Black russian truffle tomato sprouts/seedlings?

[Tinybu88les8]

Is there a difference between a sprout and a seedling? That wasnt my main question but as I was typing the subject I started to wonder hehe. What I really want to know is I have 2 sprouts (seedlings?) of black russian truffle tomatoes (in a pot). They are about 3" tall with 3 sets of leaves (maybe even 4). When can I plant them into the ground? Anything else I should know?

[TZ -OH6]

Sprouts generally become seedlings once the seed coat drops off and the seed leaves expand.


Its best to have one plant per pot. With three sets of true leaves Japanese Black Trifele - JBT (more usual name), should be 6-8 inches tall or more and nearly ready to transplant into the garden. I thinkmaybe yours could use some fertilizer.

[Tinybu88les8]

OKay. Ill fertilize some more tomorrow. Since I already have 2 planted in the pot what do you recommend I do? I planted 4 seeds in the pot and only the 2 sprouted...which is fine by me. But what now? Should I just fertilize them and wait until they get 6' tall THEN just plant them then? Should I do it now since they have 3 sets of true leaves? Maybe I should take a picture to show their size?

[applestar]

I would separate them and pot them up in individual pots of 1/4~1/3 compost soil mix right now. They should go in pots that are at least 6" deep for unobstructed root growth. You'll be surprised how much they take off.

Especially with tomatoes, I put just a cushion layer of new soil in the bottom of the larger pot, then drop the root ball all the way in the bottom and pile the soil up along the stem. Tomatoes will grow additional roots along the buried stems for larger root structure.

[gixxerific]

What size of pot are they in? That could be the difference of how many you can have.

I can't believe you are planting tomatoes. I'm about to pull my last remaining hope, but she's going down fast. It's gonna be a long tomato-less winter. Unless you mail me some of those, that would be nice. Good luck but I have always read that you should fertilize right after they set the first true second leaves.

[Tinybu88les8]

haha. ill send you some gixxerific! Do people actually do that? I hear they do that with seeds but veggies? haha...I'm sure you were joking but if not...yeah! Ill send some if they grow. I'm in so cali so the weather is still really nice. I planted them just to see if they would grow. so far so good.

[gixxerific]

Yeah I was joking about the mailing but if UPS shows up at my door with a big box of tomatoes I won't be upset at all.