Do you like tomatoes? They’re great for making lots of foods kids like, such as
pizza, salsa and tomato sauce. Now is the time for getting your tomato seedlings
started if you want to be harvesting lots of tomatoes as soon as possible.
Tomato seeds need warmth and moisture to germinate. To get a head start, you can
plant your tomato seeds in little mini hothouses and then transplant them into
the garden when the weather is a bit warmer. Home grown tomatoes taste SO good!!
You will need: some 12cm pots, the same number of 2 litre soft drink bottles,
kitchen scissors, potting mix, fertiliser, tomato seeds.
What to Do:
Almost fill the pots with damp potting mix. (Use your gardening gloves
when handling potting mix.)
Plant a couple of seeds in each pot. Plant them about half a centimetre deep.
Water gently and well.
Using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut the sloping parts off the plastic drink bottles.
Turn the bottom pieces of the soft-drink bottles upside down over the top of
the pots. Your seeds and seedlings will now have their own little hothouses.
Place the mini-hothouses in a warm, brightly light area, but not in full sun.
A brightly lit window sill is perfect. If the potting mix appears to be drying
out, add water. You will need a saucer to catch the drips, but don’t let the pots
sit in water.
When the seedlings have developed two healthy leaves, remove the tops and
place the pots outdoors, first in a brightly lit area and gradually move them
to a sunny spot.
Add some fertiliser to the pot.
Choose the healthiest seedling and very gently pull the other ones out.
When the plants look sturdy enough, transplant them into the garden
(or into bigger pots.)
You can use these mini-hothouses with lots of other seeds too.
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