Potting on tomatoes: the next step after sowing
After sowing, many hobby gardeners face the next step that often causes uncertainty: potting on. Here in Illmitz, we pot on thousands of seedlings by hand every season - this step gives closely spaced seedlings room to keep developing. In the plants you order from us, this crucial phase has long since been completed successfully.
What does potting on actually mean?
Potting on means lifting young seedlings out of their shared seed tray and moving them individually into larger pots of their own with fresh compost. The reason: in a densely sown seed tray, the seedlings' roots compete with each other for space and nutrients.
We sow our seedlings in multi-cell trays and use 8x8x8cm pots for the young plants. That's ideal right up until planting out or moving into a larger pot.
When is the right time?
As soon as a seedling has developed its first true pair of leaves, it's ready to be potted on. Pot on too early and the root ball is still too small and unstable; too late, and the seedlings' roots have already become tangled with each other - getting this timing right takes practice, which we've built up over years of our own growing.
How to pot on correctly
Carefully lift the seedling out of the soil with a small dibber or the handle of a spoon, taking as much of the root ball with it as possible. Never hold the plant by its delicate stem - always hold it by one of the seed leaves instead. Then set the seedling into its own pot, slightly deeper than before, up to just below the seed leaves.
Why setting it deeper is an advantage
Unlike many other plants, tomatoes can form additional roots along the buried section of stem. Setting them deeper is therefore not a compromise but a deliberate advantage for a stronger root system - a trick we apply to every single one of our young plants.
After potting on
Freshly potted-on seedlings need a slightly shadier, sheltered spot for a few days before they recover and visibly gain strength - our plants have already been through this sensitive transition phase too by the time they reach you.
Potting on is one building block of raising tomatoes
If you'd rather skip this effort: our young tomato plants have already successfully been through this critical phase. You start with an already developed plant and skip sowing and potting on entirely. You'll find more on the steps before and after in our guides on sowing and feeding.