It's been a month and these puppies are…stunted at best, maybe dying. Leaves look bad. I have a grow light, use a fan, planted in high quality potting soil. I'm at a loss.
Also shout-out to all the tomato-pros fielding all the starting season questions from us newbies. Y'all rock! Thank you for your service 🙏
by Objective-Orchid-206
18 Comments
Did you use a warming mat and a humidity dome?
What type of soil? And when you say a month, like, literally? 5-10 days for germination, around 7-10 days to look like yours.
Maybe there are pests in the soil. I don’t know what they’re called in English: fungus gnats. Carefully pull out a seedling and see if the roots are shriveled or eaten.
I have noticed that those peat cups suck all the water away from my seedlings and it seemed to me that after I repotted mine into larger plastic pots they did better
What temperature do you keep the room at?
What lights are you using and how high above them do you keep it?
They all start that way. This thing could end up 20 ft long and yield 20 pounds.
Maybe try up potting a few, they might be a little cramped if it’s already been a month and they haven’t grown. They really don’t look like they are dying ! But you’re right they might just be stunted, so all is not lost yet.
Take some pics of your setup.
How far from the light are the swedlings?
What soil did you use?
Temp in room?
They don’t look terrible but could be stunted. Maybe more natural light if that’s an option?
Finder bigger trays or pots and water more often
Put some lights on them and they look a little dry
Your soil actually looks a bit wet, how often are you watering and do they ever get slightly dried out?
What is the light strength and what’s your ambient temperature?
You’re in your head! These look just like mine and are totally fine. Just make sure you have your light close enough. Most things start looking like “this.” It’s the moments after this that count hahaha
So I use these peat starters for germination mostly; where yours are at is the stage at which i up pot (i do double cup) with coir, compost, perlite, and weak fertilizer. If I leave them in the starters, they get stuck at this stage
They’ll do fine. I’m not saying this as an optimist or even an expert. I’m saying this as someone who had no idea what i was doing and all my seedlings last year looked like this. I even threw one out, a sorry looking little sprig in a folded paper starting cup. I dug it out the bin a few days later thinking it would be kinder to just try and over winter it indoors in a planter. It is now a behemoth and is touching my ceiling…again. They may not all thrive but I’m pretty sure they’ll all survive. Tomatoes are horrifically good at not dying. Good luck
How old are the seedlings/when did you plant start them?
https://preview.redd.it/048m057je6oe1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=54928a4799ae9e9cfacc311a3e963617d587bb4c
what zone do you live in? Couldn’t hurt to start a new set up from scratch and compare to see what happened. Like others said I wonder if that cardboard like egg carton container thing just doesn’t work well.
Containers: I use these plastic 1” seed starting thingies and just put it on top of a tray at the bottom, bought a pack from Amazon pretty cheap.
Light: You can see how close they are to the my led shop light, and I’ll adjust when they get leggy if needed.
Soil: i don’t use soil instead I use the sterile seed starting mix
Water: fresh seeds—keep the soil moist until the sprout (the dome helps with this a lot). Once they sprout just keep it fairly damp but not soaked, top crust ok to dry, water from bottom tray. You can start to back off a bit as they grow.
Other: When I first start I keep a heating mat and keep the dome on until they sprout. Once they sprout I remove the dome and heating mat.