Zinnia seedlings growing problems

15 years ago

I started some Tequila Lime Zinnia's from Burpee seeds on 4/9/09. First time growing Zinnia's by the way. The seeds were started in the Burpee Ultimate Growing system with the capillary mat for self-watering and Super Growing Pellets as the starter media. The growing system is doing great, and the zinnia's sprouted great. Now the true leaves are developing but folding length wise? They are kinda of crispy and hard on the edges too. The picture below shows the folded true leaves on my seedlings.

I added a dilluted 25% strength fertilizer into the watering tray about 10 days ago when the first true leaves were just starting to develop. The fertilizer I dilluted was the Bloom Booster from Miracle Grow which is 15-30-15 at full strength (I used 25% strength of that). Perhaps it was too strong still? Any suggestions or ideas is appreciated. The seedlings are still growing from what I can see, and the 2nd set of true leaves are developing.

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Comments (9)

zen_man
15 years ago
skinnyhoops,

Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster is not appropriate for starting seedlings. It has too much phosphorous, and it contains most of its nitrogen as urea, which is unavailable in a sterile medium. In the absence of soil microbes to break it down, urea can accumulate to toxic levels in a sterile medium.

Soluble nutrients frequently have no calcium, which is an essential growth nutrient. And some are deficient in sulfur, which is usually provided as a sulfate.

However, your seedlings are a little young to be exhibiting nutrient deficiencies.

You stated that you used one quarter strength. Was that Â¼ teaspoon per gallon?

ZM
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
15 years ago
that said.. i dont understand why they look all that bad ...

regardless ... just use water ... they should be in the ground .. before those little plants use up whats already in the media ...

what is more curious to me.. is that the neighbor planted his in the ground 2 weeks ago up here in z5 ....

i dont know why you are messing around with them indoors in z9 ... get them into mother earth.. as soon as you can ...

did you water the soil.. or did you wet the foliage???

anything.. including just water.. can hurt seedlings.. sometimes ....

when i did seeds.. i use 10% ... every watering.. your 25% was pretty strong.. for babes of this size ....

good luck

ken
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skinnyhoops
Original Author
15 years ago
zenman, for one quarter strength I just made a gallon of full strength, then I poured 1 quart of full strength solution into a 2nd empty gallon jug. Added 3 quarts of plain water to the 1 quart of full strength solution to dillute it to a 25% strength.

ken_adrian, they're not indoors. They have been outside since day 1, I'm just starting them in this growing system because of our heavy rains and we get alot of snails which attack fresh seedlings alot. The growing media is absorbing water from the capillary mat underneath, and I only put water in the watering tray so no need to water from above. The foilage has remained dry that way. I think it boils down to the high strength fertilizer that I thought was dilluted enough. Looks like it was just too much for them. Live and learn hehe

Thanks for the feedback. :)
token28001
15 years ago
I think you've learned the hard way about fertilizing. I wait until mine are in the ground before giving them anything, if I even bother to fertilize. Slow growers may get a little from time to time, but I rarely feed all my plants.
skinnyhoops
Original Author
15 years ago
I agree, I learned the hard way. Sometimes you have to lose some before you can win some. At least they are still growing from what I can tell.

Today I transplanted some of the bigger plants from my 72-cell growing system into bigger pots. The roots were starting to peek out of the bottom of their starter cells, so now they are in bigger pots for more room to grow.
zen_man
15 years ago
Burpee's Tequila Lime zinnias are an odd lot, in my experience. Several of mine were single, and I discarded them on that basis. I think they have possibilities if you could cross them with large white cactus flowered zinnias. Some of the Tequila Limes have a white center, while others have a light green center. I plan to work with them some more.

ZM
holtzclaw
14 years ago
So Skinnyhoops, how are they looking now? They never looked that bad to me because there is so much diversity among zinnias.
skinnyhoops
Original Author
14 years ago
holtzclaw, they actually recovered very well! below is a picture of them now with lil blooms forming

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holtzclaw
14 years ago
I thought they would be fine. One more reason to love zinnias!

Zinnia seedlings growing problems

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Zinnia seedlings growing problems

Comments (9)

zen_man

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