Tips on growing plants from seeds:

    While many people prefer to buy young tomato plants in late spring, you can grow a much larger variety of tomatoes if you purchase seeds.  Also, if you buy seeds, you can grow far more plants for the same cost.  Plant seeds about 7 weeks before the last frost is expected.  Plant the seeds in a tray full of soil about an 1/4-1/2 an inch deep.  Water the seeds every day or two and keep them at a temperature of 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit.  The seeds should germinate in a week or two.  At this point make sure the seedlings are located in a position to get plenty of light, at least 12 hours each day, during the day.  Use a fluorescent lamp on a timer to provide light when it's dark in the morning and evening.  After the seedlings have grown to the point where they have the second pair of leaves transplant as many plants as you intend to grow to larger containers.  Each plant should have its own container at least two inches cubed.  Keep watering and exposing the plants to sunlight until you are ready to plant them in the garden, which should be when you are sure the danger of frost has past.

Tipson transplanting:

    Transplant the young tomato plants to a location with plenty of sunlight and good drainage.  Tomatoes need plenty of water to grow as well.  Till the soil around the area where you intend to plant each plant, and add a bit of organic compost and some fertilizer.  When transplanting make sure hat you transplant as many roots as possible with the plant.  Since tomatoes need a lot of water, this will help them adapt better to the new environment.  Plant the young tomatoes as deep as possible so that all the leaves are above the ground.  Plant them about three feet apart

Supporting the growing tomatoes:

    After several weeks the tomatoes will have grown tall enough to need support.  You can buy metal tomato cages to put around the growing plants so that they don't bend over and fall to the ground.  Alternatively, you can put stakes in the ground next to the plants, and then use string to tie the plants to the stakes as they grow, to keep them up straight.

This site is still under construction!  I intend a lot more stuff here in the near future.  If you are interested in growing tomatoes go to the Totally Tomatoes web site: here.  You can order seeds and find more growing instructions there.