Seedlings Require Help..

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

You'll want to wet any media that comes out of the bag so dry. The biggest reason is so that you don't breathe the dust it puts off. It also makes it easier to work with.

Hi ..Thanks Yes I should wet it in the bag first then later cut the bag off after its put in its drum..There is a lot of dust....They look different to the Mature plants i got in January (last Season) so I hope they perform as well..although something tells me they won't......

Now I have to stop myself growing laterals or else I will end up with another 100 plants??
Regards Ron

[MissS]

Not only moisten the soil in the bag, but if the roots are root-bound and in a tight ball then try to tease the outer roots apart with your fingers so that they are free of the root ball. If that is too difficult then just take a knife and give them a vertical cut downwards in 4-5 places and open them up some. It will not harm the plant and will allow the roots to grow outwards.

[murihikukid]

Patti...I have already transplanted them but there is only eight so I could try and lift them and do something like that ...I do know that unless the roots grow out of the original root ball they will not produce.....I just do not understand the dryness and the tightness of the soil and the roots within the plastic planting bag...
AS you know my knowledge is very minimal but l just do not like these plants ...can one apply that much nitrogen to a plant that the leaves turn a dark green and very "hard" too touch cause what I have read I would say that these plants have been grown in a nitrogen mix?? Whether that is good or bad I do not know but none of my own plants are like this and I wonder if mine have a lack of nitrogen ...That is two lots of Tasty Toms I have purchased (the original two and these "mature" ones) and both have concerned me...in different ways....and still do....
The Tasty Toms I purchased back in January were a benchmark for me in everyway ...they grew beautifully ..were a healthy green and not hard to the touch and after an initial disease scare they produced a lot of fruit over a long time and it was a disappointment that I was unable to buy similar again but quite frankly I was in a position that I was unsure of whether they were going to supply me dispite their assurances...Maybe I can try to overlap some of my best plants and use cuttings for next season ?? if that is at all possible..and get away from this reliance on garden centres who never admit any wrong??
One thing I do note...I bought an earlier Tasty Tom from the same grower and it had very green leaves and those leaves still have their colour but the growth since it has been in my greenhouse is a different green ....its quite noticable so it would seem to me that is my soil mix .....anyway I am sure you will have some comments for me....
Now I have posted photos ...3 of the Tasty Toms and one of my Myras Delight as a contrast ...Thanks Ron

[murihikukid]

Patti ...The original soil will be intact which means I can carefully remove the soil I added round the original and lift it out ...Of course water has been applied and it could fall apart but I do not think it would ....Now I would need to be putting it in a large bucket while I do whatever you think I should do.....I could also dunk the whole original soil in water say with a Seasol mix for a few minutes that might do some good ?? The drums I used are slightly larger than my normal ones so It should not be that bad working with them apart from losing the Mycorihzae I used on them...

The Myra's Delight is one of two plants I used the CX Hydroponics on...It has had two lots about 10 -14 days apart of a 1ml to a Litre of Growth Enhancer and 1ml to a Litre of Head Masta...(2 litres mix)...It looks alright although with all this green it could be light in colour as it may seem with all my plants......I really need this plant to succeed...I am sure I have others amongst the "unknown" plants from the tray I knocked over ..... That tray had been written up on my computer so i know at least exactly what was in it when i find it.....

I will wait for your reply ....Today my other job is finding out exactly what my so called automatic watering system is doing......cause I made changes with a new wick and now I have to establish if the reservoirs are actually leaking (and i do not think they are ) or where all the water is going to....
I will remove the wicks from 5 or 6 drums and refill with water and see what happens....If the water holds .......That means the new wick material is wicking 500 times faster than I thought it would...amazing ....I have another wicking material much slower that might work ...It has worked on the two bottle test although very slowly so it could be the one......and its actually the stretch fabric that one can buy here for tying up plants with ....so i have a lot of it around...It would certainly be a disaster if the drums leak as my head tells me this is impossible ...It seems we are now getting the usual Xmas Wind blowing in from the North West ....Yesterday i gathered a lot of rain water but i still need rain to get my water stocks away up...Also I wonder the time of growth when i could try this CX Hydroponic sample .....Superior Pot Ash 0-16-20
and Growth Enhancer 11-0-0.....to me is solely a nitrogen liquid?
Cheers Ron..

[Cole_Robbie]

Your plants look nice.

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Your plants look nice.

Hi...Thanks ..But which ones ...This is what I am trying to determine ...My new "GREEN" ones or my home grown ones....If you think my new ones look nice does that mean mine are surely severly lacking in something which I presume is nitrogen ...I will check up with the growers but they told me they were grown in their Tomato mix and no fertilizer was applied (and she admitted they had not been watered recently?)...Do you agree with my thoughts that their Tomato mix must be biased heavily on the nitrogen side...and maybe I should rush out and get some and mix it in round my own plants......I will discuss this with them tomorrow one of the plus's of buying from the grower and not a garden centre...

Its looking like my changing wicks has back fired on me ...I see no evidence my reservoirs are leaking which means the new wicks I used transferred 2 - 3 litres of water over into my soil in a matter of an hour or even less...No wonder I thought the reservoirs were leaking by water on the ground? It was simply the transfer rate ....Maybe polypropylene rope did work but it showed no evidence of wicking in the test I did although some wicks felt like they were drawing water yet others didn't....Never mind I will use another wicking material and see how it goes ....I think I am looking at a transfer rate from reservoir to soil of at least 7 days (per fill) if that would supply a plant along with my 7 - 10 day fertilizer watering...

Its like most things I do ..Trial and error but your comments are certainly valued ..I would never have thought that the transfer rate would have been what I now know it must be and the reason the wicks are dry is because there is no water left to transfer ....Lesson learnt...

Thanks Ron

[dmforcier]

I think your new plants look wonderful. I don't understand your reaction. My first reaction is lots of direct light, rather than lots of ferts.

To test the wicks, leave them in place and feed them from an external source. See how long it takes to empty the source.

Use one instead of three?

[Cole_Robbie]

In post 138 above, I can see a few teeny-tiny leaf lesions in the second pic from the top, and the very beginning of a magnesium deficiency. But that plant still looks good overall, and I can't see anything at all wrong with the others.

[MissS]

It is possible to feed tomatoes too much nitrogen. The leaves do get thick and will display an almost blue color. Blossoms will form, yet they will fall off of the plant and not produce fruit. These new plants look nice. It is hard for me to judge their color without something such as your grass in the background. Are your plants greener and bluer than the grass? If so, nitrogen leaches out easily. I would just leave them alone, water normally and begin feeding them in two weeks or so.

If you are worried that your other plants are too pale, then it is time to switch them to a full dose rather than your 1/2 dose of your MiracleGro which is very high in nitrogen. Again I would also add 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of Epsom Salts to the mix. This will give them the additional magnesium that they need.

Now on to something else. I would remove the bottom leaves on the plants in your first two photos. They are showing signs of something starting. I would also spray these plants well with your copper spray in case this is the beginning of molds.

Go right ahead and slice those roots. It will not harm your plants and will help them to spread their roots out. It sounds as if these are root-bound. Teasing or cutting the roots apart works nicely on this.

I think that all of your plants are looking pretty good. There may be a few stragglers, but it seems that they all are perking up nicely. You might want to show us a side by side shot of one of your new plants, one of your old outdoors in the grass.

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by MissS

It is possible to feed tomatoes too much nitrogen. The leaves do get thick and will display an almost blue color. Blossoms will form, yet they will fall off of the plant and not produce fruit. These new plants look nice. It is hard for me to judge their color without something such as your grass in the background. Are your plants greener and bluer than the grass? If so, nitrogen leaches out easily. I would just leave them alone, water normally and begin feeding them in two weeks or so.

If you are worried that your other plants are too pale, then it is time to switch them to a full dose rather than your 1/2 dose of your MiracleGro which is very high in nitrogen. Again I would also add 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of Epsom Salts to the mix. This will give them the additional magnesium that they need.

Now on to something else. I would remove the bottom leaves on the plants in your first two photos. They are showing signs of something starting. I would also spray these plants well with your copper spray in case this is the beginning of molds.

Go right ahead and slice those roots. It will not harm your plants and will help them to spread their roots out. It sounds as if these are root-bound. Teasing or cutting the roots apart works nicely on this.

I think that all of your plants are looking pretty good. There may be a few stragglers, but it seems that they all are perking up nicely. You might want to show us a side by side shot of one of your new plants, one of your old outdoors in the grass.

Hi...Well its encouraging ....Its not so much the colour but I am not used to Tomato Plants feeling in the leaves like these do....I am now on the last one going round them and it seems to me the earth has broken up when I put them in the drum so I tried to break them up more using my hands round the outside of the rootball and its no where near as bad as I thought it would be ..I put new earth on them and watered pretty heavily and I rewicked them ...a couple with two strands each side and the rest a single strand .each side ...I have realised the two bottle transfer is not an ideal test in fact I think checking the water level in the reservoir every day is the only way....and this will take a week to do..
Regarding showing them outside in the grass ..I can turn them but I certainly cannot lift them and the grass is all browned off anyway ....Patti you have told me what to do although I have been basicly using a full dose of MGro ..a Teaspoon per litre lately so I am not sure that MGro will do it...
My own plants require something special and i do not know what that is ....They look healthy but still rather spindly ...I was hoping one of the CX Hydroponics stuff could boost them but I do not want to use any of it without advice although the two plants I have tried it on have taken no harm from it ...theres a Bio Balancer with a 1.0.0 ? which i presume is Nitrogen
Just as an idea I wonder what would happen If I went and bought some Tomato Mix that the grower used on his and spread it round the top of each plant ...They say they used no fertilizers only their Tomato Mix so how come the plants are so green.... and could it affect mine or is it maybe too late...

I better get this away as a program called Reimage is on my computer ..its supposed to protect one from virus's yet its one itself ...and I cannot get rid of it.. Regards Ron

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

I think your new plants look wonderful. I don't understand your reaction. My first reaction is lots of direct light, rather than lots of ferts.

To test the wicks, leave them in place and feed them from an external source. See how long it takes to empty the source.

Use one instead of three?

Hi..Too late ? I put 1/4 cup of Yara Milli Complex in the soil in the drums and mixed it up and watered it in and patted it down at the height level I anticipated my plants would require.......This was done days before the plants arrived so hopefully it will do no harm....Yes the wicks?? well it seems as if its not straight forward as I thought it would be ...Looking at my ongoing two bottle transfers ...the wiper cloth would appear to be ideal but it wasn't ..It grabbed the water from the reservoir and emptied it so quickly I though the reservoirs had holes in them...which I have now tested ...I have another test using a Plant tying material that stretches...I initially doubled it but I thought it was gobbling up the water too fast also so now I am down to a single string 180 degrees apart (two to a drum) ...and it looks better but am I going to make the reservoir last a week ...I doubt it..maybe a single strip on one side ....As I understand the soil is a natural wick and will spread the water supplied from a single wick....Or I could cut the material up the middle ....Whatever way ...This material will do the job ...its just getting the right supply into the soil........I presume this material may be available in America...It could even come from there....I will find out.... Cheers Ron

[dmforcier]

Yes the wicks?? well it seems as if its not straight forward as I thought it would be

Well, for one thing, the amount of water that the plants will transpire is variable, as is the evaporation rate (with temperature), so I don't see how any straight top-wicking system can ever be satisfactory. You seem to be gauging performance by the rate of decline of the reservoir, rather than to the amount of moisture in the soil, which is a function of both the usage of the plant and the rate of wicking. Have you considered that the plant needs more water in X time that the reservoir can hold?

Remember, I have several times recommended top-watering at need. Make it easy for yourself - get a hose and a watering wand.

[Worth1]

I have hit my plants so hard with a balanced 13-13-13 fertilizer that they turned blue green and burned a wee bit on the ends.
This being squash tomatoes cucumbers and peppers.
Never did the blooms fall off and I had a huge crop of everything.
Now if you were to do the same thing with a high nitrogen low phosphorus and potash fertilizer you can have problems.
(You) meaning anyone here that chooses to read my babble not you meaning Ron.
Not giving advise just telling my experience throughout the years.

Worth

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

In post 138 above, I can see a few teeny-tiny leaf lesions in the second pic from the top, and the very beginning of a magnesium deficiency. But that plant still looks good overall, and I can't see anything at all wrong with the others.

Hi...Yes and I see that some of the plants have had a number of branches clipped off ...I will be biking out there soon and I intend bringing back some of their Tomato mix if its confirmed that it is the soil they used cause i have a few Seedlings still to plant and I would like to see how they go with it and also like to top a few of my earlier plants with it and see if the plant changes.....these plants to me along with the colour are very "gnarly" if thats the word to use and of course its only natural for me to compere them with the Mature Plants I bought back in January(last season) that gave me such great fruit..
The Black Krim in particular I have concerns about ...The growth pattern to me just does not look right...I hope i am wrong...
This morning I have been able to fill all the 10 litre Water containers that I have bought in the past from the drums I have under water runoffs from the house and greenhouse so I might be able to afford a decent Xmas dinner ??

I might have to make a special barrow (from a normal one) to move my drums around safely .....and of course its nearly time for staking and getting my greenhouse electroluxed and spider webs removed...

I had two ripe Tasty toms and ate both of them ...I just love the taste and wonder why I keep growing other varieties .... Regards Ron..

[murihikukid]

Quote....Well, for one thing, the amount of water that the plants will transpire is variable, as is the evaporation rate (with temperature), so I don't see how any straight top-wicking system can ever be satisfactory. You seem to be gauging performance by the rate of decline of the reservoir, rather than to the amount of moisture in the soil, which is a function of both the usage of the plant and the rate of wicking. Have you considered that the plant needs more water in X time that the reservoir can hold?

Remember, I have several times recommended top-watering at need. Make it easy for yourself - get a hose and a watering wand.Quote...

Hi Yes..I know its not very scientific but already I have results ..I can see what is happening....Anyway here is the test of the material after 4 days Plus I have just bought a new Ball of it (photoed)....and this is with double ties....So I know the material transfers water..When this is applied to my drums a whole new scenario happens cause its shifting the water at a far greater rate in fact I believe I only need one wick unless I cut the tie through the middle .....I presume the soil is drawing the water from the wick...anyway all I want is my tomatoes to get a small consistant moisture fed to there soil...I will still be giving them the 7-10 day water but no hose .....and a wishing wand... Cheers Ron..