Insanely slow seedling growth!

royceag · June 8, 2013

Hi All,

I started my hothouse tomato seed sowing very late this year- only 1 month ago. I was still dealing with the trauma of last year's growing season- nightmare heat, bugs, disease, etc- emotionally scarred me!

Here's the short backstory. I've always been an idiot savant regarding germination- growing is a very different story, but I can germinate most anything with little effort (usually freakishly fast, too). Last year my various seeds germinated in about 1-3 days, I was potting up around Day 21-24 and planting out my multi-leafed, robust, 10-14" tall 'seedlings' by Day 29-30. I didn't even fertilized before planting out- I always use soil-less mix for sowing.

This year, I bought all my seeds from the same source- Blue Ribbon Tomatoes. I proceeded as usually with my red plastic cups & soil-less mix and all 21 varieties did germinate with almost 100% success (albeit more slowly: 5-7 days). Since then the seedlings have just sort of languished for days-weeks. No damping off or disease but, almost no growth either. It's now Day 29 and my mostly 2-3" tall seedlings barely have their true leaves; 2 varieties haven't gotten any at all, yet. At this rate, they may be ready to plant out by next year! Yes, it's been damper & a bit cooler than last year but, the weather hasn't affected anything I direct sowed- probably even helped my zucchini & other squash. I've never seen anything like this and wonder what I can do to expedite the process. I would like to avoid a repeat of this next year so, any advice would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks so much, Royce

June 8, 2013	#1
royceag Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Charlotte, NC 7b Posts: 42	Insanely slow seedling growth! Hi All, I started my hothouse tomato seed sowing very late this year- only 1 month ago. I was still dealing with the trauma of last year's growing season- nightmare heat, bugs, disease, etc- emotionally scarred me! Here's the short backstory. I've always been an idiot savant regarding germination- growing is a very different story, but I can germinate most anything with little effort (usually freakishly fast, too). Last year my various seeds germinated in about 1-3 days, I was potting up around Day 21-24 and planting out my multi-leafed, robust, 10-14" tall 'seedlings' by Day 29-30. I didn't even fertilized before planting out- I always use soil-less mix for sowing. This year, I bought all my seeds from the same source- Blue Ribbon Tomatoes. I proceeded as usually with my red plastic cups & soil-less mix and all 21 varieties did germinate with almost 100% success (albeit more slowly: 5-7 days). Since then the seedlings have just sort of languished for days-weeks. No damping off or disease but, almost no growth either. It's now Day 29 and my mostly 2-3" tall seedlings barely have their true leaves; 2 varieties haven't gotten any at all, yet. At this rate, they may be ready to plant out by next year! Yes, it's been damper & a bit cooler than last year but, the weather hasn't affected anything I direct sowed- probably even helped my zucchini & other squash. I've never seen anything like this and wonder what I can do to expedite the process. I would like to avoid a repeat of this next year so, any advice would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks so much, Royce __________________ All the best, Royce