Planting out seedlings before there time

schill93 · March 5, 2017

I have a dilemma that hopefully you more experienced gardeners can help me with
I made a big mistake and listened to someone who is supposed to be an expert when I purchased my mix for my new raised bed. He told me that the same mix would would work "Great" for small plants in containers as well.

Well, I decided to take him at his word, and after delivery when I was going to transplant many of my seedlings into 4" pots from the seedling trays, I used this soil, but added some perlite and vermiculite to it.

What has happened: My plants that I up potted to my Fox Farm soil mix grew appropriately. Those I planted with the raised bed soil, did not. So now I have over half of my tomato plants stunted and only about 5 to 7" tall.

Earlier when I first realized I had a problem, I decided to try and transplant some of them to the better mix, but the soil was so hard around them, I decided to just remove what soil I could and try and preserve the roots best I could. This worked in only about 1 in 8 attempts, so I decided to stop killing my tomatoes.

Unfortunately, no miracles occurred, and they are still very small, and I am now faced with the decision of planting them out anyway, or transplanting them to a larger container with good mix, but not taking off the old and waiting another two weeks. (very late for me) What would be my better choice?

It is already late for getting plants in the ground here due to a cold spell this week.
Or are they just toast, no matter what I do?

March 5, 2017	#1
schill93 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2015 Location: Nevada Posts: 275	Planting out seedlings before there time I have a dilemma that hopefully you more experienced gardeners can help me with I made a big mistake and listened to someone who is supposed to be an expert when I purchased my mix for my new raised bed. He told me that the same mix would would work "Great" for small plants in containers as well. Well, I decided to take him at his word, and after delivery when I was going to transplant many of my seedlings into 4" pots from the seedling trays, I used this soil, but added some perlite and vermiculite to it. What has happened: My plants that I up potted to my Fox Farm soil mix grew appropriately. Those I planted with the raised bed soil, did not. So now I have over half of my tomato plants stunted and only about 5 to 7" tall. Earlier when I first realized I had a problem, I decided to try and transplant some of them to the better mix, but the soil was so hard around them, I decided to just remove what soil I could and try and preserve the roots best I could. This worked in only about 1 in 8 attempts, so I decided to stop killing my tomatoes. Unfortunately, no miracles occurred, and they are still very small, and I am now faced with the decision of planting them out anyway, or transplanting them to a larger container with good mix, but not taking off the old and waiting another two weeks. (very late for me) What would be my better choice? It is already late for getting plants in the ground here due to a cold spell this week. Or are they just toast, no matter what I do?