Have you read the How to grow tomatoes from seed FAQ here? It should give you several clues as to what you are doing wrong. Usually direct seeding is more difficult and much less successful than growing from seed is. From your info above the most likely cause of your problems is damp-off, a fungal disease that kills young seedlings when you try to grow them in anything but fresh sterile potting mix and when you keep the containers too wet. Banana peels serve no purpose except to interfere with root development and provide no benefits. And compost, while great for established plants, contains both bacteria and fungi that can kill young seedlings. You'll also find a great deal of help over on the Growing from Seed forum here. It has a detailed set of FAQS covering all the basics. Dave

I just finished The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, I enjoyed it. I finished All The Way To The Tigers by Mary Morris today, it was a great glimpse into India and a woman's quest to see tigers in their natural habitat after a debilitating accident. A friend recommended Scythe by Neal Shusterman that was ok, I am not really into science fiction. I also listened twice to the audible book Thicker Than Water by Tyler Schultz the whistleblower of the Theranos scandal. It was fabulous. I am now reading Pico Iyer's, The Lady and The Monk. Has anyone here read Pico Iyer? He is an amazing writer, poetic in a realistic relatable way. I am enjoying seeing Kyoto through his descriptions. This has been been my August reading. I also started The Island of The Sea of Women by Lisa See. I put it down halfway through, not for me. Lisa See is one of my favorite authors, but I did not enjoy this book.

I finally finished The Heart's Invisible Furies. It was just ok...I was highly disappointed it wasn't better, as I'd seen some raves about it and had to wait forever for it from the library. The story is good enough, as is the writing, but the underlying current of educating the reader about the issues presented in the book just kind of rankles me. I guess if you don't know very much about the things he's lecturing you about, it can be educational, but very off-putting to me. The contrived situations allowing for a point to be made, the over the top coincidences "two Cyrils"??? just fell flat for me. I'm being vague so as to not write any spoilers. It had the same effect on me as some Jody Picoult books, always trying to write a story to fit her lesson plan. I started Anxious People and so far am intrigued. I think I'll like it overall. It is filled with writing that makes me really think, in a philosophical way. Little sentences that make me think, "Whoa! That really is profound." It's very different, the way he's telling the story, but I think it will work for me. I've liked most of his other books (except for Beartown, where i just couldn't get beyond the small town sports crazy aspect, so I put it down almost immediately). So, I expect to like this one, too. (cross posted to POV forum)

MyerMike - I have an Iphone. I can edit, I do see the 3 little dots but I use Safari, not the app. IIRC, someone on here said Safari worked better than the app? The prob. I have (and wonder if you or other apple users have had as well) is that when I type, after the 1st sentence or so, the words start showing up on a delay, like Im typing away but no words showing up on my post but then a few seconds later, ALL the words start showing up quickly, all at once, that I just typed. Really annoying!! Earlier today I tried to respond to a post on here & I got the ”OOPS! This page cannot be found” error msg for about an hour. I think the site went down?