A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Plants from seed...shriveling...pics...help!

Hello! This is the first year that I have started my plants from seed, and things have been going well until now. Some of my plants - about 1 month old - have started shriveling, mostly just the leaves near the dirt. This is happening on veggies and flowers, many varieties.

My plants are under a power compact fluorescent, but they take turns being near a window with indirect light every other day. The room might be a little cold - 68 degrees perhaps. I keep them quite moist, possibly too much. I fertilized with fish emulsion last week, and I didn't dilute as much as it said because the florist said if I was only adding a bit and then watering later in the day, it would wash much of it through anyway. I haven't repotted them yet even though they probably need it because I plan to start moving them outside gradually next week.

I hope with this info and pictures attached, someone might be able to tell me what I'm doing wrong. All ideas are much appreciated, I am completely new to this! Thanks in advance!

Also, It's not just the first leaves - cotyledons? - that are dying, and I did wait to see true leaves on each plant before fertilizing.

Well I've grown a lot of tomato plants over the years and what i'm seeing looks a bit familier. so here are a couple things that might help. First, as much as i support organic growing you need to consider carefully what you are putting on those poor tender plants. fish fertilizers and extracts can be very acidic/alkali depending on what is in them. and tomatos are very sensative when they are young.if anything dilute the stuff more and apply more frequently. but in my book nothing beats a good application of miracle grow for young plants. Secondly the soil in the photo looks like its too wet. this is a common mistake, being too wet or too dry puts stress on young seedlings. Just like you or I too much stress and we just shrivel up. Try putting something under those peat pots so they can drain well and so the air can get to them, then just water them when the soil is dry but before its so dry that the plants wilt. once a day should be fine but water so the soil is damp not dripping wet. you may have any number of "wilts" attacking the plants if they got too much water.remove the effected leaves and keep the remaining foliage dry and they should be ok . if the problem persists and your weather isn't warm enough to plant them outside go ahead and put them in bigger pots.

I hope this helps. good luck and keep us posted.

Wow! That's a lot of good info! Yes, the soil is really wet... I will certainly let them dry a bit. That shouldn't be too hard :) Also, I have no problem switching to miracle grow if that will help, thank you so much! It should be in the 70's this week and sunny, so I am going to start bringing them outside, covered, for a few hours each day.

I agree-- looks like your peat pots have been way too wet for too long. Where are you located? By the size of your seedlings, I'm guessing you might be able to start hardening them off if you started the seeds 6-8 weeks before last frost. Being outside in the breeze and sunshine for a few hours a day will solve a lot of the over-watering problems, and transition them to the "real" world.

(I'm not a newbie, but I understand. You raise them up, nurture them, pamper them, and then you have to put them OUTSIDE exposed to the elements!?! AUGH!! Alas, they can't stay babies forever.)

One other thing-- after you've hardened them off, and when you are ready to plant them, go ahead and bury (plant) the stem to the depth of the remaining leaves. What I mean is that if there have been 1-3 sets of leaves that have fallen off, leaving just a stem, plant ALL of that bare stem. Above the ground your plants will appear shorter than they were in your peat pots, but beneath the ground the tissue in that stem will differentiate into root tissue! This is a good thing.

Congrats on doing seeds!

Thank you! I am in minnesota, so it's not quite safe yet to plant outside... it snowed last week. I will put the little guys out there for a bit today! Also, I didn't water anything this morning... I went to the local garden club's sale yesterday, and they told me I can plant my peas and several other things outside as soon as I acclimate them. This is so fun!