Tomato Seed Starting in Plastic Cups Update

Last week I wrote about my seed starting “mini-greenhouses” made from clear plastic cups so I thought I would share how my tomato seeds are doing so far. To sum things up I am very pleased with the results as I have very strong and healthy growing tomato seeds are in the mini-greenhouse cups.  Some of my tomato seedlings are already developing their second set of leaves or the “true leaves”. True leaves are called cotyledons. It won’t be long until I need to do some transplanting of the seedlings into individual pots. There are a few cups that have barely germinated or didn’t germinate and those I’ll give more time to germinate before starting another fresh batch of tomato seeds.

Once my tomato seedlings are a few inches tall I take the tops off the mini-greenhouses and place them close to the lights. Ideally you want the lights within a couple inches of the leaves to encourage strong growth. Too much distance from the lights and you will end up with leggy seedlings. If you use plant lights for your seedlings having a mechanism to adjust the height on them as the seedlings grow is very helpful! This holds true for most seedlings not just tomatoes. For some great tomato selections try some of these at Botanical Interests: Tomato Seeds (affiliate link).

The plastic cups can be reused as many times as you want as long as you wash them between uses and remain structurally sound for a long time.

I’ll be starting basil and some other plants very soon using the mini-greenhouse method!