Tomato Plants From Seeds

[Country Lady]

DH and I have always bought starter tomato plants and put them directly into the garden. Since it's quiet costly to buy very many, for this year we decided to start our plants from seeds. They popped out of the ground right away, but now they just keep growing taller and taller and no leaves. I'm posting a picture to show what I'm talking about. Is this the way they're suppose to look after two weeks growth?

[Mavors]

They are reaching for the light....my guess is the light is too far away and/or not enough available. If they can not get enough light they tend to grow like that.

Mav

[Wildwood Flower]

I'd say transplant them into bigger pots...even styrofoam cups would work and it looks like they need water.

[Country Lady]

They've been watered twice since they came up and I've sat them outside right next to the house in the shade for a few hours at a time the last two days, with outside temps around 70*. I guess I'm concerned because they're already so tall and don't have more leaves. We did buy some styrofoam cups today to transplant them into.

[lucyp]

It might also help if you brush the tops of them with your hand a few times a day. Supposedly it makes them bushier. No clue if it works, but it's worth trying.

[Pouncer]

I agree, way too dry. They are not getting strong enough light, so they are bolting for it.

The best thing to do, would be to repot them. From the photo it looks as though they are around ten inches tall. Find a bunch of large size drink glasses. Get the bottoms soggy wet, and either remove the netting, or make a few small cuts along the sides. Put the peat pot or pellet at the bottom of the plastic "cup" and fill in with potting soil that has been dampened.
If you are planning on planting directly into the garden (not a greenhouse) this will work fine, but they need some sunshine! Start with an hour or so, and work up by the hour every day.

Remember to poke holes in the bottoms so that they can both drain, and drink from there if you are watering in flats.

[watcher]

I agree with the not enough light crowd. I always used a fluorescent grow lights with mine. Hung them from chains and moved them up as the plants grew.

[Pouncer]

PS Another reason their stalks are sort of spindly looking is lack of food (compost in your next size up pot should help that) and it's too warm wherever you are setting them at night. At this stage, they could handle 55 degrees at night, no problem.

[NickieL]

Goodness, those things have legs. have they gotten any light at ALL??

[hurryiml8]

I keep mine just two inches below the lights( cheap grow lights from walmart) and they don't get leggy like yours. I use the same tray with soil pellets as you have there and I don't feed them anything but water until I transplant. I also keep a fan on them during the day to make the stems stronger and thicker.
Karen

[Country Lady]

I guess the picture is a little deceiving. They're only about 5" tall and they have plenty of water. We'll transplant them in cups tomorrow. It's suppose to rain all day tomorrow so it's not possible to put them outside. Maybe Sunday we'll introduce them to a little mixed sunlight.

[gran26]

When you transplant them tomorrow, bury them deep, leaving only the very tops
sticking out of the dirt. In my experience that helps them grow stronger. On sunny days
put them outside for part of the day. Tomatoes do need plenty of water!

[ksfarmer]

They need more intense light. And, perhaps cooler temps at night. You might save them by repotting, then, give much more light.

[Fae]

Country Lady, are you supposed to get cold again? We are looking at some 30's at night next week for a couple nights. I don't think I would set them out yet. They aren't old enough or big enough to have hardened off. I would repot them and put them under a grow light for a while longer.

[Paquebot]

Want my opinion? Trash them and start over. Stretched out at 5" like that is not going to give you anything decent to set in the garden. Those are just the cotyledon leaves and they are supposed to be just above the soil surface. There's no way that you can give them enough light now to undo the damage.

Martin

[clovis]

Several years ago, I had a tray that looked just like the one you have pictured. It was late in the year, and I was sadly disappointed.

Instead of giving up on them, I suggest you set them outside in the sun every afternoon. My plants just popped out of the legginess, and the leaves filled in just fine, and very quickly. Those plants produced just great later in the season!!!!

IMPORTANT: Keep a close eye on them while they are in the sun. They'll need plenty of water. The soil tends to dry up VERY fast in the little cups. Ask me how I know about that lesson!

Since you already have the starter sets, and all that, it wouldn't hurt to start a few more trays of plants. The seeds are cheap, and plants are easy to give away if you have too many.

[willow_girl]

Oh, tomatoes are tough. I'll bet they'll recover. They need more light -- LOTS more light -- and to be replanted in individual cups or pots right up to their leaves, as someone else suggested.

Get a cheap $10 fluorescent light fixture and a couple of tubes at Lowe's and suspend it DIRECTLY over the plants -- the leaves should almost be touching the tubes.

It's a great feeling to pick tomatoes from plants that you started from seed!

[kidsnchix]

I agree with willow about the light. An old gardner once told me the deeper you plant a tomato the more roots it will grow, and its true you could plant those almost to the leaves and they should be alright.

[Paquebot]

The point here is that they do not yet have leaves. Five inches of "thread" is not going to suddenly swell into "rope" no matter how much light they are given. Those cells are stretched out to the max and won't be able to support any other top growth. That's why every single one of those seedlings is stalled at the cotyledon stage. Above or below ground, seedlings in that condition are either not going to survive or take forever to recover. Yes, tomatoes WILL make roots off of stems but those are NOT true stems. They are a normally short area which exists between the cotyledons and the initial root system and has no root nodes. Thus the best advice to salvage this season is to start over. Try it with fresh pellets and you'll see how quickly the second ones catch up and pass the first.

Martin

[Oggie]

I almost lay shop lights right on top of the seedlings with the light tubes almost touching the plants. They're timed to stay on 16 hours a day.