Tomato seedlings growing VERY slowly! Help needed badly!
rogueseedling
8 years ago
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8 years agoRelated Discussions
Seedlings growing slowly
Comments (5)It also completely depends on what you are growing. At 4 weeks my tomatoes are working on their 4th set of true leaves, while some of my peppers are barely starting their second set and are 1/3 the height. Some things just grow more slowly. At 2-3 weeks fert shouldn't be the issue they dont really need it yet. Short and healthy is better than tall and spindly - just be patient. In zone 8 most of them could probably already be outside, they will grow faster out there....See Moreseedlings growing VERY slow.
Comments (33)Mike, I have nothing against Miracle Grow water-soluble fertilizer and, in fact, do use it sometimes myself. It is just that I prefer to use organic fertilizers most of the time. One difference between most organic fertilizers and most synthetic fertilizers is that the synthetic fertilizers seem to give the plants a bigger boost more quickly, although that is not necessarily desirable in some cases. Why is a big, quick boost in growth sometimes undesirable? There's lots of reasons, but the one that I am most concerned about is that sometimes the ones that verge towards being a bit high in nitrogen will cause more top growth to occur too quickly and the still-immature and smaller root system cannot support that top growth. Also, if you're working to create biologically healthy soil with lots of microbes, synthetic fertilizers can have an adverse effect on your microbe level so those fertilizers are working against you in your effort to create soil that is teeming with microbes. I like using the Espoma line of dry fertilizers because they do contain some of the microbes needed in biologically active soil. However, I've liked them less and used them less since they changed the formula of the Tomato-Tone a few years ago. I think that there is room for both synthetic and organic fertilizers in any gardening program, particular when we are talking about growing plants in containers. Because container growing here requires so much watering in the summer, even with very large containers, it can be hard to grow in containers organically because of the way the constant watering leaches nutrients from the soil. In a year when we have tons of rainfall (here in my part of OK, I'm thinking back to 2010, 2007 and 2004), the constant rain can keep the root systems of the plants so saturated with water that they cannot take up adequate nutrition and the plants will stall in growth and develop a sickly color, that generally indicates a lack of nutrition because of the waterlogged roots. In a case like that, I'll spray the foliage of the plants with a water soluable fertilizer because at least that way they are getting some nutrition. Using Miracle Grow in this way pretty much saved my garden in 2007, and also in 2009 when a freak of-nature rainstorm dumped almost 13" of rain over our part of the county in one 24-hour period. The last thing my plants needed was more water on their roots, so by using a water-soluble fertilizer sprayed on the foliage, I could give them food without waterlogging the roots even more. Larry, Everyone I know here at the southern end of OK is way behind too. Pretty much all I've seen in any garden other than mine is onions. I do think some of my fellow gardeners here will be trying to get the rest of their cool-season crops in the ground this weekend because it is getting too late to put it off any longer. I have onions, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, radishes, potatoes, sugar snap peas, strawberries and some herbs and flowers growing now, but the only ones that really went into the ground on time were the onions, and I feel like I've been playing catch-up with everything else. Oh, and the tomato plants in the one early bed, which were planted my favorite way--early. The rest of my tomato plants (the ones I grew myself) aren't fully hardened-off, and won't be for another few weeks. I keep moving them into the shade-cloth covered greenhouse to get them out of the strong winds, so it has been hard to get them the ever-increasing increments of light needed to harden them off. This year its been a one step forward two steps back effort with the hardening off of the plants. I've got tons and tons of seedlings on the light shelf indoors and might move a bunch of them outside to the greenhouse later today. I am fighting a losing battle because the minute I move a flat or multiple flats of plants to the greenhouse, I feel compelled to fill up the empty shelves on the light shelf by starting more seeds. Carsonsmimi, Well, April is around the corner and it usually brings the onset of severe weather, so it might not be so bad to be a little behind with the seedlings. When the early-April severe weather hits, your seedling babies will be safe indoors. It's so hard to put them in the ground at the time that feels right if the weather forecast shows the potential for severe weather that same day. I cannot tell you how many times I have said "the heck with the weather, I'm planting" and then have had hail hit my seedlings the very same day I put them in the ground. It would be so much easier to be gardeners in Oklahoma if the weather didn't have so many ways to attack our gardens. It isn't fair that we have to worry about frost and freezing temperatures overnight and early in the morning, and then worry about high wind, wildfires, hail, and tornadoes the rest of the time. Kim, The very first time I bought fish emulsion and opened up the bottle, I thought I had bought something that had gone bad. : ) It sure is stinky stuff. Dawn...See MoreAre my scorpion moruga seedlings growing too slowly?
Comments (4)I started mine in January and they are quite tall (reaching for light). Lost some leaves due to crowding so they are not the prettiest plants. My question is some of the Trinidad Scorpions have branched off to be a Y or even X shape and others are like a foot tall with no signs of off shoots. Is that a concern? Do they need to be pruned to produce another shoot. nervous pruning the main stalk with nothing else growing out the side and very little leaves... I started my 7 pots in Feb and they are small still. Only a few inches but several leaves and healthy. They have been the slowest to grow out of my bhuts, scorpions, habs, scotch bonnets and a few other hot ones....See Moreseedlings growing so slowly
Comments (9)thanks for all the messages! i checked, and my seed starting mix doesn't have ca, mag, or sulfur, so i'll add ironite as my fertilizer. i also supplemented it with dolomitic lime. i am using the miracle gro seed starting potting mix. the weather is warm outside, so i've started hardening them off. however, what about my other seedlings? my other seedlings are 2 weeks old and don't have any true leaves yet. should i take them out so they can enjoy the sun too? or leave them on the window sill, where they get around 3 hours of sun? and yes, i have been noticing that my leaves are turning yellow, so i'm hoping ironite works....See Moredigdirt2
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