Hi!
I am starting my tomato seedlings indoors for thw first time. I have set up two led lights 6500k 20w 3000 lumen. In the last two days my tomatoes started slowly wilting. I water the every 3 days or so when the soil is no longer moist to the touch. Are they too warm? It is around 23 degrees where they are. Any advice how I can asure they grow healthy? Why are the leaves like this?
by safe34
11 Comments
Looks like overwatering. How deep are you checking the soil? These are large pots, and you should be sticking your entire finger down in the soil to check
I stick around 3-4cm in and I spray them with water mist every other day a bit. So I should just reduce watering and see how they do? What about heat? 23 shouldnt be too warm right?
In the first photo, it looks like there is a whitefly in the middle of the leaf. Check underneath to see if you have more. Awful, virus-carrying pests.
Heat is fine. Overwatering is most likely, but you might also want to consider watering with some fertilizer at the point too, you might be lacking nutrients
It is the joys of growing under a grow light as the plant gets bigger. The light won’t be significantly enough for a good robust plant they look fine to me. They just need a good place in the sun
Get a soil moisture meter. I started using one to test soil moisture a few years ago. I never water anything without testing it first. They’re cheap on Amazon
Your watering regimen doesn’t sound at all like too much to me. They may just be getting too big for the pots, and short of nutrients. As long as you’ll be transferring them in the near future to bigger pots with fresh fertilizer, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.
I’m surprised there isn’t more of a consensus that these look good. Especially as a first time seed starter, that should be the takeaway! Tomatoes are drama queens, but they’re also pretty robust. Don’t sweat every droopy leaf or purple blotch.
It’s time to start hardening them off. Are you in an area where you can put them in the ground in a couple of weeks?
Time for a larger container
Tomatoes seem sensitive to grow lights. I have some plants in with my cannabis plants and I see it. Watering on point. They’re not dying and in 6 weeks outside they go, so all good.
Start leaving the fan on them for 8ish hours a day so they will be ready for outside and do better when you plant outdoors soon