Selecting Seedlings for Tower Garden Success in 7 Easy Steps

Pick Seedlings for Tower Garden

Picking seedlings for a Tower Garden can be tricky. How many of these should I grow? How many is too many? Is it too late to grow <insert crop> now? How long will it take to grow <insert crop>and what can I grow in <insert state> now? Read on to find out how many you can grow, how to decide what you are growing  inside or outside and how many of each you should pick.

So let’s start at the beginning.

How many plants can you grow in a Tower Garden?

Crop Size

Crop size is important when planning your indoor and outdoor Tower Garden.  There’s really no limit to the number of small and medium crops you can plant on a single Tower Garden, indoors or outdoors. If you have too many large crops it can become unmanageable. For that reason, we recommend no more than 6 large plants in an outdoor Tower Garden and we don’t recommend growing large plants in an indoor Tower Garden if you have little to no gardening experience. I know I don’t want large plants like tomatoes and squash growing across the Living Room. Larger crops will generally require a little more attention than small and medium sized crops, so bear that in mind too.

Use the “Crop Size” filter at www.livingtowerseedlings.com to filter crops by size. 

Pollination

Almost every crop that produces a fruit does so as a result of pollination. Without pollination the fruit, the actual cucumber, tomato, squash etc will not grow (think birds and the bees here). When your Tower Garden is outside the bees, insects and wind should do the pollination for you.  At times you may need to hand pollinate, that shouldn’t be the case all the time though.

However, if you are growing inside you will need to “be the bee” if you are going to grow fruiting crops. It’s pretty straight forward, but it will take a minute or two each day, so bear that in mind when purchasing crops that need to be pollinated.

This video shows you how to pollinate.

Use the Pollination filter to display crops that require or don’t require pollination. Greens, herbs, lettuces and flowers do not need to be pollinated.

Growing Season

Will it be in the 90s in the summer where you live?  If so, check the “Heat Tolerant <100°” box.  (Some of these crops may do well in temperatures over 100, we just haven’t tested them). Do you plan on growing in the cool spring or fall?  If so, check “Cold Tolerant” for crops that do well in temperatures under 40°.  Average/Normal is middle of the road and what will be suitable for most of the people most of time. 🙂

Tomato Plant Size

The tomatoes we offer can be classified in three different ways.  Determinate, Indeterminate and Dwarf Indeterminate. Consider the space you have and how much time you have to prune and keep the plant in check when making your selection.

Determinate

Determinate tomatoes have a predetermined genetic quality the causes the plant to: Have a bush like habit, often called “bush” tomatoes. The plant will grow vertically at first, and then stop and the remainder of growth will take place on the side shoots. Growth habit is approximately 4″ tall or less.

Dwarf Indeterminate

Indeterminate tomatoes continue to grow, and can get out of control. They continue to bear fruit until they are killed by frost. Dwarf tomatoes being bred are indeterminate. However, because of the genetics of the dwarfs, they continue to produce fruits without the plant growing out-of-bounds.

Indeterminate

Indeterminate tomato varieties are vining plants that continue growing in length throughout the growing season, which is why they often are referred to as vining tomatoes. They continually set fruit through the entire growing season. As a result, rather than one large harvest, they produce a steady supply of tomatoes.

Time to Harvest

Use this filter if you have a short amount of time before the weather changes significantly or you head out of town.  Times listed are when you will first begin to harvest under ideal growing conditions (adequate sunlight, water, nutrients, ideal temperatures etc).

For example, if you have 3 months to grow (roughly 12 weeks) I would suggest checking the boxes including everything up to 6-8 weeks.

How Many of Each Seedling Should I Grow?

This is probably the trickiest of all questions to answer.  Just remember, the first two or three growing seasons consist of a good bit of trial and error.  You may decide that some things just grow to slowly and you won’t bother with them next time.  Something else may grow way to fast and you need to reduce the number of seedlings you have next time. Maybe your fruiting crops are not being pollinated and you just don’t have time to do that.  Just roll with it and adjust next time.

There really isn’t a one size fits all. The guide we give below is just that, a guide.  It’s a good place to start if you haven’t grown a Tower before. If you add kale to your smoothie every day or juice celery every morning you are going to want to adjust those accordingly.

Lettuce

• If your family (3-4 people) eat a salad every day, a good place to start is with about 6-8 lettuces.

Greens

• 1-2 of each variety of green.

Herbs

• 1 of each variety.

Fruit/Vegetables

Use the following numbers as a starting point, but remember we recommend no more than 6 large plants per Tower.

• Celery – 1-2
• Beans – 4+
• Broccoli – 1
• Cauliflower – 1
• Cucumber – 1
• Eggplant -1
• Melon – 1
• Peas – 4+
• Peppers – 1 of each variety
• Squash – 1 of each variety
• Strawberries – As many as you want to grow!
• Tomatoes – 1 of each variety. No more than 3 per Tower to keep it manageable.

In Stock

In stock is simple.  Check the box to see everything that is in stock and ready to ship on the next shipping day.  Remember.  We ship Mondays and Wednesdays only and orders need to be received before 5pm Eastern the previous day (ie order before 5pm Sunday to ship Monday.)

That’s it!  When using these filters you’ll be able to make better choices and have better yield and a more successful garden.

Order your seedlings today at www.livingtowerseedlings.com

Do you prefer to grow your own seedlings? Learn How to grow the Perfect Seedling here.