lines.
Greetings from Romania. I like your videos and the quality of them. I know someone who knows how to make healthy ,big tomatoes seedling in little containers. I am your subscriber from this moment.
Greeting from the United States Marcu! I'm so glad you enjoyed them =)
Many more to come this year!
Super cool experiment
Thank you! This was a fun one =)
@@NextdoorHomestead just binged your channel as a result. Love what you're doing and I'm excited to see more. A garden tour, harvest video of everything you planted, and/or some more about homesteading would be super cool to see
@@CaerEsthar Oh, that's awesome - appreciate the kind words.
I really wish I'd done more "homestead" content this year when the garden was in full swing. I'm committed to doing more on that next year. Chickens, fruit trees, harvesting, cooking/preserving all the goodies, etc.
Very nice video!!!! No nonsense, Very interesting and informative to see, if you do anymore tomato experiments I'd love to see them(different feeds, different amount of leave branches kept on plant, single leader vs multi stem etc), very professional presentation btw!
Quick question, did you feed those tomato seedlings in the video anything at all?
I'll have to check my notes on this video and I'm away at the moment. But generally I use more fertilizer than most do with my tomato starts. It has made a major positive difference for us. I add it both to the seed starting mix and the potting soil when I pot them up now.
Cheers!
Super helpful thank you. How often are you watering your tomato plants?
It's super variable so I don't think I can give a satisfying answer. Sorry! =(
At the height of summer though, we do water everyday or every other day.
Great explanation…have subscribed!
Wondering if you use growlights for tomatoes. I’m trying them as heard that the main cause of leggy tomatoes is too much bottom heat (once germinated) & too little light!
That is absolutely correct. And yes I do use grow lights. And the sun on nice days!
This gives me a lot to work at for my next go at tomatoes.
I planted 375 grosse lisse seeds in .57 square metre area maybe 4 weeks ago.
I wasn't thinking spacing as my child needed me so I just got them in my outside raised beds 😅
Time to mix up all empty pots to re-pot them!
Some will have to stay in my 18cm pots as I can't afford pots for all.
How did the potting up and repotting process go?
Slow but steady progress (I'm Chronically Ill so less Physically able some days).
I've ameliorated my potting mix with perlite etc properly for the first time since starting gardening in 2020.
Less than 50 Grosse Lisse re-potted so far and significant growth difference seen so I'm really happy I've done so now, thankfully we have bamboo growing and I can use it for staking.
I think I'll put a couple of dozen on the sidewalk because I know I've over done it and maybe someone local would like some tomatoes.
I've spaced them 15cm apart from each other now so at least those will have ample spacing for now.
I bought 100 small 180cm pots so I started to re-pot any herbs that don't grow well with tomatoes & use my largest pots for the tomatoes.
@@RinnieOmo1990you mean 18cm pots?
This is a great experiment. I'm sorry I didn't find you earlier. I'd better sub and check out all the other stuff you've done.
I tend to pot up into a larger than suggested pot. Have you done something testing along those lines? Cheers!
Hahaha now that's the reaction I want when someone watches our videos. I have really settled on 3.5" - 4" pots for the second stage as they're just so darn convenient. This year though my plants are outgrowing them before I'm ready to put them in the ground and wish I had gone for larger.
Great informative video, ive found that (usually) regardless of size differences ,the plants seem to "catch up" over the growing season. I live in the Mid-Atlantic region of the east coast (US) and perhaps the season length allows enough time for this to occur. I've not done t the side by side experiments that you have. These are just my anecdotal findings, but thanks for your work.
Thank you for watching!
I've been thinking about that a lot lately: why do some stunted plants catch up and others never do? I don't think I have the answer, but I assume the answer lies in why they were stunted in the first place.
I do know that the longer I grow tomatoes the less inclined I am to even plant the laggards =/ Space is just more of a premium than seedlings for us!
Best of luck with your garden!
@@NextdoorHomestead my comparison was mostly based on my seedlings that i started indoors vs lowes plants that were 3-4 x the size of mine (yet by mid season were indistinguishable from each other). Yeah my seedlings are looking great in excited about this season, good luck to you too.
Thank you so much for this systematic experiment. Would be interesting to see the same experiment with the intention to find out how fast potting up can be done. What is too fast up-potting? Could you save one step of repotting before transplanting them out to their final destination?
You are quite welcome! I agree completely - there are a lot of fun variations on this we could run. I generally find potting up to be so beneficial that I almost would want to try it with an *additional* round as well. See how those do =)
Anyhow, I will say that since making this video I have tried putting out tomato seedlings early when overnight temps are in the 30s/40s (but not freezing) and the results are always the same: they're miserably stunted and don't recover to match the control lot.
That's an informative and interesting video. Great experiment. I'm wondering though, what would happen if you didn't bother potting up your seedlings and germinated them in a container the appropriate size for transplanting outside? Not having to pot up your seedlings could be quite a time saver.
Hey there and great question!
I personally am not a huge fan of starting tomato seeds in the larger containers they'll eventually be potted up into. I've done it - and I know many growers prefer it out of convenience - but I think it has some big downsides.
Specifically, it's much more challenging to keep the top layer in a larger container the right level of moist for a seed or a very young seedling. In my experience, this can lead to dead, dry seedlings, poor germination, or mold issues from having to overwater. I find bottom watering the 72 cell or 50 cell trays much more effective and predictable.
Second, I've gotten a worse germination rate in the larger containers. Certainly not proof positive as my sample size is small of course, but I suspect it's an issue of the relatively mild seedling heat mats being unable to properly warm the large volume of soil in my cool garage.
All that said, I *do* start some plants in the same pots I pot up my tomatoes into. Such as cucurbits =)
Cheers!
Intresting... Im so lazy with my potting up ugh
I try to think of it as time to actually catch up on a podcast or two =)
Love your comparison, but at what stage do you pot up from the cells? Mine are at the stage of first set of true leaves that are not big yet.
Heya! It depends a bit on the type of seedling cell you're using (50 or 72, square or deep circles, etc.) but generally I like to pot up right as the second set of true leaves starts emerging. That's what I look for =)
@@NextdoorHomestead Thank you for responding so quick!
Why not plant in a big container directly?
Yeah, good question! There are lots of benefits to starting in small seedling cells like being able to use perfect media, easy germination, portability, easy watering, protection from pests, and much more.
Do you think it messes up the potential of the final plant by stunting the growth early? Or you think it still has the same potential it will just take longer to get there after that point. (Just curious.)
I believe (strongly) that it permanently stunts the plant. That's just based on my experience, but I'm a fan of planting extra tomatoes and growing the strongest ones for this very reason.
Luckily, with a long enough growing season, toms are pretty good at bouncing back over time. Not like those pesky peppers!
This happened to me, I did not know I had to move them and the roots got all messed up
Hope they recovered! We learn something new every year with tomatoes =)
so, the right time to up pot is once the seedling has its first true leaves?
These days I like to wait for the second set of true leaves to poke out. At that point, the root ball is formed enough to come out with the plug intact. But lots of folks prefer to do it earlier - bit of personal preference!
How long should tomatoes generally remain in their larger pots before being transferred outdoors?
That's a tough question that's going to depend on a lot of factors. What size container are you using for the larger pots?
@@NextdoorHomestead The larger pots I use are roughly the same size as the ones shown in this video.
But I mean realistically won’t they all just catch up to each other with the heat of summer can we have that video too ?
hahaha ok I haven't been able to get this comment out of my head - might need to try and make a comparison video this year. I did put out some seedlings outside early again to do something like this.
Anyhow, my hypothesis is no they won't catch up. My experience with severely stunted seedlings is that they stay severely stunted (and unfortunately I have all too much experience with this). But worth a more rigorous experiment I think =)
@@NextdoorHomestead Thats great that you are organized enough for such experiments. :)
What to do if I potted them up too early and they are not growing 😭 it is my first time growing tomatoes from seeds
How long have they been the same size? Do they look healthy other than the lack of growth?
I planted the seeds together and they sprouted...I now feel like it's a huge mistake since they are now crowding in a small pot :( am I supposed to plant tomato seeds 1 seed per 1 inch distant kinda thing? Lol
Yeah, I wish there wasn't so much advice out there to plant tomato seeds together like that =(
It's kind of a big topic so here's my video on how I like to approach seeding toms: czcams.com/video/QCRbXseEaAQ/video.html
Do you monitor your soil temperature when your plants are on the heat mat at night? I'm growing my plants in a small greenhouse and trying to figure out the temperatures needed.
Hey Lily! I do not.... at least anymore. I experimented with doing so a bit but decided the extra cost associated and hassle wasn't worth it for me. Instead, I keep an eye on the ambient temperature and assume the heat mats warm the soil roughly 10 degrees.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if soil temp monitors become something I really incorporate in a few years =)
@@NextdoorHomestead ok. I just ordered another heat mat so I could have one in the house and one in the greenhouse for pepper and tomato seedlings. That way I can use the heater at a lower temperature. Still learning how to use this greenhouse.
""exact same'" -to be sure, to be sure.
So much contradictory info on this subject, who do you believe? This looks way too good to be true.
Try it yourself! =)
More seriously, what element specifically are you referring to?
@@NextdoorHomestead The info about potting on. Mine are about 3" and have their 2nd set of leaves under way, mine look weak and spindly and they're around 4 weeks old now. Do you reckon I should pot them on?
At the moment it’s just based on plant size not fruit produced and longevity.
Fair point!
I can Grow HUMONGOUS Marijuana plants with Rockwool and Potting pellets but I can't grow Anything in Soil!!!! I don't understand what is the magic trick with feeding plants grown in soil but I can't figure it out!!! Shouldn't it be EASY to grow tomato plants in soil?? Well l NOT for ME!
This comment cracks me up =) Thank you for the laugh.
For what it's worth, you can grow tomatoes in soilless mediums in containers if that's what you're more comfortable with.