Fried seedlings

[Labradors2]

Rats!

I decided to give my tomato seedlings a boost and had been taking them off the sunny windowsill and putting them underneath the Halogen lights in my kitchen for five hours in the evenings. Hubby complained..... but set up a small table for the seedlings and one of those clip-on lights with a regular light bulb in it.

Having read that you can put the seedlings 4" beneath fluorescent bulbs, I put them close, but my bulb was incandescent..... After a few hours, I noticed that some of the seedlings looked a little worse for wear and, even though I turned off the lamp, they were not happy campers this morning and the leaves looked fried. I guess I will know tomorrow whether they will live. Luckily some of the seedlings were further away from the bulb, and seem unaffected.

After all of that, we found a Grow Light bulb (shaped like a flood) in the cupboard, and the instructions say "no more than 18" from the plants".

Lesson learned......

Linda

[bluebonnets]

Hope the little troopers make it!

[Doug9345]

In the early summer of 2012 I forgot a cup of Rutger tomatoes in the back window of a car. About 11am when I wanted to pot them up and couldn't find them it hit me where they must be. All the leaves where crispy and the cup very dry. I got them in the shade watered them and in a weeks time 17 of 20 had little leaves on them.

[Labradors2]

Thanks for the support guys!

I had to smile at Doug putting his seedlings in the car! I have often thought of brewing yoghurt in the car, as it's so lovely and warm inside when the sun is out. I'm glad to hear that so many of your seedlings recovered.

Two of mine have sturdy stems at least, the other one is barely out of the ground and, although its cotyledons aren't crispy, they don't look very happy - more distorted. Guess I will just haave to be more patient and wait to see what happens.

Linda

[Doug9345]

I was doing the carry them in and out routine. I had plants in a pick up truck, a dump truck and a car. I had done a dense planting in 3 1/2 oz cups because I had limited heated shelf space. I also figured germination would be lower than it was. At the time some of the seed had been bought 5 years before and I figured I would have lower germination. It was a factor with the peppers , but not really the tomatoes as I think I finally unded up with a 83% germination rate over all. I'm tend want to find a place to plant every last plant so I ended up being over run with plants.

[Labradors2]

Aha! I know the feeling - plant too many seedlings, then you are stuck with nurturing them and hardening off, until you can find good homes for them (or else you sneak them in different spots in the garden). Last year I planted two in the rhubarb patch. Next year I'm wondering if I could put some dwarfs in the front flower garden.....

Linda