6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
Small weak stems is a sign of too little light so the supplemental light will help. You can also transplant them deeply into larger containers.
The coloring is normal for most seedlings and they get over it quickly once transplanted outside. Cooler temps, which can cause the color changes, are better than warmer ones so keep in mind that it may be a very different temp near that window than in the house as a whole.
Since fruit trees such as this have very different needs than the typical Growing from Seed questions you might also want to post your questions over on the Fruits & Orchards forum where they deal with fruit trees for more specific info.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit & Orchards forum
All of my plants are still in seed starting mix in the small trays (i.e the 3x3 trays where you can fit 72 into a flat). I am actually having the opposite problem I think... my plants seem to be drying out very fast. If I went more than a day w/o water I would (and have) likely lose some of the smaller seedlings. The older, larger plants are obviously more tolerable but I lost about 8 petunias the other day that were very small.. simply dried out and died. I've got the plants in the basement with a space heater going to keep it around 70 degrees and then a fan on low constantly - about 8 feet away.. just enough to see the seedlings move slightly in the breeze. I'm thinking that it's a combination of the fan and the small containers and that's why I'm having to water so often?
Why are you keeping it at 70 degrees? JMHO, I don't think you need to run the fan 24/7 unless you're having problems with damping off/too much moisture. If your only goal is to help encourage stronger plants with the breeze, that can be done by running the fan for an hour or so every couple of days. And it also isn't really necessary until the seedlings get a little bigger. Think about it; the wind doesn't blow constantly outside. Just my two cents, because I agree that they shouldn't be drying out that fast, especially in plastic cell packs.
Grow anything..how cold does your garage get? Have you monitored the temp on the set up at all? We still get some 15-20 degree nights here (garage is unheated and drops to 25-35 degrees overnight. I'm thinking similar set up with insulating material flaps around it so that I can use it for germination and continuing to grow the transplants. otherwiase it'd have to go in the basement. This is a really cool set up...I think my hubby just got something else added to his list:)
Yes, I did monitor the temps around the garage. It has been 10F-15F at nights, but the temps in the garage stayed above 35F. With all the lights on the stand the temps there were plenty high enough to germinate all my seedlings. A thermometer setting directly on the cardboard and between the seedling trays stayed around 75F. I started 1000 seedlings this year over a period of about 30-40 days. They are all outside now in the full sun and in a small heated, portable GH. I take the doors off the GH when the temps get +50 and cover the whole thing with a solar pool cover at nights if the temps are going below 25F.
I think I'm figuring that out! MOst of what I spent so far was using a Park gift certificate that I got for Christmas..It seemed a waste to use it buying seeds since I could get them so much cheaper elsewhere, and the marketing that claimed that you could keep them in the biodomes until transplant time...well a sucker is born everyday:)
Dave..when you transplant out of the sponges do you do anything special? I have read that sometimes the sponges prevent the roots from extending out. Should I try to remove some of the sponge or will I just do more harm? Have you ever used a seed start mix in the styrofoam flats (for the next time?) rather than getting more of the sponges?
You transplant the sponge and all and plant it deep so that it is totally surrounded and covered with firmly packed new growing mix. Otherwise it wicks water away.
The problem with trying to trim off any of the sponge is you can't always see what else you might be trimming off - like roots. ;) With tomatoes I transplant them up to just below the top set of true leaves. I bury the cotyledons and all - just as you would plant them in the garden. That means deep containers. We use 6" deep nursery pots but the 16 oz plastic cups Keri mentioned work well for many - just punch several drain holes around the outside edge of the bottom. A soldering iron or woodburner iron works well for making the drain holes.
And yes there is no reason why you can't use the cell tray filled with seed starting mix in the future. Wet it well, wring it out, and then pack the cells with it.
Dave
There are different formulas for the pellet coating. Some seem to dissolve faster than others do. Like AL I just plant them as I would any seed but sometimes their contact with the damp soil may need to be "encouraged" just a bit.
Dave
Your HID lamp radiates light and heat much like the sun. For your seedlings they are benefiting mostly from the light and re-radiating into the air the heat that they have absorbed along with the light. The air movement from the fan provides a push against the growing seedling causing as a response a stiffening of the cells in the seedling. Many university tests have been done to show that a tree grown continually tightly staked will never develop a proper trunk to support the tree. Think of your seedling as a miniature tree! Al
There are usually some that never come up. a few genuses have as little as 80% germination rate. However that is not Tomatoes or leeks. I always plant a few more seeds than the number of plants I want.
Usually I give up when I'm ready to transplant the rest into bigger containers. The ones remaining may be duds or if they do sprout be weak plants. To hold off waiting for 1 or 2 that may never show would be detrimental to those that are already viable plants.
If you do transplant your tomatoes remove the seed leaves and sink them into the soil up to the first true leaves. They will grow roots all along the stem. This is not true of most other plants but with Tomatoes it is. Don't sink them when you set them out however. You don't want the roots down in cold soil.
Sorry my temps were way off...
Air temps for seedlings should be 50-65 degrees.
I push it and mine do pretty well at 65-70 but they would be happier a bit colder.
Keriann~
Thank you all for your advice I wouldn't have known being I'm fairly new at this. I'm definitely going to replant the healthy plants asap.