Growing too fast?

[Sodak]

Originally Posted by suvoth

Do you mean the baby leaves? I haven't cut those off yet. The Cotyledon or whatever?

Start with those, but if they have several leaves the very first true leaves can be trimmed as well.

[suvoth]

Okay thanks

[Doug9345]

Here are two trimming suggestions. One is relatively mild and one is more extreme.

[suvoth]

Oh, that's very helpful thank you!

[BigVanVader]

Out of curiosity what did u fertilize them with?

[suvoth]

Miracle Grow Tomato in water

[smithmal]

Personally I would advise against "the bigger the plant, the better the transplant" philosophy. Tomato plants tend to suffer from transplant shock and the larger they are, the more the shock/stress they are exposed to during transplant. The key to getting your tomato to flower well and consequently to produce lots of fruit is to reduce the amount of stress that occurs to it as much as possible during seedling growth and transplant.

For this reason one needs to be very aware of environmental stresses like:

1. Temperature - putting them out two early and getting frost/freeze damage may dramatically stunt your plant's development if not outright kill them
2. Sunlight - make sure you adequately "harden" them off to sunlight before transplanting and try to transplant on a cloudy day and/or during the late afternoon hours
3. Transplant Stress - tomato plants are made up of ALOT of water, give them a nice drink the day before and try and not transplant when the plant is too big as the transplant shock will be larger, due to the increase water content of the tomato plant. Also, planting your tomato plants deep to increase root growth is recommended.

Tomato plants are rather fragile and early development stress can result in a stunted plant for the rest of the season (been there done that).

If you wanted, you could also clip all the leaves except for the top 3 or 4 right now and then plant the tomato plants deep in your cups. The stem "whiskers" will develop into roots and greatly increase the root-surface area ratio creating a larger, more healthy plant in the long run and dramatically decrease the size right now.

smithmal

[bower]

Hmph, I'm running into the same problem... it has been sunny and as a result, my house gets super hot. The tomatoes in the south window are growing way too fast for the expected plant date of May 15. Most already have 5 leaves fully out, so I can't see them enduring the cup for another 4 weeks unless I put them out in the cold. The greenhouse overnight is still low 40's and we're expecting a blast of snow tomorrow again. I don't really care about my own plants because I'll be glad enough to put them out by May 1, even if they get some cold nights.. But alas, I have a lot of extras for other people, and I don't want to stress their plants, nor the peeps involved either.

KarenO, I'm surprised you let them flower before plant out. I always try to plant immediately at the first sign of buds forming, just thinking that it is stressful to the plant to be trying to make fruit without the big roots to support it yet? Do you prune off those early flowers or let them set?