Growing tomatoes from seed is easy with the right conditions. Once you find out step by step how to grow tomatoes from seeds successfully you will more than likely never buy another started tomato plant again. To germinate and grow, tomato seeds, like any other seeds, require the basic growing conditions, sunlight, water, soil and proper temperature. As long as you can provide these basic conditions and follow the 12 steps you will be well on your way to growing your own healthy tomato plants.

Twelve steps to successfully growing tomatoes from seed

1. Choose the right tomato variety seed from your local garden center or online-seed catalog that fits your growing environment. There are thousands of varieties to select from depending on what type of tomato plant that you are going to buy a Determinate, (bush-like tomato plants that bear fruit typically all at once and grow not much more than 3 ft.) or Indeterminate, (vining tomatoes that bear fruit continuously until frost and require staking as they can grow from 6-10ft.)

2. Gather all the materials you will need such as, tomato seeds, water, clean spray bottle, sterile seed starting mix, seed starting trays or plastic pots, liquid fertilizer, florescent light fixture and bulbs.

3. Now, that you have gathered all your materials together, you need to ensure that your equipment, seed trays and pots, and trowels are all clean. It may be necessary for you to sterilize them by rinsing with a 10% bleach solution.

4. Next, it is best to take your dry starting mix and pour it into a container and moisten it. The soil that you moistened shouldn't be dripping wet, just damp enough that when you squeeze it in your hand it clumps together.

5. Take your moistened soil and loosely pour it into your plastic pots, seed trays or whatever other containers you may be using to start your seeds in. Then pat the soil down gently but firmly.

6. The next step is to plant your tomato seeds on top of the soil in your seed trays. The idea is to cover the tomato seeds sparingly with the dry, sterile soil mix by sprinkling a very fine layer of the dry soil mix over the seeds.

7. Then take a clean spray bottle filled with water and gently mist the top of the soil until it is moist.

8. Cover your seed trays and pots with some clear plastic wrap or the clear plastic lids that came with your seed trays. It is important that the plastic you put over your pots is not airtight.

9. Set your seeded pots and trays in a warm place that has a temperature between 55-75 degrees. It is essential that the temperature isn't too hot.

10. Keep checking on your seeds, because, between 3-7 days, your seeds will begin to germinate. Once germinated remove the plastic covers and lids and place your seed trays and pots under florescent lighting for approximately 16 hours a day. The distance between the light source and the new seedlings should be around 2 inches.

11. Once your tomato seedlings have grown their second set of real leaves, it is time to give them a little liquid fish fertilizer that has been diluted half strength. You can put the diluted fertilizer in a clean spray bottle. When your tomato plants have grown their third set of real leaves it is time to plant them into 4 inch pots.

12. Five to seven weeks have gone by, and your tomato plants are now 8-10 inches tall, and they are ready to begin hardening off by exposing them gradually to sunlight. First placing them in the shade and over the next week, slowly every day expose them to a little more sunlight. Finally, they can now be moved into their beds or permanent containers.

I hope that these 12 steps on how to grow tomatoes from seeds will help you delve into the pleasant task of growing tomatoes from seed successfully and that all your hard work will be rewarded with a delicious, bountiful crop of juicy, mouth watering tomatoes.