Hi all! Longtime reader, first time poster here. I happened upon a silly experiment with starting mediums and thought it might be interesting to share. So my MIL and I both decided to grow tomatoes this year and started our seeds in different ways. She used a bag of Kellogg Topper based on a suggestion from her BIL who is “great at growing everything” and I started mine in Jiffy pods (I had some lying around and my young kids can do it themselves without making a mess) then after the first set of true leaves, I tore off the outer mesh and repotted in some Miracle Gro potting mix.
They brought their seedlings over on 3/17 since they would be out of town for over a week and I kept them with mine, under the same grow lights with some outdoor sunlight during warmer days. My MIL’s growing the Norfolk purple tomatoes and she offered me one of her seedlings which I repotted in my potting mix, but kept the rest of hers in her soil mix. After about a week or so, I noticed her seedlings just weren’t thriving like mine. I even gave them a small shot of diluted fertilizer, but it didn’t seem to help. I repotted a couple in my potting mix last week and when I took a look today, they just seem healthier in comparison in terms of color and growth. Anyway, I’m probably going to repot the rest of her seedlings in Miracle Gro and hopefully, they’ll all take off.
I thought the contrast in growth was interesting, and even though we’re all worried about transplant shock and stuff when messing around with the roots, the tomatoes adapted just fine. Anyway, if you notice your seedlings stalling despite getting plenty of light, it doesn’t hurt to try different dirt.
by simplythere