JayPoc
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Do pepper seedlings look A LOT like tomato seedlings?

I've got a flat of seedlings I started, and I'm a little confused. A few of the cells have seedlings whose first true leaves are just emerging, and they look EXACTLY like 'mater leaves. I've never paid all that much attention before because I usually start them at separate times in separate containers. I'm scared that I may have co-mingled some seeds somehow, although I'm pretty careful and can't see how that could have happened. So, would the first set of true leaves, just as they start to emerge be more or less indistinguishable from tomatoes?

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rainbowgardener
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No, the seed leaves of peppers and tomatoes look very much alike, but the true leaves of tomatoes are quite distinctive. So first be sure you are actually looking at true leaves, not seed leaves. There are two main types of tomatoes, the regular leaf ones and the potato leaf ones. Potato leaf tomatoes would look less different from peppers, but still.

Image
https://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/toma ... 21.I'm.jpeg

regular leaf and potato leaf tomato plants



Image
https://tendingmygarden.com/wp-content/u ... dlings.jpg

pepper seedlings

If you have potato leafed tomato seedlings your seed packet would tell you that. If not, if they are regular leafed variety / varieties, the true leaves would be not even close.
Last edited by rainbowgardener on Thu Apr 17, 2014 11:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

JayPoc
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Well, I definitely didn't recall them looking so much like 'maters, but I also know that I couldn't have screwed this up this badly...

The other thing that's freaking me out is (you might remember) I had some plants come up in my pepper cells before the maters started coming up. If somehow I got some mater seeds in the pepper cells, they could have come up first, in which case I would have culled the pepper plants that might have come up later.

Still...I just don't see how I could have made this mistake. Hopefully a few days from now the plants in the pepper cells will indeed prove to be peppers....

Yeah, I'm "up" on tomatoes and know all about reg leaf, potatoe leaf, rugose, etc.

Just to clarify, in my case the first true leaves are JUST starting...two or three "days old"...

JayPoc
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Ughh....the concern then becomes if I did in fact mix this up somehow, I won't be able to trust ANYTHING in that set of cells. I started 2 kinds of peppers and 7 different varieties of tomato in 12 cells...

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rainbowgardener
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If you are up on tomatoes and all the different leaf types, then you know they are very different. Pepper leaves are one entire leaf on a petiole. Tomato leaves are several different leaflets off a branch.

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applestar
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Unless you planted the fuzzy peppers -- rocoto and... Serrano? -- pepper leaves and stems are smooth.

I had eggplants among tomatoes -- now those really looked like tomato seed leaves until blunt, rounded true leaves grew out. :lol:

Post pictures if you'd like us to take a look 8)

JayPoc
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Ok, so I think I've figured it out. So imagine 12 cells in a 4 across by 3 wide. Its possible I somehow rotated my orientation 180 degrees. The top left four cells SHOULD have been the peppers, and all the rest maters. I've got stuff up in every cell but two of the bottom right foursome. On close inspection, the two cells on the bottom right that do have a little plant coming are smooth green stems. All the rest have dark, fuzzy stems.

So if I did rotate it somehow, that would explain why I'm seeing what I'm seeing. It would also explain my other thread about the peppers beating the tomatoes up. They didn't! They're just now coming up good.

Also, if it does turn out that this is the case (bottom right 4 cells having peppers), then I should still ought to be able to trust what I think is in the other cells, as all I have to do is rotate my drawing...lol...

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applestar
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Mark one corner cell and you won't get confused -- put a piece of duct tape or something on the first corner cell and number it #1. :wink: White paint markers work well too (too well actually, I can't get last years labels off without using something stinky and toxic....)

JayPoc
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applestar wrote:Mark one corner cell and you won't get confused -- put a piece of duct tape or something on the first corner cell and number it #1. :wink: White paint markers work well too (too well actually, I can't get last years labels off without using something stinky and toxic....)
I did! Something got lost in translation...lol...

Image

I can't imagine how that happened. I do sometimes do some of the gardening chores in a hurry, and I do sometimes do them on weekend evenings after having a few adult "refreshments".

Hmm....I guess I can imagine how that might have happened...

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rainbowgardener
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If this is what they all look like, then I can see why you are having trouble. The true leaves are just the teeniest little bud in the leaf crotch. All you are looking at is seed leaves and yes the seed leaves are very much alike. All you have to do is wait a week until the true leaves are fully developed and opened up and all will be revealed and it will be very obvious which are peppers and which are tomatoes.

Now questions like which variety of tomato is which are very different and nearly impossible to answer except for certain major differences, like dwarves.

I am still having trouble figuring out which are my bell peppers and which are my anaheim chilis!

JayPoc
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rainbowgardener wrote:If this is what they all look like, then I can see why you are having trouble. The true leaves are just the teeniest little bud in the leaf crotch. All you are looking at is seed leaves and yes the seed leaves are very much alike. All you have to do is wait a week until the true leaves are fully developed and opened up and all will be revealed and it will be very obvious which are peppers and which are tomatoes.

Now questions like which variety of tomato is which are very different and nearly impossible to answer except for certain major differences, like dwarves.

I am still having trouble figuring out which are my bell peppers and which are my anaheim chilis!
no...lol. That picture is a week or so old...the plants do indeed have true leaves now. I only included it to show that I actually did paint one of the corners :? . I think I've got this problem figured out. Still don't know how I got flipped around, but that sure looks like that is what happened. I'm blaming it on the refreshments.



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