2nd Try at Starting From Seed

[mike5953]

I’ve been a member for a good while now, but this is my first post. So here it goes…

This is the second time I’ve ever tried starting my tomato plants from seed.
The first year was pretty much a disaster. I ended up with very leggy and fragile plants.
So this year I broke down and bought some wide spectrum CFBs and some extra clamp-on shop lamps that I positioned over the trays.
It seemed to work pretty good for a while, but I still ended up with leggy plants! And they’re a bit on the delicate side too.
I also made the mistake of potting up the seedlings outside in direct sunlight on a very warm and windy day. The seedlings had never been in direct sun, so some of them got a bit toasted!
Because of the toasted seedling incident, I came up one plant short. So I ventured down to the farmer’s market today to buy a plant or two from nctomatoman. When I got home, my wife greeted me at the door with something to the effect of “Why don’t your plants look like his?”
Ok, so now with that hanging over my head, I’ve got to figure out a way to get a better start next year.

I’m pretty sure that my mistakes are:
1) I started the plants too early (Feb. 15th) for when I ended up transplanting (Apr. 30th).
2) I should have potted up the seedlings in a sheltered area that day.
3) I should have gotten the plants outside ASAP instead of leaving them under the lights.
4) I shouldn’t have let my wife get a look at the plants I bought today!

What do you folks think?