Tomato Projects

This is just a $20 mini greenhouse

Its getting closer to spring and I wanted to do a blog post to help people that are wanting to get a jump on the gardening season. You can start seeds indoors without spending much money and its super easy. Seeds should usually be started indoors about 6-8 weeks before your last frost date. Here is a link to a great automated seed starting chart Lazy man's Seed Starting Chart.


You can start seeds in almost any container as long as there is drainage holes. Small drinking cups work great or you can also purchase different seed starting trays.

You will also need enough light. Some people are lucky and have a good south facing window to start seeds in. If you are not that lucky or want to supplement the light for better success there are many options. One of the cheapest options that work great is to buy a florescent shop light for about $10. The great thing about using these is that you really do not need special plant bulbs. Just look for the regular bulbs that list a color temp of between 5000K and 6500K they are easy to find and pretty standard.

It really can be that simple some cheap lights, a container of some type, some seed starting mix or potting soil, and of course seeds. Just add water and you are good to go.

Here is a simple seed starting system I have set up. Once the dome comes off I will just rig up the lights

 I have started some seeds really early this year as I also want to do a post on cloning the plants. This way you can start one plant inside and get many from it. ( I will be in a future blog post )

I will post some pics of my set up I am using to give some ideals but remember it really does not have to be as complicated as mine.


Started seeds for
Big Bertha PS Pepper
Giant Aconcagua Sweet Pepper
Chinese Giant Pepper
Giant Marconi Pepper
Corno di Toro Pepper
Sweet Pickle Pepper
1 goose creek Tomato
1 terhune tomato
72 Ponderosa Red Beefsteak tomatoes
6 each of 12 other varieties of tomatoes
and three cups of sweet basil

These are just a 72 pod Jiffy Greenhouse they only cost about 6 bucks

This is one of my Big Bertha Sweet Peppers it spouted up a week and a half ago

The smallest ones are called Sweet Pickle its an ornamental sweet pepper

The three in from are some sweet basil

A trick to the jiffy pods is once they expand just give them a squeeze this will replace 1/4 of the water with air and prevent them from being too wet preventing dampening off and other fungus issues

There are twelve varieties of tomatoes in here. So labeling really helps. I just recycled some old Christmas to from tags

Just a shot of the Jiffy Seed Greenhouse with the lid off

This hook shape is what your seeds will look like as they sprout. Once they are up make sure they get some light

Once they break the soil they may still be bent looking they will straighten up

Another Big Bertha pepper

Big Bertha pepper starting to get true leaves. Peppers tend to start off a little slower  than other plants.  Main thing to look for is the color and stem size, if the stem is long or the color is pale you need to adjust your light closer to the plants

The tomatoes are really a bit too early but if they get too big my ideal is that I will clone them out. Depending on how the cloning goes and the timing I may sell the extras off. Just right now I have 144 tomato plants started. Cloning them from those plants would give me 3 - 6 more plants from each one.  I will try and do a blog and possibly a video on how to clone them. That way even if you buy plants for the garden you can get more for your buck out of them.