Will the runts make good?

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Just curious on others experiences here. Normally I cull ruthlessly when I pot up, if there are 4 of a variety and 1 is half the size of the other three it goes into the bucket with the spent seed starting mix.

However, this year one of the somewhat rare varieties I'm growing was mostly immature seeds and had poor germination. I do finally have 2 healthy looking seedlings, but I have 3 'runts' that are 1/4 of the size of the normal ones.

Since I'll baby the two 'good ones' I have by keeping them in seperate trays so I can't lose both of them to a slip and planting them in seperate locations to protect against environmental disasters I think I'm unlikely to lose both. Still, for some reason I'm reluctant to compost these particular runts.

Have you kept your runts before and have they grown out of it and produced?

[tam91]

I had "runts", from immature seeds. Fertilized them, and they took off and caught up to the rest, produced just fine.

[janezee]

That's a relief! I'm in the same situation as mark, and I was just about to pitch my reserve tray, when I found out that a couple of starts didn't make it. One damped off, and a couple just withered up. Not sure what happened there. But I have some runts in the tray, so into pots they go today.
Thanks!

j

[RebelRidin]

I am glad to hear that myself. The Matt's Wild Cherry are still pitifully small.

Time to give them a snack!

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by RebelRidin

I am glad to hear that myself. The Matt's Wild Cherry are still pitifully small.

Time to give them a snack!

My Matt's are huge but the Cherokee Purples are small.
Makes me wonder if it's the seed quality? In the past, I tried Matt's from another source and it was weak, couldn't get any of my seedlings to survive long enough to plant out. Tried a new seed source and they are strong/huge. This year, using a different source of CPs and they are weaker than usual.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Ok, I was going to give everything a dunk in a weak fish and seaweed mix next early next week, we'll see if that gives these little guys an incentive to catch up.

Thanks!

[janezee]

Thanks, mark, I'll do that as soon as they dry out.
Drat, I just watered yesterday!

j

[Garf]

This time I tried another experiment. This time it worked. I bottom watered some seedlings with a fertilizer tea and they are doing very well.

[tam91]

I was told last year that the tiny seedlings that refuse to grow are likely from immature seeds. While the seed usually has enough nutrients to sustain the seedlings for a while, the immature ones lack nutrients, so fertilizing those helps.

[Worth1]

Runts do just fine.
I used to get the runt of the litters from a hog and dairy farmer and they did great too.
They just need tender loving care for a wee bit.

Worth

[Mudman]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Runts do just fine.
I used to get the runt of the litters from a hog and dairy farmer and they did great too.
They just need tender loving care for a wee bit.

Worth

And they are more tender.

[lakelady]

Mark, my "runts" are starting to catch up now, even though it didn't look like they would at all, once separated out of the same cup with the stronger seedling, and given some TLC they look really good now. I'm using them as "backups" in case the bigger ones don't make it for some reason.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

I normally don't fertilize anything until they've been potted up the second time for a week to 10 days, but I went ahead and gave these little babies a shot yesterday with a tiny dose of dilute fish emulsion with a couple of drops of seaweed extract in it. They're so tiny I don't want to try moving them at this point, I doubt they're 1/2" tall after having been up for more than a week.

I think this is the only down side to the dense planting method, in this case I'm reluctant to pull the good seedlings out and pot them up for fear of damaging the runts roots too much. But it's quickly going to become a problem as the more robust ones are putting out their first set of true leaves and will quickly overshadow the little guys if I don't move them.

I have hope though!