Hello from Seattle, WA! New gardener, please help

Good day! I have looked over this forum and i am happy to join such a friendly and knowledgeable site :)I have little to no experience but my aunt has left me her greenhouse and i started some seeds on Jan 31st but i feel like i should have bigger plants by now.. I just used some home depott seeds and 6mo feed moisture control miracle grow. This is what my tom toms look like so far. Anyone have any tips or advice.. i would appreciate! Or do they look alright?

- I cannot get my pictures to upload!! Help please

 Welcome to the forum.

You can find instructions for uploading pictures here:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t16654-video-tutorial-how-to-post-a-picture-located-on-your-computer

  to the forum! Try the photos again and we'll see if we can help.

Thanks to the instructional vid i can now show my baby tom toms:

Hi again - so glad the video helped you. Now you know my fake "I'm being recorded and have to sound nice and professional" voice. Ha!

Your tomato seedlings look great! The cool thing about tomatoes is you can bury their stems and they'll grow more roots right out of them. Many people start them in much smaller pots (single cells if you've seen the multi-cell seed starting kits) and then when they get their first true leaves, which you have, transplant them deeper into bigger pots, burying their whole stem up to their first true set of leaves. Since you already have them in a big pot, you can make a collar for them out of a yogurt container or something: cut the bottom off and slide it over your seedling, then fill in with more of your planting medium. Yours don't look leggy or unhealthy at all, just something you can do to get a good strong root system going.

Happy gardening!

Thank you gwennifer. I did plant them in the little squares and then when i saw the leaves growing i transplanted them into these little bigger pots. I will def do what you suggest for the roots. But should i transplant them into bigger pots? I have a few pots* that are an inch or 2 bigger. Or should i wait till they grow a bit more? This was my very first attempt at planting seeds (I have spearmint, okra, lettuce and a zinnia in pots too) and i was worried they were not growing fast enough - There is SO much to learn about gardening it is intimidating at times. I have a lot of googling to do!

Oh no, don't transplant them.  The pots are plenty big.

So the plants look perfectly healthy, but if you feel they aren't growing fast enough we need some more information.  When did you plant them?  Seeds have everything they need to sprout and grow up to their first set of leaves, and then if they don't receive the nutrients they need, especially nitrogen, that's when you'll see them stop growing.

Ah, i see. I planted them the first week of Feb. and i used 6 mo feed - moisture control soil.  But i bought some miracle grow all purpose water soluble fert for after.

Okay so can anyone pitch in and say whether 4-5 week old tomato seedlings should have grown more by now?

A lot would have to do with the weather.  I do not transplant my seedlings until first true leaves and then I put them in 4 inch pots.  I'm basically against Miracle Gro.  I'm sorry but I don't remember why but it has something to do with it's composition.  

That's a keen idea to surround the little darlings with the yogurt cups.

You are off to a great start.  Your tomatoes look fantastic.  It's very nice that you have a greenhouse.
 
I think the weather has a huge affect on where seedlings will be at a certain time  during development.   When I planted my tomato seeds about two weeks ago, I put mine on top of our refrigerator (I'm really not sure if that helped, but I suppose it couldn't have hurt).  My seedlings are getting their first true leaves.  I have been putting them in the sun during the day (weather here has been weird, but sometimes it is sunny and warm).  I bring the seedlings in at night.  All that bother can amount to a lot of work... so I'm not suggesting it.  It's just what has been working for me.

Regardless, the folks participating in this forum are passionate about gardening.  You can count on getting a lot of good advice here.

Most of all:  Welcome! and enjoy gardening!!

 

The temp of the soil when germinating seeds is a big influence on the time it takes. According to the chart in the ANSFG book, tomato seeds take 45 days to germinate at 50° and 8 days at 68°. Are your pots receiving any supplemental heat ie. from a heat mat, heating pad, on top of the fridge, etc.?

I agree it all depends on the temps and how long it took them to germinate.....

we planted our tomato seeds in solo party cups, inside the house the first of march....

ours are just now coming up, and are about 2 in's tall, but no true leaves yet....

happy gardening
rose

Lol - I knew I should have asked you more than just when you planted the seeds. Is your concern that they seem to have hardly grown since they've sprouted? Or did they take forever to sprout in the first place?

boffer wrote:The temp of the soil when germinating seeds is a big influence on the time it takes.  According to the chart in the ANSFG book, tomato seeds take 45 days to germinate at 50° and 8 days at 68°.  Are your pots receiving any supplemental heat ie. from a heat mat, heating pad, on top of the fridge, etc.?

Well i had a heater going on med. when i planted them to keep the temp at around 80(I know they need to be warmer when they are babies but is that too hot?) But then when the leaves started to grow and i transplanted them i turned the heater to very low and have been keeping a temp of between 68-70. I have not taken them outside at all cause i thought in a greenhouse you don't have to...?

Thank you for all the replies and advice   

gwennifer wrote:Lol - I knew I should have asked you more than just when you planted the seeds.  Is your concern that they seem to have hardly grown since they've sprouted?  Or did they take forever to sprout in the first place?

They sprouted at around a week. So yes i am concerned about their growth rate. My neighbor was surprised after 30 days at how small they were... but he might not know anything either! LOL or maybe i am just being paranoid and am wishing they'd be bigger already! I do LOVE tomatoes!

   - cherry tomato

Okay well I'm no expert, but they seem small to me if the temps are okay out there in your greenhouse.

So it's like I said earlier about seeds. They have everything they need right inside of them to sprout and grow up to about their first true set of leaves. After that, you'll see growth come to a halt if they can't find any outside nutrition.

Okay thank you, good to know. Hopefully i can get them back on track! Does anyone have a suggestion for what kind of fert to use for my baby toms? Or should i be buying the individual nutrients and mixing my own? I dont know ANYTHING about fertilizers.

fish emulsion  or for this LIMITED emergency half strenth miracle gro.  I don't like miracle gro but it will give plants an emergency boost when nutrients are missing.  

Kay

Thank you Walshevak! I mixed the miracle grow half strength like you suggested and watered them down pretty good on Thurs. left them for 3 days and today they look great! I should also give praise to gwennifer.. i did not have time to do the yogurt cups but i did add more dirt to give the stems more "dirt area" to grow stronger. My plants have almost doubled in size and the leaves are beautiful and green

Cool how fast plants can take off once they get the nutrients they need.  Thanks for the update. 

Happy gardening!