growing from seed - have some 'babies' - what now? (Kind of urgent!)

[ErnesttheBavarian]

Never grown veg before, am no gardener, with no knowledge but want to get into it.

Before easter I planted seed (lettuce, tomato, beetroot and carrots) in yoghurt pots.

(I also bought some seed potatoes, i.e. little potatoes.)

They are now about 6 cm long and are starting to drop I guess ross little yoghurt pots too small. It's still cold esp at night here.

So, what do I do, how and where do I replant them etc?

Thanks

Some of them, the carrots, beetroot and patatoes can go straight out into the garden now, although be careful not to shock them too much - choose a non frosty weather forecast. Be really careful transplanting the carrots and beets as you don't want to damage the roots as that's the important bit you'll harvest. You might also like to try sowing some seeds direct into the soil outside as they really don't like being disturbed once they are growing.

don't know much about spuds as we never grow them, but tomatoes really need the weather to be a bit warmer so I would repot them into nice big pots and keep them on your window sill for a while yet You might get away with planting the lettuce out - it depends on what kind it is but I'd keep them in abit longer and direct plant some seeds into soil/containers out side later too - as then you'll have a succession of salad through the summer.

you can replant the tomatoes deeper than they came out: sounds like they are growing too tall and thin which often happens inside even if they are in a very sunny spot.

For the tomatoes you need one little pot (9cm round) per seedling; for the lettuce you could get modules (a big square tray with lots of smaller pots moulded into it) and one seedling per hole but go for the modules with fewer holes per tray. this sort of thing

With Tomatoes, don't touch the lower part of the plant when you pot on (hold by the top most leaves) and plant it up to its neck ie plant the seed leaves (the first leaves that grew) under the soil. It'll grow more roots from down there and be stronger overall. If you look closely, you'll see lots of little hairs at the bottom of the plant - these will grow into the extra roots. It'll also stabilise the plant so it won't look as spindly.

Don't know if this works for other plants but I always do this with tomatoes.