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Seedling experiment

On March 31, 2021, my friend Hervé gave me one old cherry tomato. He said that I could plant its seeds. 

cherry tomato by Yukié Matsushita


In this cherry tomato, there were about 35 seeds.

seedling starter mix by Yukié Matsushita 
I bought a seed starting mix for the germination.
My understanding of the seed starting mix is that it is light so that the seeds can germ easily. It is different from regular soil, so I have to transplant when the seedlings have developed their second set of true leaves (about in a month?); otherwise, the plants will get sick from a lack of nutrients. 

So, I planted 20 seeds (out of 35 seeds) in the different seed starter pots.

Overall, the month of April was cold in France, so my seedling experiment was not successful.
It was done in a sunroom, not in a greenhouse, so the tomatoes grew quite slowly. 

The plants need the right temperature, sun, soil, and water to grow.
18 out of 20 seeds started to germ after one week of planting.

Three weeks after planting the seeds: 

The tomato seeds in the small biodegradable seed starter peat pots grew only two leaves.
Not very impressive. 

The tomato seeds planted in the pots made of toilette paper tube grew two leaves and the tiny third leaf.  

seedling by Yukié Matsushita

The tomato seeds planted in the recycled plastic pots grew four leaves. 

origami planting pot by Yukié Matsushita
Tomato seeds planted in origami plant pot grew four leaves and two tiny leaves. 
(Click here to see how to make an origami plant pot.)
yogurt plant pot by Yukié Matsushita
Tomato seeds planted in our favorite goat yogurt pots grew four leaves and five tiny leaves. 
And this was the best I could do. 
Seeds are like fish, they grow bigger according to the size of the pot. 

In an ideal situation, three weeks after planting a seed, it can grow twice as big as this one. 

At marché I bought one pineapple-tomato plant, which is 18cm (7") tall, and one grafted tomato plant, which is already 50cm (20") tall. The lady at the vegetable shop told me to wait one more week to plant them. "Les saints de glace" the 'ice saints days' (cold snap in early spring) in France, is on May 11th and ends on May 13th this year, so that's the date all gardeners are waiting to plant vegetables. 



















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