This is my first time growing from seed. My seedlings were under a grow light and doing ok, but seemed to stop growing once it was time to put them outside. I transplanted about 1.5 weeks ago but am not seeing any new growth. I’ve added worm castings (once so far) as fertilizer and water daily. They’re in full sun… worried about if the soil is nutrient dense enough. I reused last year’s potting soil by mixing it with compost. The big containers are 20 gallon containers and have cucumbers and tomatoes. Temps have been lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s. Do I need to test my soil? Any troubleshooting is appreciated.
by janetsnakeholemaclin
15 Comments
Just patience. They need time to acclimate to their new substrate. You probably don’t need to water every day either, unless you know the top 3-4 inches or so of dirt is completely dry. Once the temps are consistently in the 80s they’ll start taking off.
Transplant shock.
Give them a couple of days.
I think veggies just sit and wait for nights to be hot before they really take off. Also I would pull some of that mulch back from the stems an inch or two.
Give them a half dose of some cheap chemical fertilizer just in the area where you transplanted. Like, just un the area that currently has roots. If they take off in 3 days then your soil is depleted. If not then it’s something else.
Lots, if not most, of the new growth of young transplants like these occurs underground, out of sight, in the roots. Two or three weeks without much change in the foliage is normal plant behavior.
Tomatoes don’t like to sit in wet soil.
First the sleep, then they creep, then they leap!
Need sun
So yeah the thing about seedlings is it may look like from the outside that they’re stalled and not doing anything but actually they’re putting out a bunch of roots underground. After they put out enough roots they’re going to take off and go crazy provided you supply enough water and fertilizer. I planted two loofah seedlings in the ground a couple years ago and it took about 3 weeks for them just to gain another 2 in in growth, but after that boy did they take off and just take over everything. If you’re interested you can see a a video in post that I made about it, how they just engulfed my apple trees.
It’s root time
They are developing roots. If anything, if you notice that they are growing quickly when you transplanted them, they didn’t find the soil good enough to develop roots, and will have a smaller yield.
After transplant outdoors they grow roots first. For like 2 weeks at least just roots. Then they explode.
However this doesn’t look sunny enough? They need full direct sunlight
Daily watering serms excessive to me, especially if they aren’t growing and drinking a lot. The shade of green looks awfully light to me. It reminds me of how my seedlings looked when I over watered them. (Yes, plants can get too much love when water is the expression of it. Try singing instead. 😂)
Did you do any hardening off with these seedlings before planting them out? I find that keeping my plants outside and gradually moving them into full sun and wind over the course of a week or so before planting seems to help them acclimate better. It also leaves you a chance to pull them back if they aren’t acclimating as fast as you’re moving them. *I’m no expert, but I’m sure Google has some resources to explain hardening off seedlings better than I did.*
So first off, that’s way too much watering. Not sure how you’re watering but since you’re in bags you should be doing through watering where you get the thing so wet it starts running through and coming out the bottom/low sides, and at the temps you listed you should maybe be doing that once a week. For reference, I have some 25 gallon grow bags that until it’s consistently 90+ every day I only have to water like every two weeks. The slow growth is a combination of transplant shock, it being 70 out, new light source, and over watering. Over watering makes the dirt dense and harder for the roots to spread, it was also explained to me that the dirt can’t aerate so nutrient absorption is slowed. Mostly though your plants are getting use to a new environment and patch of dirt and no longer have a personal sun feeding them.
Before they’ll grow, the mycelium has to be established . That takes a little bit to get established .