Seedlings Require Help..

[murihikukid]

Hi ..Of course there is also these But I am interested in what they grow into ???Tasty Toms... I do not know...Regards Ron

[Cole_Robbie]

Sorry to insult your plants, but those don't look right. It's either herbicide damage, or an imbalance of micronutrients. I bought some bagged compost once that did the same thing to my plants. Here is an old pic I dug up:

[maxjohnson]

12-5-15 is a moderately strong fertilizer, I would make sure to dilute it properly for seedlings.

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Sorry to insult your plants, but those don't look right. It's either herbicide damage, or an imbalance of micronutrients. I bought some bagged compost once that did the same thing to my plants. Here is an old pic I dug up:

My tomato leaves look like that when I used chicken manure fertilizer that most likely have traces of herbicide. If you look up "aminopyralid tomato" it shows similar leaves.

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Sorry to insult your plants, but those don't look right. It's either herbicide damage, or an imbalance of micronutrients. I bought some bagged compost once that did the same thing to my plants. Here is an old pic I dug up:

Hi ..i wonder what ones you are referring too ..My earlier photos (Post #90 ) or the Tasty Toms ( or both....)
I just bought home 120litres of water with my bike....Its time to learn how to distill my tap water....Thanks Ron

[MissS]

I have to agree that your plants still do not look right. Since your plants have looked like this from the get go and from before you began feeding them, I think that it has to do with the sphagnum moss that you used to germinate your seeds on. My guess is that it had some sort of herbicide on it. Unfortunately there is no way to remove that from your growing pots at this point, so I would just carry on and hope that as the roots grow, they will grow out of it. Your other option is to dispose of the plants and go purchase new ones. It is obviously, your call.

From the distance between the leaf nodes on your post #91, I would say that at least three of those are your Tasty Toms.

[GrowingCoastal]

All recent images show it.
Post # 12 with the photos of the young seedlings showed this too. The same thing is still off, whatever it is. I was hoping they'd outgrow it once they got real light.

[MissS]

Originally Posted by GrowingCoastal

All recent images show it.
Post # 12 with the photos of the young seedlings showed this too. The same thing is still off, whatever it is. I was hoping they'd outgrow it once they got real light.

Yes, me too.

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by MissS

I have to agree that your plants still do not look right. Since your plants have looked like this from the get go and from before you began feeding them, I think that it has to do with the sphagnum moss that you used to germinate your seeds on. My guess is that it had some sort of herbicide on it. Unfortunately there is no way to remove that from your growing pots at this point, so I would just carry on and hope that as the roots grow, they will grow out of it. Your other option is to dispose of the plants and go purchase new ones. It is obviously, your call.

From the distance between the leaf nodes on your post #91, I would say that at least three of those are your Tasty Toms.

Hi Patti...Well purchasing new ones is not an option ..They simply cannot be puchased...I could regrow seeds but at this point its hardly worth while ....So I just have to carry on ...i actually thought the photos in post #90 showed that My plants were looking not too bad?...Anyway I have had a look at post #12 and I hope I am not confusing anybody ...One is definately??? a Sweet Scarlet and the rest are Tasty Toms which are grown from seeds ...Tasty Tom is a hybrid and I presume that is what can happen when one uses seeds from Hybrid fruit....Of course post #91 shows the same plants as in post #12 only older....Probably they will end up being disposed of but I was interested in what they actually end up looking like.....
Of course I now have cuttings off my purchased Tasty Toms being developed and they are more important than my Tasty tom seed experiment....

Re the Spagnum Moss ...you could well be right it could be contaminated ...it actually "killed" my germinated seeds that I transferred from paper into it.....I made the wrong choice ...I should have ignored the advice I was given not to use peet moss cause it was not sterile ....I have basicly terminated business with that garden centre and will from now on be relying on a complete Soil/Growing/nursery etc company who are always curteous and will answer questions ... Thats where my mature TT's are coming from and who are getting Calmag for me ....
I still have a few seeds to germinate and I will use the Black magic seed raising mix for them....
Its just been too hot to work this afternoon so once the temperature comes down I will return to fertilising the soil in my drums...Cheers Ron

[maxjohnson]

You don't want to make a conclusion too quickly. If you are certain your mix have herbicide contamination, you could use fresh potting mix that isn't contaminated and transplant a few seedlings into it so hopefully they'll grow out of it.

If you have some extra plants, doesn't have to be tomato specifically, you can do a comparison test by planting one healthy plant in the contaminated mix, and one in a clean mix, and see the different results.

I do not worry about fertilizing so much especially when the plants are small, that's a lot of money to spent on different just to raise tomato seedlings, unless you're doing mass production.

I just germinate seeds in my mix comprised of potting mix and a little bit of good quality compost. Some people are against compost in fear of contamination, that's fine, then use potting mix and later water with a weak fertilizer. I can't see the need to go crazy with all the different fertilizers which lots of times does more harm than good for small plants, but this is just my approach. Of course, you can also grow hydroponically where there is more science to fertilizer usage and you don't have to worry as much about contaminated grow medium.

[murihikukid]

Hi..Thankyou for your advice...Tonight I have transplanted some small plants out of the suspect mix into a commercial seed raising mix and I have also taken 2 seeds that have germinated on a paper towel into a pot containing the same commercial mix Plus I put some seeds that had not germinated into a pot containing the commercial potting mix..So only the small seedling plants have had contact with the suspect mix....So hopefully within a few days there may be some results appear....
I do have the near empty bag of the "Magic Moss" I used...I presume i could get it tested....but any contamination may have occurred in the mixing bowl ...

I am reasonably confidant that my plants out in the greenhouse will survive ...I do not see any effects from the Villa Mila fertilizer although its just been watered in ......I know nothing about fertilizers but I presume that Patti will advise me on what to put on in 7 -10 days...

In a few days I will check the ph again .....Regards Ron

[Cole_Robbie]

Bean seeds are a good herbicide test, from what I read. They are sensitive to it, and will grow an obviously deformed plant if the mix is contaminated.

[AKmark]

Originally Posted by murihikukid

Hi ..Of course there is also these But I am interested in what they grow into ???Tasty Toms... I do not know...Regards Ron

Those look to have a virus. I would take a leaf sample down to your AG center and get it checked for TMV

[brownrexx]

Yes, using beans seed is a very simple test for herbicide contamination. Just plant a bean seed or two in the suspect media and within a few days the seedling will germinate. If it looks normal then you have no contamination. It there is contamination then the seedling will look twisted and deformed. You can Google this to see photos.

[GrowingCoastal]

A friend added fertilizer to a commercial soil mix and over-fertilized her plants. They looked like the ones in the photos. After she changed their soil they eventually grew properly and produced fruit.
I hope the same will happen with yours.

Isn't sphagnum moss used as an orchid growing medium? I doubt there would be herbicides in it. It would dry out quickly though.

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by GrowingCoastal

A friend added fertilizer to a commercial soil mix and over-fertilized her plants. They looked like the ones in the photos. After she changed their soil they eventually grew properly and produced fruit.
I hope the same will happen with yours.

Isn't sphagnum moss used as an orchid growing medium? I doubt there would be herbicides in it. It would dry out quickly though.

Hi...I will not be using it again... I am going to try and germinate a new lot of seeds just in case......
I am not trying to be smart but I would like to know which plant do you think from the 3 photos is one purchased from the gardening centre IE I have only transplanted it ...

Regards Ron