What brand of soilless mix did you use? Was it specifically labeled as a "seed starting" mix?

Did you fertilize them?

Are all the newspaper potted tomatoes lagging behind?

Did you poke any drain holes in the newspaper pots?

KJB starts off as a very delicate plant. I start the seeds barely covered, maybe 1/16th inch deep, never more than 1/8th inch deep. The roots are quite fine at first, keep in mind the seeds are tiny, maybe 1/32" to 1/16"

I personally never have had any luck using newspaper pots. Depending on height & diameter, they either sometimes get moldy if too wet, or dry hard as a rock. Earl has had success with them but his are huge--soup can at the smallest, on up to 4-5" diameter or more, mostly for larger plants already well developed.

Maybe Trudi will pop in here, she's had the most success growing KJB.

I used miracle gro ("potting mix with moisture control" I think) for all my seedlings and had a very high success with all but the 2nd batch of tomatoes.

No fertilizer, there's composted horse poo in the dirt where they are planted, and this is the first year of the garden.

This is what I grew in the second, newspaper pot batch:

A) Bonny Best - purple under leaves, seems stuck
B) Burbank Red Slicing - I think this one is doing OK.
C) Burpee's Delicious - doing OK
D) Golden Jubilee - purple under leaves, seems stuck
E) Beefsteak - doing OK
JB) Korney's Jelly Bean - purple under leaves, seems stuck but hasn't grown at all, teeny tiny leaves, like maybe 1/4 inch long

Thank you!!!!

I took the newspaper pots off and put them back in the dirt! And they're growing!!!! Even the KJB is about 6 inches tall and has 3 sets of branches. :) It reminds me of miniature rose leaves.

All the rest of them are bigger. Meanwhile their big brothers and sisters are already setting fruit.

Thank you. :)