I never use any soil based mix in containers and it certainly isn't recommended in such small containers. Soil-less mixes only. You'll find numerous discussions here about the problems with soil and compost in containers. Compacts and drains poorly, retains too much water for such small seedlings and causes root rot. Plus it provides no nutrients. The pale and yellowing color of them indicates both over-watering and lack of nutrients, especially nitrogen and both problems are tied to the fill in your containers. The cotyledons should still be robust and green but they clearly are not which tells you the plants are too wet and hungry. Plus you are using clear cups and roots are negative phototropic (hate light) and there is far too much soil for many of the smallest seedlings. It is sort of like putting a baby in the deep end of the big pool instead of the kiddie pool. :-) They struggle to keep from drowning. Ideally for best odds of survival they would all be transplanted out of that soil into an actual growing mix in amounts proportionate to their size and fed. It just depends on how much work you want to do and how long before they can go outside. Before next year you might want to do some reading over on the Growing from Seed forum here - a good set of FAQs there on all the basics. Dave

Obviously, I'm a very novice gardener, but I read that you could get a second crop in this area and we had a really cool July (low 70's) so we gave it a try. We had so much trouble this year with our garden. We got squash borers and they seemed to take out our zucchini plants over night. That was really sad, because they were really huge and healthy and started dying just when it was time to harvest. We only got 2 zucchini out of 3 plants. I had never heard of squash borers before and I read they rarely attack cucumbers...I guess we're special because they got all of those and our cantaloupe too! I don't know if we're going to have a garden again next year. All that work starting them indoors, transplanting, caring for them for months just to lose them...it's been very frustrating! My neighbor was just the icing on the cake, ya know?

carolyn - I might have a couple things going on. I just looked at a small seedling--it's about an inch tall, and starting to get its first leaves--that fell over yesterday. It seemed pretty wilted, and I thought it was dead for sure. But it's standing up again, so I think it'll be alright. It was probably overwatered. And it's been exposed to cold and windy weather. Sometimes outside in a low tunnel, and sometimes out in the open. My other issue is with some taller seedlings. I didn't get these out into the sun quick enough after they sprouted, so they got leggy. And they've probably been overwatered too. They're maybe 2 1/2 inches tall, and most don't have their first leaves yet. Some of these have been falling over, and they seem kinda thin and white (not brown) at the soil line. Some of these don't make it, but I think most are recovering. And I propped some of them up by adding some soil mix around the base. I'm not sure if it helps, but at least they look better that way:) So I think my main problem is overwatering. Then exposure to the weather, since most recover after they've been in the house for a while. But I need to get them back outside, or they won't get enough light. Although it's cloudy and rainy, so I don't know that they're missing out on much right now. Also, they get lots of ventilation, so I don't think that's a problem.

I searched "tomatoes fell over" in Google and this page came up first. Just so happens I'm a member! Ha. As for the original post, sometimes tomatoes will shoot up tall and straight, but they are always going to flop sooner or later so that's why you go ahead and stake them in some manner. I plant mine in straight rows with wire (cheap roll of small gauge flexible wire you can get at Home Depot, etc.) on either side (parallel) of landscape timbers spaced every six or eight feet. The wires start a couple of feet from the ground and I run three or four courses up to five or six feet high. As the maters grow I make sure they stay between the wires and later on use panty hose as necessary to train the errant limbs. (For better results pinch off the vines closest to the bottom as they sprout.) But I came here to regarding seedlings in particular. They flop too and when they do it's game over. When I first started growing my tomato plants I used a grow light. Then, later when I started buying at the store I forgot all of that. When I decided to grow again all my plants fell over. It nearly drove me crazy! The reason was that I wasn't using a light. (It only took me three seasons to re-figger out the light angle! Dumb dumb dumb!) The moment the seedlings erupt you need to put them in the sun when possible and under a light of some kind at night. I use a couple of florescent lights.set near to the tops of the new growth seedlings. You do this and they won't flop over. Don't and they will, guaranteed. There can be other causes for flop, most going back to careless gardening habits. But one is sneaky for the beginner. You must never ever use old moldy growing medium...You know, the half bag you had left over from last year that has fuzz on top this year. That kind of soil will kill baby plants in about a half of a wink. Use fresh, or bake the old stuff, or just be darned sure your leftover hasn't gone over. Hope this helps. Mystery solved for floppy stringy, tall, dead tomato seedlings. Give 'em the light light light! All day and all night! Your tomato growing pal, Norm This post was edited by TheNorm on Sat, Jan 31, 15 at 14:30