Problem with my Seedlings

milton_gardener 5/9/2013, 10:10 am

Hi all, I am getting my garden going for this year, and this year for the first time I decided to try starting Tomatoes and Peppers inside.

Everything was going ok for the first few weeks, but lately I have noticed the Tomatoes are not looking too healthy. I tried adding some Bonemeal to the surface of the soil then watering it in, then a week later I added some 5-30-5 liquid diluted to half strength to see if that would help.

Here are some pics:

Problem with my Seedlings 919119_10151633880061217_263161889_o

Problem with my Seedlings 919119_10151633880061217_263161889_o

Problem with my Seedlings 468202_10151633880186217_1219838335_o

Problem with my Seedlings 466966_10151633880291217_900233775_o

Problem with my Seedlings 459936_10151633880396217_1365297525_o

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Not sure whether these can be saved for this year, but would like to do better next year for sure.

**camprn** 5/9/2013, 12:03 pm

I would use a general liquid fertilizer or compost tea to feed them. And get them either into bigger pots or the garden ASAP.

mschaef 5/9/2013, 4:27 pm

looks to me like they need a bigger pot.

twodaend 5/9/2013, 4:47 pm

Mine where looking like that too. I started them off in 2" peat pots and after a while they did not look as healthy. I moved them to 4" peat pots and gave them some weak liquid ferterlizer and after about 2 or 3 days, they perked back up. I also try to take them out and get some real sun shine on nice days.

milton_gardener 5/9/2013, 10:38 pm

Thanks for the replies. I just checked and I am using the 3" square peat pots. I only transplanted them about 10 days ago, so I would be surprised if the roots have already outgrown the pots. Is there any way to confirm it?

Also in terms of fertilizer, can you tell me any product names that you would recommend?

I did take them outside for the first time the other day, but only for an hour or so since it was the first time. I'll try that again.

As you can see the Peppers are doing fine in the same pots. Worst case I will have to hit up the nurseries for some Tomato starts.

Thanks.

twodaend 5/10/2013, 9:14 am

Someone with more experience may be able to answer the fertilizer question better than me, but I ended up borrowing some Miracle Gro liquid fertilizer from a neighbor. I know, I know, it is a chemical fertilizer and not ideal, but the way it was explained to me and the way I took it was that I would rather give my seedlings a little boost now so I don't lose them and give them a proper feeding from now on which seems to have worked and they appear to be doing fine now.

There are some organic liquid fertilizer out there, I just was in a pinch and needed what was handy. I believe there are some liquid seaweed or kelp fertilizers and I've read on the forum about compost tea.

milton_gardener 5/10/2013, 10:13 am

I think I can pretty much rule out the pot size issue. I pulled one of the more dead looking plants out of the pot and the roots haven't even grown out of the peat pellet mesh yet.

I did this partly because I realized that I did not rip open the mesh at the bottom when I transplanted them, and thought maybe the roots can't get out of the mesh, but if that were the case I would have expected to see lots of roots pushing out the mesh, but I did not see that. Seems to be not too much root growth at all.

twodaend 5/10/2013, 10:30 am

Are you bottom watering or top watering? I bottom water so that the roots are forced to grown down and seek out water. I only top water or really just use a spray bottle to mist the the top of the soil to keep it somewhat moist.

twodaend 5/10/2013, 10:40 am

I'm not sure if this is similar to what you see, but I read this post a few days ago about edfhinton who had some trouble with his tomato plants and he used fish emulsion.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t15509-thanks-to-this-forum-tomato-seedlings-on-the-mend

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