Did I kill my lettuce seedlings?

[bgraham]

My lettuce, broccoli and tomato seedlings all have their first true leaves. Since I plant them in a sterile, soiless mixture, I needed to feed them.

I have been bottom watering them every other day and was supposed to water them on Saturday but since I was going to get plant food on Sunday, decided to wait until I got the food. I had also just read that seedlings only need water every 3 or 4 days.

Anyway, I finally got a chance to water and feed them Sunday evening. And I think I may have ruined my lettuce. The broccoli and tomato seedlings look great! I think they benefited from an extra day of no water. Probably helped the root system. But the lettuce looks horrible. They are alive, but their stems are smaller diameter than a needle and they are laying over. I am tempted to put some more starting mix in there to help hold them up but don't know if I should.

So do you think they will bounce back? And I will definately be watering the lettuce every other day!

Beth

[retiredbop]

They've probably already bounced back. As many times as my DW has tried to kill here African Violets and my Christmas cactus I have come to believe that plants are fairly resilient things.

[Danaus29]

Sounds to me like they've been hit with damping off disease. If the lettuce died you should dump the soil into the compost bin, sterlize the container, and start over.

[bgraham]

thanks for your replies!

Most of them are bouncing back. Their stems just don't seem big enough to support them. I don't think it is dampening off. They didn't have any water for several days, they've only been watered from the bottom and every other day they go under a fan.

Beth