I purchased a new home last year just in time to plant. It was mostly successful but had a few issues. This year we wanted to start everything by seed. We are in the southern mountains of western NC.
In previous I’ve started a few seeds Inside and always in the heated space of the house. This house has a full large basement but is only partially heated. On super cold nights it can get down into the upper 40s in the basement.
I’m using the top of an old buffet at around 2 x 12’ long. All seeds are being started in the typical small 1020 trays. I have heating mats under all the trays. The whole area is surrounded in mylar, and I have a 1500 W LED grow light a little less than 3 feet above the plants.
Things I know I’ve done wrong...Until a few days ago I had the grow light on 24 hours a day. I’m now doing 12 on and 12 off. Also, along with spritzing the plants from above I was keeping the lower tray with some water in it. I would fill the lower tray when it would completely dry out. I do believe I was overwatering.
What I’m noticing...The peppers are all doing fine. However a good percentage of the tomato plants are having issues. On some the leaves are turning purple and falling off. On others the leaves are turning yellow and falling off. It is always starting on the older leaves. Sometimes the plants bend at a 90° angle and eventually just fall down if I leave them like that.
Our garden this year is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50’ x 80’. There is no way that I can plant the whole garden by purchasing starters, So getting the seeds growing correctly over the next few weeks is about the most important thing going in my life right now. Any help would be really appreciated.
One more thing, I turned off the led light so you could get as true color as possible.
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Jeffross1968
- Senior Member
- Posts: 119
- Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:00 pm
- Location: Western NC Zone 6b
New house, new mater problems
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applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30540
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
I think you need to monitor the temperature more closely. The yellowing and hyper purplish to me indicates they experienced the low 40’s temp too often. Cold and wet - damping off. Now that you’ve turned off the light part of the time, it gets colder, too.
Consider getting
- thermometers with max/min (24 hr is fine if you reset every day) — monitor temperatures at soil level and top of foliage ambient level
- soil temp probe heat mat thermostat
Other considerations
- make sure your surfaces are level — water not pooling to one side or other of the tray.
Remedies -
- rotate the tray on daily basis
- one drop of straight hydrogen peroxide next to each seedling to counter overwatering (provide extra oxygen to roots) and damping off (one time remedy)
- while seedlings are showing symptoms of damping off/stress add 1 teaspoon per 1 pint of peroxide to filtered water to spray/mist with (you can also add chamomile tea and/or willow bark tea)
- I also add 1 Tbs per 1 gallon water of Epsom salts in water for the roots when too cold. (One time remedy — only Repeat after 1-2 weeks)
Consider getting
- thermometers with max/min (24 hr is fine if you reset every day) — monitor temperatures at soil level and top of foliage ambient level
- soil temp probe heat mat thermostat
Other considerations
- make sure your surfaces are level — water not pooling to one side or other of the tray.
Remedies -
- rotate the tray on daily basis
- one drop of straight hydrogen peroxide next to each seedling to counter overwatering (provide extra oxygen to roots) and damping off (one time remedy)
- while seedlings are showing symptoms of damping off/stress add 1 teaspoon per 1 pint of peroxide to filtered water to spray/mist with (you can also add chamomile tea and/or willow bark tea)
- I also add 1 Tbs per 1 gallon water of Epsom salts in water for the roots when too cold. (One time remedy — only Repeat after 1-2 weeks)