All About Home and Garden

Are you prepared to grow your own food? Preparedness seeds are also known as non-hybrid, open-pollinated, heirloom, non-gmo and survival seeds, and are a great addition to your survival gear. Some type of emergency garden or survival garden should be a part of your urban survival supplies in preparedness for a disaster. Preparedness seeds can also be used in your everyday garden too.

Heirloom seeds may be saved at harvest time and used to replant in next year's garden. Survival seeds may also be stored for long periods (years), making them a valuable item for your own emergency garden or for barter/trade. The seeds should be dried to their optimum moisture content to lengthen their storage life. Storage conditions and packaging affect the viability of the seeds. By keeping seeds cold, you can greatly extend their life expectancy. More details for seed collection and seed saving should be researched for each individual plant.

Compare this to the modern hybrid seeds, which cannot be harvested and planted from year to year. If you try to save hybrid seeds and replant, they will not look the same as the original plant. In this way, the seed companies keep you dependent on them to buy seed every single year. Not so with preparedness seeds. With the non-hybrid survival seed varieties you make an initial investment/purchase, and as long as you save seed at harvest every year, you will be able to produce delicious fresh food for you family indefinitely.

There are many different garden types out there, which range from container gardens, raised bed gardens, traditional garden beds to farming. It really varies. This depends on available land, climate and soil conditions and how much time you have to grow your own food. Just start small and expand as you gain more experience. I live in the city and have enjoyed using container gardening. Container gardens are suitable for getting maximum production out of small spaces, and are a great part of your urban survival supplies. When choosing a location for your garden, find a place that has full sun and is well drained. If your soil is dense clay, just add compost and gradually improve the mixture for better conditions.

An emergency garden, survival garden or your everyday garden should have a variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and grains for a healthy diet. Non-hybrid varieties include vegetable garden preparedness seeds, fruit preparedness seeds, salsa preparedness seeds, culinary herb preparedness seeds, medicinal herbs preparedness seeds and ancient grains preparedness seeds. Proper nutrition is greatly improved with more food groups, and saves money for your grocery and health care expenses. It also helps your sense of well-being to have more choices of foods to eat. You could get pretty tired of rice and beans, if that is all you have for chow.

Survival seeds are suitable for rural gardens, city gardens, urban survival supplies and everyday gardens. Non-hybrid, open-pollinated, heirloom, non-gmo survival seeds are a step towards self-reliant living for your survival gear.

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If you really want to experience the most satisfaction from tomato gardening, I recommend starting and growing tomato plants from seeds. If you do decide to go this route, you will be starting the seeds indoors, then transplanting your young plants outside to your garden when the weather finally allows it. Your other alternative is to purchase plantlets from the nursery and plant them directly outside. The benefit of buying plants is simply that it's less work, but you have the threat of bringing fungus and disease home with you and contaminating you garden. Another reason I like to start my own seeds, is that I get to decide from a much larger number of tomato species this way. They just don't stock that many tomato plant types at the store or nurseries.

When you have elected to grow your tomatoes from seeds, you have to figure out exactly when the right time to start them would be for your area. This is determined by researching the normal date on which your last frost occurs, count backward 6 to 8 weeks, and that's when you'll want to get your seeds started. Nighttime temps shouldn't be below 55F at the time of average last frost.

Experienced tomato gardeners will recommend lots of types of containers to start your seeds growing. My personal preference is to buy the small plastic trays that are available at your local nursery. They are a low-cost way to get going, and the process is simple too. One thing to keep in mind when growing tomato from seed, is to start in a sterile environment. Little tomato plants have a low tolerance to disease, so it's important not to expose them to anything that may prematurely end their growing cycle. It is best not to re-use your soil from last year, or recycle any from your garden. Ask your nursery professional for some soilless potting mix and you'll have much better results.

Once you've put the soilless mix into your plastic trays, they are ready for seeding. A good technique is to use the end of a pencil, and "drill" a little hole about ? inch deep into the mix. Next, sprinkle 2 or 3 tomato seeds into the hole you've punched, and cover lightly with more potting mix. Make sure you don't compact the soil down over the seeds, they need to breathe. Add just enough water to moisten the soil, preferable with a garden watering can. Make sure that you don't over saturate the soil with water as this will promote fungal growth.

The next step is to find a warm location for your seed cups to germinate. The optimal temperature is somewhere around 75F. You can place them in front of a sunny window during the day, which is especially recommended as the seed starts to germinate. During this period, it is important to make sure the soil is kept moist, but not overly so.

Soon, your small seedlings that you've been caring so much for, will be ready to move outside. After you've gotten them used to the outdoors, you'll be planting them permanently in your garden. Growing tomatoes from seeds can be a really satisfying aspect of gardening if you are committed to the extra time and care required to be successful. With just a little bit of practice and experience, you'll probably never buy another tomato plant again.

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This article on when to plant tomato seeds indoors will show you how you can successfully start your own tomato plants and have them ready to transplant outdoors in your backyard garden or in containers on your balcony in time for the growing season. If you follow the important points laid out here prior to buying your seeds you will surely be rewarded with an amazing crop of delicious, healthy, tomatoes.

Tomato plants are heat loving sensitive plants that can easily be grown from seed with a little extra care and a few tomato growing secrets. With some planning and preparation, you can easily expect a favorable outcome with your tomato growing endeavors as long as you follow these vital points of when to plant tomato seeds indoors and to most people's amazement having a green thumb is not a prerequisite.

There are a few important details to consider when choosing the optimum time of actually planting your tomato seeds indoors, and if you continue to follow along I'll acquaint you with a few of these details of why they are important to your tomato growing plans.

Regardless, if you are a complete novice to starting your tomato seeds and growing your own plants or even if you are a seasoned gardener you may not be aware that tomatoes can be grown indoors all year long providing that you have the proper growing environment.

As a novice, to tomato growing or just the average person wanting to try a bit of gardening you may be thinking that it is enough of a challenge just growing a tomato plant purchased from a nursery let alone starting a plant from seed and hopefully getting it to grow and produce fruit. Growing tomatoes from seeds and knowing when to plant tomato seeds indoors is not a difficult task. it can be very easy and enjoyable as long as you follow a few basic gardening principles.

3 Important Points to Consider Before You Go Out and Buy Your Tomato Seeds

These three points will help you decide when to plant your tomato seeds indoors. Tomato seeds take 5-7 days to germinate and should normally be grown indoors for a time period of about 6-8 weeks before you relocate them outside. If you are like most backyard gardeners, your aim is to be eating your own vine ripened tomatoes as soon as possible. Tomatoes have a growing season of about 50 to 80 days in general, but it mostly depends on your location and the variety of tomato you choose to grow.

So Knowing This Here are a Few Points to Take Note Of

Variety or Type of Tomato:

There are over a thousand plus different varieties of tomatoes to choose from in gardening catalogs. Depending on if you want to eat freshly sliced tomatoes or cherry tomatoes in salads or maybe your plan is to can them, or freeze your surplus crop of tomatoes. Each variety of tomatoes will have their own specified number of frost free days. With tomatoes, this is called Days to Maturity ( this deals with the number of days from the time you plant your tomato seedlings out in the garden until the time the tomatoes are ripe and ready to pick) Knowing the specific variety will help you determine when to plant your seeds indoors.

Geographic Location:

Where you live, is another very important detail to consider when buying your tomato seeds and growing your tomatoes. Tomato plants need a number of months to reach maturity, and they are unable to bear the least amount of frost. Therefore, tomatoes as a rule are typically planted indoors, as seeds. Do you have a short growing season or a long growing season? By far, the most important date to be aware of for when to plant tomato seeds indoors is the expected date of the last frost. You will want to schedule planting your seedlings outdoors around two to three weeks after the normal last frost date for your local area. Refer to the Climate Zone Map or ask your regional gardening center,or a gardening neighbor for what they would suggest is the optimal time for you to transplant your tomato seedlings outdoors in your area.

Placement of Tomato Plants Outdoors:

Finally, you need to think about where you will transplant your tomato seedlings. If you will be growing them under cover in a greenhouse, then you have a little more control over your time period of when to plant your tomato seeds indoors as you will not have to worry about frost. But if you are planting them out in your garden bed and you want the delicious flavor of a plump, juicy, vine ripened tomato then that will affect the date of your initial planting.

Planning and preparation is the key to having a successful tomato growing experience. We all make mistakes in the beginning, so whether you are planting tomatoes out in the garden bed, in a greenhouse, or in containers on your patio these factors all play a part in your decision of when to plant tomato seeds indoors.

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