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One of my tomatoes hasn't grown any true leaves
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One of my tomatoes hasn’t grown any true leaves


It has been over 3 weeks since it first emerged and, despite the other tomatoes growing as expected, this one hasn't put out any true leaves and has only grown large seed leaves instead. Has anyone seen this before?

by ShinyCro4gunk

25 Comments

  2. Noombat22

    I have never seen that before. Keep that freak around, maybe it’ll do something interesting?

  3. NPKzone8a

    This happens sometimes. It’s a seedling with no growth tip, no apical meristem. It’s a genetic defect. I would discard it and start some new seeds.

  4. xittditdyid

    I think you need a bigger/deeper container

  5. SarchiMV

    This happened to me last year. I kept it alive to see what would happen. It didn’t grow very much more and never grew any other leaves. Ended up tossing it.

  6. MarathonHampster

    I just up-potted a pepper that looked like this yesterday. All it’s siblings were ready and I was surprised to see it had a decent root ball too. really weird 

  8. Old_Touch3534

    I feel like the plant is choking on the plastic bottom of that shallow container. Maybe try to up pot it and see if it helps.

  9. electi0neering

    It has no growth tip, and cannot and will not develop further. Might be a bit bigger but that’s it.

  10. SuperGodzilla56

    How is the light? Maybe it’s growing longer due to it not getting enough light?

  11. Lil_Shanties

    This happens, basically it lacks the apical meristem cells to create growth so it will never do anything.

  12. go_gather_the_guns

    🎵I want to be, forever young🎵

  13. concretecut

    Please keep it. I want to know how big it gets. This thing looks ridiculous.

  14. Foodie_love17

    It’s called a meristem failure. Also called a blind seed. It will not continue to grow so it’s fine to toss it. They come up occasionally and can be more common in some varieties.

  15. CouchHippo2024

    That’s weird. Are we sure it’s a tomato?

  16. StableHuman7531

    I would up pot it just to see if it grows any bigger

  18. hereandthere_nowhere

    Up pot it and stake it. Might do something fun.

  19. unklejelly

    That’s the biggest sprout I’ve ever seen. Keep us posted as to what happens!

  20. striped_violet

    This is a rare but known phenomenon called a blind seedling. It will not develop normally, probably some genetic issue.

  21. beatniknomad

    Are you sure they’re tomatoes. Those are massive cotyledons.

  23. Rare-Crab-844

    yes! in fact i have seen it in specifically in tomatoes before!
    i spend several months every year seeding and germinating little plants for work.

    sometimes a plant will germinate but never properly grow- we just cull any plant that doesn’t start growing true leaves. my coworkers call them ‘duds’.

    ive also seen a seedling germinate and grow cotyledons leaves with no color, like how ghost pipe plant is white. i dont remember the species but it’s leaves were supposed to be green.

    also this year i saw a snapdragon germinate and grow a little stem, but fail to push off the remnants of the seed, so it’s cotyledons couldnt open. but i forgot to cull it, and after a week it had started growing cotyledons from the base of the stem!

  24. No_Device_2291

    Yah blind seed. Trash it. I let one go “just to see” and eventually they peter out. There’s no way possible for it to develop. Suppose you could try grafting for funzies on it tho

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