commercial greenhouse for local sales. we grow thousands of plants from seed and have done so for years. Tomato seedlings I started last week seemed to germinate normally and I don't know if the seed leaves fell off or never developed (I start the seedlings but don't water the greenhouse they go into after germination).
I noticed problems a couple weeks ago with individual cells in lettuce 4-packs and my initial thought was that it was a systemic pesticide leaking through the hanging pots above the trays. Now seeing that it's multiple entire trays of tomatoes and some of them with no baskets up above I'm considering it might be something else. possible fertilizer damage? I've seen my manager watering the hangings baskets and over spray hitting the seedlings 😐
thanks for any help
by Amazing-Fox-6121
4 Comments
100% snails and slugs. Used coffee grounds as a barrier seems to work for me
This is called damping off. It can be caused by many things but typically unclean soil/supplies or too humid conditions. Make sure your cleaning your trays and tools with an agricultural peroxide and using clean start mix.
Seed leaves are embryonic, theyre contained within the seed before they emerge. My guess would be either someone tried to “help” them by removing the seed from the stem before they emerged, and took them with, or you had a temperature extreme and they got fried.
I’ve had something similar happen occasionally and have thought it was due to poor seed quality. The seed grows the root but when the outer seed falls off, the cotyledons are stunted or missing. This made me think the seed itself was under developed. This happened to a lot of vinca seed for me.
I can’t tell though for you, are the cotyledons emerging ok and then shriveling up (like damping off or insect damage)?