The tomato seeds are starting to germinate in their trays. It has taken only 5 days! Still more to germinate but many are already up. A few haven’t germinated so I will replant if they don’t come up in a few days. They are under fluorescent ‘daylight’ T-8 lamps that are in a standard 48″ fluorescent light fixture that I got from Home Depot. They are also on heat mats and I have a heat mat thermostat set to 80 degrees. The heat mats and thermostat I got at Amazon. I never use to use a thermostat but one year without it, the temperature went to 100 degrees and the seeds fried. With a thermostat, it controls the temperature perfectly to whatever is the optimum temperature for each crop. In this case, the optimum range for tomato seeds for germination is between 70-85 degrees.
giantveggiegardener 
Thank you! I hope it’s not too late for me to start some tonight…
LikeLike
Veronika- It’s not too late! go for it. You can always plant them a little later if needed. Nothing is carved in stone when it comes to gardening!
LikeLike
Tomatoes are some of the few vegetable plants that I do not sow directly. I buy small plants from the hardware store, and on rare occasion, grow a variety that I can not get from the hardware store. I would sow seed directly, but of course, snails eat the seedlings faster than they grow. They take a few bites out of the purchased plants, but those plants grow faster than snails eat them.
LikeLike