Starting tomatoes from seed offers the satisfaction of nurturing a plant from its earliest stage, leading to a rewarding harvest. The initial step of sowing seeds correctly presents a common question for home gardeners: how many seeds should be placed in each planting location? Getting this density right ensures a successful and healthy start for your tomato plants. Sowing the correct number of seeds maximizes germination success while minimizing wasted space and effort.
Recommended Number of Seeds Per Hole
The optimal approach for planting tomato seeds, whether in indoor trays or directly in the garden, involves sowing more than one seed per spot. Generally, the recommendation is to place two or three seeds in each hole, seed cell, or container. This straightforward technique immediately addresses the inherent variability found in seed viability, ensuring that each prepared planting location is highly likely to produce at least one viable seedling.
This practice applies uniformly to different planting methods, maintaining the 2-3 seed count whether using small-cell trays or larger containers. This number balances high germination probability with conserving seed resources. Plant seeds at a depth of about one-quarter to one-half inch for the best chance of successful emergence. This approach simplifies the initial planting process and establishes a foundation for young tomato plants.
The Purpose of Sowing Multiple Seeds
Planting multiple seeds per hole is primarily an act of insuring against low germination rates, often called viability insurance. Even under ideal conditions, tomato seeds do not have a 100% success rate for sprouting, with typical viability ranging from 70% to 90%. By planting two seeds, the likelihood of both failing to germinate drops significantly, and a third seed almost guarantees a successful sprout.
This method minimizes the risk of having empty spots in your seed trays or garden rows, saving time and space. Older seed stock, where germination naturally declines, particularly benefits from this strategy. Using two or three seeds ensures you do not have to restart the germination process later, which is important for tomatoes requiring a long growing season, and allows you to select the strongest seedling.
The Essential Step of Thinning Seedlings
Once you have multiple seedlings emerge from a single planting location, the next necessary action is “thinning,” which involves removing the weaker plants to allow the strongest one to thrive. Thinning must be performed when the seedlings develop their first set of true leaves, which appear after the initial, round cotyledon leaves. These true leaves have the serrated, recognizable shape of a mature tomato leaf and signal that the plant is ready to begin its rapid growth phase.
The correct technique for thinning is to use a small, sharp pair of scissors or a blade to snip the unwanted seedlings off at the soil line. Do not pull the weaker seedlings out of the soil, as their roots may have intertwined with the desired plant. Pulling can severely damage the remaining plant’s delicate root structure, hindering its future growth. By cutting the stem, you eliminate competition for light, water, and nutrients without disturbing the chosen seedling’s root system.