Yesterday morning, I found my egg carton tomato seedlings drooping over and lying down from the soil drying out 😭 I tried to fix it by watering and carefully scooping them out to add more soil to the bottom as they have appeared to have too little soil to me anyway. But I think I discovered air pockets in the soil that seemed to be part of the problem. I did my best to mix in water and new moist soil without disturbing the seedlings too much.
These pics show how they looked drooped over that the morning
And these three were taken the day after with the fix. They are standing back up now, but most don't look as straight as they were and leaves are more crinkled and dull.
No, don't start over. They are stressed right now, but if they are not crispy should perk up pretty fast.
The egg cartons seem very small and shallow for tomatoes. I usually start mine in the bottom half 16 oz plastic drink cups in which I have punched holes (with a hot nail) for drainage. Egg carton cubbies will dry out quickly and run out of root room fairly quickly as well. How were you going to pot them up?
Thanks, that's good to hear. They've stood up quickly, but look worse than before (1 day). Yes, they do dry rather quickly in those and since I got a heat mat, they dry up even faster. I may transfer them to a seed tray if it becomes an issue again, but it might not be so good to move young seedlings around.
This is my first time planting tomato seeds. I plan on repotting the best 6 -7 into red solo cups. After that, I'll pot the winners into 16" containers.
Do you plant them in the ground or containers? If so, what size?
I plant in both containers and the ground, depending on type. The big stuff (like cherry tomatoes) goes into the ground, some of the smaller I've been trying out in these cheap but giant 7 gallon plastic pots. I have to make sure the pots get shaded enough to keep the roots cooler, but it works well if I have stuff I want to try and protect long enough to get the last crops. (I have a really short season.)
16" pots will work, depending on depth. The two big problems are enough room (tomatoes have huge root systems) and making sure the pots don't get too hot and cook the roots on a warm day. Cooking the roots might never be a problem if you are in San Francisco proper...
Try to keep the roots as undisturbed as possible, every move stresses them more. That's why I start in the solo cups, less moving and I can slowly add dirt to the tomatoes and bury their stem as they get taller. The loss rate on tomato seedlings tends to be so low that I plant one cup of each variety (2-3 seeds) and prune out if I need to.
(And I agree, heat mats are great but stuff dries out FAST.)
Nice. I wouldn't have considered that roots could overheat in pots. I may look for lighter color ones to help prevent that. Blocking the light from the base is always an option. I am east of san francisco in a hotter climate, zone 10b so I do have to consider soil drying out and such.
Good idea with starting in the cups and adding soil as they grow. Seems to save a lot of hassle too. I may do that next season since I don't plan on having so many plants anyway.
People wrap pots in cardboard, that metallic insulation and other light colored material to help the heat problem. I use cardboard if it looks like it is becoming an issue. In 10b I agree, drying will be an issue. Dependent on plant and pot size, you might have to water twice a day.
It looks time to start fertilizing them and transplanting them in the near future. Yes, it on the dry side and gets hot in the summer. I haven't seen ppl wrap pots to conserve the temperature, but it makes sense. I've heard tearing up diapers and putting that in the soil can help with water retention which I might do.
The diapers are using those little plastic gel beads (of one sort or another) to suck up fluids (we'll just call it fluids). The gel crystals do not work well because they absorb water but do not release it with enough efficiency to keep the plants damp. You end up with nice puffy gel crystals, bone dry soil and stressed plants. Just use a good potting soil and keep an eye on the moisture level. Most of the potting soils advertise coming with six months supply or so of plant food: in those soils, don't feed them until you notice that you have an actual nutrient deficiency or you risk overfeeding them.
That is good to know. Maybe the diaper is not the way. I hear peat moss and perlite is good for tomato pots.
So I transplanted 7 plants into 16oz cups. So far, two started to die and I had to replace them with back up seedlings, but another two are looking weak. A starting leaf fell and others look dry and curled. Some of the true leaves are yellowing According to my moisture meter, the bottom of the cups are wet, while the tops are dry. They do have drainage holes. Perhaps mixing peat moss in the soil could help the moisture be more even. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Peat moss would make it wetter. Perlite would make make the soil looser, but I am not sure it is a soil issue so much as a watering one.
You are planting transplanting tiny seedlings, water when they get dry to the bottom of their root ball because that is as far as their tiny roots extend. As the plants get bigger, that zone that gets dry before you water again will get deeper and deeper. Losing several to transplant stress is not a surprise (they don't have many reserves at this point) and losing starting leaves is not an issue - they'll fall off sooner or later.
Moisture meters are notorious for lying about how much water is in the soil. A better way is to stick your finger in, or a stick/dowel/cheap chopstick into the soil. Leave the stick in for a minute and pull out, the damp sections will tell you how wet it is down there. (You can also calibrate your moisture meter the same way, but be aware that moisture meters sense salts and so can be screwed up by fertilizers.)
According to my moisture meter, the bottom of the cups are wet, while the tops are dry. They do have drainage holes. Perhaps mixing peat moss in the soil could help the moisture be more even. Any suggestions? Thanks!
