Thanks for the reply!! I personally haven't sprayed any herbicide since they were planted but plants are close to neighbors yard so I'll check with neighbor. thanks

Need images, please.

oilrigg, I've never sprouted seeds as you do; I used to use peat-pellets and now sow the seeds in seed-starting mix. I have a similar set-up to yours except mine are in multi-cell inserts in 10x20 flats, and I keep the cool (not grow) fluorescents about an inch above the top leaves. [I have sheets and chunks of styrofoam which I stack under the flats; as the seedlings grow, I remove layers of styrofoam. This saves the hassle of having to raise the lights all the time.] I water them from below, let them sit for 10-20 minutes, then just lift out the insert and switch it for a flat that hasn't been watered yet; this means that ideally the seedlings don't sit in the water too long. I plant 2-5 seeds per cell, depending on the age of the seeds and whether or not I've had trouble germinating them before. I've never noticed any correlation between the number of seeds and the health or size of the seedlings. When I'm transplanting to 16 oz. cups, I can be pretty rough on seedlings; and sometimes I save two seedlings from the same cell, which certainly kills a number of rootlets. I don't know if they respond positively to rough treatment as you speculate, but I do know that it doesn't seem to set them back much.

Can you lead me in any direction of good reads on organic fertilizing? Organic fertilizing in general? Sure, we have a great Organic Gardening forum here. But the problems arise with organic fertilizing in containers. Fertilizing in containers has little in common with fertilizing in-ground.gardening - whether organics or synthetics - just as gardening in containers has little in common with in-ground gardening. Which is why I recommended the Container Gardening forum for the basics. Containers use different soil-less mixes (no dirt since it compacts in containers, doesn't drain well, and causes roots to rot), plants quickly become rootbound in containers (not a problem in the ground) which is why much BIGGER containers is recommended (10-15 gallons for the average tomato plant), plants in containers must be watered much more often than an in ground garden, and every time you water containers the nutrients leach out of the container. So container plants have to be fed regularly - weekly is common - and fed diluted mixes or nutrients based on the size of the containers. So using liquid organic fertilizers work much better than dry granular ferts. Organic fertilizers need bacteria and soil microbes and bugs to convert them to a form usable by the plants. Garden dirt contains them naturally but container mixes don't have those bacteria and such unless you add them to it and do so regularly. Some folks do it with compost and compost or manure teas, and some do it with one of the many liquid bacterial supplements available. So some reading about fertilizers on the Organic Gardening forum will be of help but keep in mind that you are working with containers so much of what in-ground gardeners recommend just work work for you. The Container Gardening forum does have some organic gardeners too however and they can help balance the two issues for you. Dave