With a heavy heart (and yet one still filled with hope) I have decided to start with a new batch of Tomato seeds. Today when I went to water the pot, I tipped it over to remove some dried leaves that had accumulated, and all the soil fell out! I couldn’t find the tomato seeds anywhere and I had to admit that the whole thing was a shambles. So I’m going to start over again, and this time I will minimize the problems I faced the first time.
First I’m going to soak the tomato seeds in a cup of water for a few hours following Nimmy’s suggestion . I took half a teaspoon of tomato seeds and mixed them in room temperature water in a glass cup. I’ll let them soak a while and give them a head start in life :)
The second thing I’m going to do differently is track each seed individually. Last time, the pot was too big and I didn’t know where in the pot I had place my seeds. So with tips from this website, I decided to grow each of my tomato seeds in an empty eggshell! I eat two half boiled eggs for breakfast every day and generate two empty shells daily. So I went out to the trash, picked up four eggshells, washed them and set them out to dry. And when I set my tomato seeds in them, I’ll be able to know exactly how each is doing.
And the best part is that when my seeds finally sprout and it’s time to move them into a bigger pot, I’ll just crack the eggshells all around with a teaspoon and place it in the gamla – no need to disturb the soil and traumatize the young sapling. The eggshells will provide plenty of calcium as nutrients – perfect :)
So I filled them up with the compost that I bought several days back (not as easy as it sounds without breaking the shells) and packed the soil up nicely.
In order to provide adequate drainage for the water, I used a needle to poke three holes in the bottom of each shell. Again, unless you do it yourself, you never realize how tough eggshells are!
And now for the finale…I used my swiss army knife toothpick to punch compact holes in the compost and selected four lucky seeds from those that had been soaked. By now the seeds were soft, and I had a tough time picking one without feeling sad for the others. I chose those seeds with a nice tear drop shape – other than that I have no clue what a healthy seed looks like :)
And now finally I reused my gamla and made depressions in the soil for the eggshells to comfortably sit. I placed them outside so that they get the required warmth (not sunlight – since I’m informed that it doesn’t matter during germination). I’ll water them everyday with a spay that I’ll obtain from somewhere. Hopefully that will be enough for the seeds.
And that’s it! All in an afternoon’s work. Let’s hope this experiment doesn’t end disastrously (I’ll try not to break the eggshells or drop the gamla). And of course, anyone here who knows more about growing tomatoes than I do is most welcome to give their suggestions. I need as much support as I can get :)
This is interesting. Sad about the first batch, I hope this one grows well. Who would have thought one could learn something like this on a comp, when the PC was first created!? I am learning and might just try growing something on my own :) Look forward to future updates :)
This is interesting. Sad about the first batch, I hope this one grows well. Who would have thought one could learn something like this on a comp, when the PC was first created!? I am learning and might just try growing something on my own :) Look forward to future updates :)
In 2010 we planted a few different varieties of tomatoes in urns on a back patio due of the bad soil quality in our community. When doing this you should be sure the pots are large enough for respective plants potentiall root growth and you will probably need to water them almost double as often as the dirt tends to dry out. Also just before they turn red either protect them or harvest them because birds will destroy your plants as they love from the bright colors.
Aw, that’s okay! Keep trying until you grow tomatoes. Try and try until you succeed as they say haha! Thanks for sharing this with us. I hope your experiment now works out well.