Curled leaf on potted up seedlings?

15 years ago

I recently potted up my Brandywine seedlings, which had just gotten their true leaves. I removed the netting from the peat pellets, moistened the peat and gently separated the plants (I planted three seeds per pellet per the instructions on the pellet box). Then I put them into 18-ounce plastic cups with large drain holes cut into the bottom. Initially I was using MG Organic potting mix, but then I read catman's terrible reviews of the stuff and switched to the normal MG mix. I watered them thoroughly, and have been keeping them under grow lights.

Now it's been almost a week and, while the plants are getting taller, the leaves on some of the plants are wilted slightly, and curled on others. Is this a normal "shock" from the process that they will recover from or is it something more serious? One thing that may be at fault is that I've been leaving the lights on 24/7. Does that stress the plants? I have seen people saying they only run the lights 16 hours, but no one seems to indicate that too much light is a bad thing. I'll try and get some pictures tonight if that would help.

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Comments (7)

jbann23
15 years ago
IMO leaving the lights on for 24 doesn't help tomatoes at all. They grow in the dark after taking up light energy during the day. Try it, you'll notice considerable growth after eight hours or more of dark time.
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cfed
Original Author
15 years ago
Here's an image of the curled leaves. When I put them in the cups, I buried them down to the bottom set of leaves. So, as you can see, they've definitely grown... but I'm worried.

I got a timer last night, so they'll only get 16 hours of light now. Was it likely that was the problem, or could it be some kind of shock associated with being transplanted like this?

{{gwi:1313622}}
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jbann23
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Hi again. If my memory serves- when potting up you should expect some signs of stress in the plants as they grow a more prominent root system. That leaf curl should go away in a week. Keep your moisture evenly distributed. Best of luck.
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cfed
Original Author
15 years ago
Awesome news. I'm a first-timer and I was sure I'd royally borked something.

One thing I did that I also worried about was, when I was separating the seedlings that were growing together in the same peat pellet, I completely immersed the pellet in a bowl of water while gently washing away enough peat to be able to pull the roots apart with minimal damage. In hindsight I worried that the complete immersion like that might've been unwise.
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tn_veggie_gardner
15 years ago
I had the same thing happen on a few of my mater plants when I potted them up a few weeks ago. They are all quite healthy and growing nice. Some of them still have a leaf or maybe two that are still curled a bit though. So, it must be normal. =)
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rj_hythloday
15 years ago
Many of mine are curled like that, I potted up into more seed starting mix, which I'm regretting. Next year I'll definitely pot up into a container mix to allow better moisture retention than the peat is giving me.
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cheri_in_maine
15 years ago
Mine are doing the exact same thing. I potted up in MG potting mix two weeks ago. The leaves are curling under and some leaves have crispy edges. I don't believe I've underwatered. I hope it's just transplant shock, but it's been 2 weeks. I've never had this problem.
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Curled leaf on potted up seedlings?

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Curled leaf on potted up seedlings?

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