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pjgooch51

Seedlings always stall...suggestions please

I'm finishing my third and now least successful spring starting vegetable seeds indoors and I need suggestions on what to fix for next year and beyond.

Basically my eggplant and pepper seedlings barely get beyond one set of true leaves, certainly never more than two. The first year I was a newbie and didn't know any better, and with some beginner's luck every tiny seedling I transplanted into the garden turned into a productive plant.

Year 2 I planted more seeds, had the same amount of initial success, but lost a few seedlings in the garden -- some to pests, some (in retrospect) to weakness.

Now year 3 I have a bunch of stalled seedlings, some of which shriveled up and died a few hours into the hardening-off process. For the most part they look the same today as they did a month ago. I planned on putting them outside this weekend but I'm pretty much prepared to write this batch off as a failure.

In short, I sow the seeds in late March, and once they've germinated (rarely a problem), I move the seedlings into Jiffy pots with Miracle Gro potting mix and keep them in a sunny, south-facing bay window throughout the day and away from the window at night. Room temp is 65-70. Typically they grow quickly until the first true leaves begin to emerge. At that point, growth slows to a crawl.

I realize I should probably be doing better in the light and heat department but the overall success I had in the first two years kept me from changing up the routine.

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