Why would you want to buy tomato seedlings as opposed to buying tomato seeds?
Well, there are a few reasons, really: You may not have the seeds that you want to hand, you may not have the time available to grow from seed, or you simply want to enjoy the convenience of growing from seedlings as opposed to starting off your tomato plants from seeds.
So, we can already see there are a few advantages of growing tomatoes from seedlings that have been bought.
Let’s check out some additional pros and cons of growing tomato plants from seedlings which have been bought.
Advantages of Buying Tomato Seedlings
1 Convenience and timing
As we’ve already mentioned, convenience and timing are on your side when you buy tomato seedlings rather than growing tomatoes from seed.
If you’re slightly late to start out with your tomato plants and the tomato growing season is already relatively advanced where you are, seedlings will save you a bit of time in comparison to growing from seed.
There’s also the convenience of not having to invest in a specific compost for seeds.
And, you don’t have to utilize a seed incubator/ propagator or a glasshouse for seed generation.
So, how about the disadvantages of growing tomato plants from seedlings in comparison to growing from seed?
What are the Disadvantages of Buying Tomato Seedlings?
1 Fragile
Tomato seedlings are not the sturdiest of plants. If you do mail order your seedlings, they could be damaged en-route.
2 Cost
While tomato seedlings are not exactly overly expensive, it is still cheaper to buy tomato seeds than to purchase seedlings.
If you do mail order your seedlings, there are also the shipping costs to consider. Shipping seeds is, for obvious reasons, far cheaper.
3 Narrower selection
When you buy seedlings, you’ll not have the choice in terms of varieties that you would if you were to buy tomato seeds.
4 Under watered, infected, mishandled
If you purchase tomato seedlings online or locally, you could find that the seedlings have not been watered enough so they will rapidly wilt, if they are not already.
The seedlings may be infected with pests and/ or disease. Do be sure to check them thoroughly if you are buying locally.
As mentioned, tomato seedlings are very fragile. If your seedlings are to be shipped, the seedlings may be mishandled.
5 Seedlings may not yet be hardened off
While you can get a sense for the health of the root system of your tomato seedlings when bought locally, you can’t achieve the same with respect to seedlings that are shipped.
Ideally, you’ll want your seedlings to be well hardened off, with a nicely developed root system.
6 Not the variety that you want
When buying tomato seedlings, you may find that you don’t in fact, get the variety that was listed.
However, while this is a potential disadvantage for tomato seedlings, the same can be said for tomato seeds. You don’t actually know for sure that the seeds you buy are, in fact, the seeds you wanted. At least not until your tomatoes begin to mature and set fruit.
So, when buying tomato seedlings or tomato seeds, be sure that you are purchasing from a vendor that ensures the accuracy of their own seed sources.
Want to Purchase Tomato Seedlings? What to Look Out For
When you’re buying your tomato seedlings, you should avoid the following:
1 Avoid buying tomato seedlings that are leggy or seem too large for the size of container they’re in.
2 Already have flowers and even fruit growing on tomato plants that are too small (besides dwarf varieties) or too young.
3 Avoid investing in tomato seedlings that don’t look healthy. The poor appearance may be caused by a number of factors, but the most common issues are due to lack of water, too much water (roots sitting in water), because of pests, or because of disease.
4 If the foliage or the stems are discolored or blemished, avoid the investment.
Photo by Artem Beliaikin @belart84 from Pexels