Give your plants as good an environment as possible so that the plant has the best growing conditions possible, both to renew the bulb, but especially so that the seeds are fully "nourished" and will be the healthiest they can be. Feed them. Give them the best lighting situation you can. Good luck!! R.

I don't grow many annuals, but nigella Miss Jekyll and papaver somniferum are always welcome. They both self sow regularly, sometimes I'll gather the seeds and toss them into a different area than they've chosen to sow themselves the previous year. Occasionally a few sunflowers, but I really don't have the space - which reminds me, I should pick up a pack seeds of the giant types for a neighbor who does have the space and I can enjoy those from my driveway :)

I dont remember it being very specific on how far to allow true leaves to develop before potting up but I will reread it. Not really a specific time. It depends in great part on how you germinate the seeds - cell packs, yogurt cups, plug trays, etc. For example if you germinated 20-25 seeds in one yogurt cup or 4-5 in one Jiffy pellet as many do then you would likely need to transplant them before any true leaves developed. You want them separated before the roots get too badly tangled. If you only do 1 seed in each cell in a cell pack then they can wait until they are about the size in the "Potting up" photo on the FAQ I linked - the true leaves are still pretty small. Ultimately it boils down to transplanting them as soon as you are comfortable working with them IMO. I transplant all mine before any true leaf development. But I do staged transplanting - from bulk seeded trays to 6 packs to 4" pots. Dave

I wrote an FAQ on this years back at the insistence of some GW posters, but I'm not keen on this at all. I think it's okay enough for sprouting some big seeds like zucchini, but tomatoes are so simple I would just sow them at the depth directed above--mine go outside but if you're sprouting inside put them in a sunny window or under lights. Here is a link that might be useful: Baggie Method