Started a bunch of these 10 days ago, starting to see small true leaves. Height is about 1 1/2 inches, the stems seem very resilient, almost springy when I move the container, maybe thats a sign of good seedling health. There inside under lights, need water every 3 days approx, watering from bottom. Thanks.
[img]https://imagehost.vendio.com/bin/imageserver.x/00000000/valuemet/seedlingnov17.jpg[/img]
Yes, it looks like one to me. It doesn't appear to be lacking light, which would make it tall and weak looking. Looks like a strong young plant.
The first set of leaves are 'seed leaves'. The second set of leaves will be 'true leaves', and will look like the leaves common to the species.
Here is a pic I found online that shows some 10-day-old tomato seedlings:
[img]https://www.tumbledownfarm.com/img/Garden/Tomato_Seedling_2.JPG[/img]
The first set of leaves are 'seed leaves'. The second set of leaves will be 'true leaves', and will look like the leaves common to the species.
Here is a pic I found online that shows some 10-day-old tomato seedlings:
[img]https://www.tumbledownfarm.com/img/Garden/Tomato_Seedling_2.JPG[/img]
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rainbowgardener
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- Location: TN/GA 7b
Yup, doing pretty well. Yours looks better than the pic Kisal found!
Yours would not be called leggy at all, but still you are looking for as compact and thick stemmed as you can get. So if you can move your lights any closer to your plants, that would be good. You want the lights just a couple inches above the plants and on for 16 hrs a day.
Yours would not be called leggy at all, but still you are looking for as compact and thick stemmed as you can get. So if you can move your lights any closer to your plants, that would be good. You want the lights just a couple inches above the plants and on for 16 hrs a day.
I'm not really what I'd call a 'tomato pro', but in my experience, the plants themselves like a lot of heat. The only time heat has ever become a problem for my tomato plants was when they were trying to set fruit. Even then, though, I don't think 85º would be excessive, although probably at the upper limit. When it hits 90º or above, that's when my tomato plants have trouble, but again, only for setting fruit.
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rainbowgardener
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- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
I have six 5500k to 6500k CFL surrounding the seedlings. The bulbs are housed in Aluminum hoods and the whole thing is tented with aluminum foil. The CFL's are rated 23W equivelent to 100W regular bulbs, if I fudge this and use 50W, that means I have an 18" area flooded with 300W of lights. It seems extremely bright in there and plants are responding well. The air temp in there is around 82.
I have raised the seedlings since taking this picture.
[img]https://imagehost.vendio.com/bin/imageserver.x/00000000/valuemet/lightsnov10.jpg[/img]
I have raised the seedlings since taking this picture.
[img]https://imagehost.vendio.com/bin/imageserver.x/00000000/valuemet/lightsnov10.jpg[/img]
Hardland,
My seedling settup is about the same light intensity as yours. Three 115 watt lights in reflectors side by side over top of the plants (plus window light). The direct window light is much brighter than the artificial light, so I turn the lights off for the few hours each day that the sunlight is on the plants.
My "light box" (made of sweater box lids with foil taped onto them) is a little larger to fit in more plants.
The flourescent lights will make things a little warmer, but as long as there are open spaces around the bottom or along the side corners of the reflective walls, enough air will get pulled in to keep temps stable. Plus, temps drop down at night with the lights off, so a high of 85 during a 24 hour period with lows in the mid 70s (air conditioned house) is middle of the road growing temps.
It looks like your little ones are coming along just fine.
My seedling settup is about the same light intensity as yours. Three 115 watt lights in reflectors side by side over top of the plants (plus window light). The direct window light is much brighter than the artificial light, so I turn the lights off for the few hours each day that the sunlight is on the plants.
My "light box" (made of sweater box lids with foil taped onto them) is a little larger to fit in more plants.
The flourescent lights will make things a little warmer, but as long as there are open spaces around the bottom or along the side corners of the reflective walls, enough air will get pulled in to keep temps stable. Plus, temps drop down at night with the lights off, so a high of 85 during a 24 hour period with lows in the mid 70s (air conditioned house) is middle of the road growing temps.
It looks like your little ones are coming along just fine.
Your seedlings look very good for ten days. Mine are about the same size but have significant true leaves after four weeks. I'm concentrating on retarding the growth of my seedlings while developing true leaves. I want them to develop a good root structure before they start putting on a lot of height. The seedlings I am growing are simply an experiment to determine how to best grow seedlings for eight weeks resulting in strong stems with good root structure. I may save a couple of the seedlings at the end of eight weeks in pots, but most will be disposed of. In mid January, I will plant seed to produce seedlings for my garden plant out in mid March.
I made my light set up using two old T-12 fixtures with the old, heavy, ballasts. I use four 40 watt, daylight bulbs rated at 6500 K. I noticed the ballasts generate a lot of heat, but it radiates upwards through the fixture vents rather than down towards the seedlings. The upward movement of the heat creates an updraft of air under the fixture causing the seedling soil to dry significantly in three days. I will also place some insulating material over the ballasts to modify the heat and use the insulating material as a heat pad, on top of the fixtures; to germinate my pepper seed. Pepper seeds seem to require a lot more heat to germinate than tomato seed. My pepper seed grow out last year was a failure because I didn't supply germinating heat. They don't seem to require as much heat after germination.
I learned last year that tomato seedling growth rates are also dependent on variety. I planted all of my varieties last year in the same type soil under identical conditions. A few varieties like Prudens Purple and Brandywine seemed to explode from the seed and grow very fast while other varieties seemed to require much more time to germinate and grew much slower after germination.
I'm still learning.
Ted
I made my light set up using two old T-12 fixtures with the old, heavy, ballasts. I use four 40 watt, daylight bulbs rated at 6500 K. I noticed the ballasts generate a lot of heat, but it radiates upwards through the fixture vents rather than down towards the seedlings. The upward movement of the heat creates an updraft of air under the fixture causing the seedling soil to dry significantly in three days. I will also place some insulating material over the ballasts to modify the heat and use the insulating material as a heat pad, on top of the fixtures; to germinate my pepper seed. Pepper seeds seem to require a lot more heat to germinate than tomato seed. My pepper seed grow out last year was a failure because I didn't supply germinating heat. They don't seem to require as much heat after germination.
I learned last year that tomato seedling growth rates are also dependent on variety. I planted all of my varieties last year in the same type soil under identical conditions. A few varieties like Prudens Purple and Brandywine seemed to explode from the seed and grow very fast while other varieties seemed to require much more time to germinate and grew much slower after germination.
I'm still learning.
Ted