I do germinate tomatoes in a flat container. I use mushroom plastic containers which I put holes in the bottom. When the tomatoes have their second true leaves I transplant them into 16 oz glasses sinking them up to the leaves. Tomatoes--no other plant--will grow roots all along the stem. Mine stay in these until they either get too big for the pot or are planted out. This would usually depend on when they were planted but most times they stay in the 16 oz. glasses. I don't like transplanting too much because every time you do you set the plant bach a couple of weeks. I do the same with peppers but I don't sink them down. I gave up planting anything in the cabbage family because I got tired of fighting the cabbage worm

Asking about transplanting to garden is only theoretical. I am working with seedlings of Coreopsis, Salvia, Purple Palace, Bellflower, Lewisia and PowWow. I live in zone 6a and I was late in sowing the seeds in time to transplant them outside; so I am going to grow these seedlings to a height where they are suitable for transplanting outdoors into the ground (next spring) and when they have reached that height, I am going to place the seedlings in my unheated garage to overwinter them and hope that they go into dormancy. And so when spring comes, I will bring them inside, and once growth resumes, I will transplant them outside. Please let me know if there is anything wrong with how I want to proceed with things. And also answer my prior question. Thank you.

I am really bad with babying seedlings so I will see alot of the containers back up today, before the rain and cold (suppose to go down to 40s and 50s later in the week) comes again but it was nice to give them some air and more sunlight lol I actually checked today again, and many more are coming up now!! finally, my orange and yellow milkweed is coming up!! it's a large portion of my new gardens and i was despairing at about 10 containers of nothing....i also have various containers with just a seedling or two which i didn't count yet lol. I must say tho, i couldn't find good potting soil as i started late and I did buy a bag or two of some potting mix and i think that mix and i think some of the miracle grow soil containers look kinda gross....it could be my fault but I do love this new organic potting soil I found a month ago and I think I will also buy the Pro Mix Soil this Fall for next year's containers!! ~michael

They're only in 9 oz. cups (the first planting) and in 5 oz. cups (the second and third planting). The ones in 9 oz. cups either need to go into the ground yesterday, which didn't happen, or be potted up to Solo cups. I think the Solo cups that I have are the 18 oz. ones. There is a high probability that I'll put the first round of tomato plants into the ground Tuesday or Wednesday, and then put up hoops and be ready to throw row cover over it if the cold returns near the end of the month. Some models hint at that. Otherwise, I'd be out there putting the first two dozen tomato plants in the ground right now. I figure that if really cold weather is coming back 8-10 days from now as some models suggest, then by Tuesday we'll have a better idea how cold it will get. If we hadn't been so cloudy all week long, the plants in the 5 oz. cups would need to be potted up as well but a lack of sunshine has had them growing slower, which is a good thing as maybe I can take them straight to the ground without potting up. The earliest round of tomatoes already had been outside a lot before those last two snowstorms and were getting big so all they did was stall when I had to put them back inside. Now that they are out again, even in heavily cloudy and rainy weather, they're growing like weeds. Good weeds. The four earliest plants that I bought and put in gallon pots are beyond ready to go into the ground. One of them managed to set 3 or 4 tomatoes before the snow arrived, so I'd like to put them in the ground soon. The other three bloomed while it was snowy and the blossoms dropped. Those three are about to bloom again and this time should set fruit. The greenhouse is staying above 50 at night and they are outside during the day. I have tomato plants in every possible size and stage of development, and barring an unforeseen disaster, ought to have a great tomato year. I don't know that the harvest will be any earlier than usual because in years with a really rainy spring, all the cloudiness and cooler temperatures make the plants grow really well but the fruit grow and enlarge more slowly than when we have non-stop sunshine.