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Tomato seedlings wilted -- help please

S

Sojourner

Member
Hi everyone. I'm really in need of some help to save my tomatos.

I have started a bunch of tomato seeds inside this year, they have all been coming along quite nicely until all of the sudden they have all started looking very sickly and their leaves are wilting and they're falling over.


Heres how they looked 10 days ago. I did notice some leaves were turning a little bit yellow, but I wasn't over concerned.
picture.php

And five days ago
picture.php




Here is what I was confronted with today when I went to check on them: These two are the worst of the bunch, but they are all looking rather bad.
picture.php
picture.php


This is my first test of using coco coir as a grow medium, as well as my first time starting tomatos inside. I have been feeding the tomatos General hydroponics Vegan compost tea at 3/4 strength. They appeared to have been thriving with that and I was just getting ready to try feeding at full strength, but all the tomatos are looking too sickly to try that now.

To me, they look as if they have been overwatered, but I'm not entirely sure. I don't believe I have overwatered them. I have been keeping the coco moist, but certainly not water logged. I've been watering on average once every three to four days. Before I water I always feel the surface of the coco and lift the container up, making sure it feels noticeably lighter and the coco feeling slightly moist between my fingers.

I would appreciate any second opinion or advice on how to save my tomatos.
Thanks
 
dubwise

dubwise

in the thick of it
Veteran
I dont use coco....I use perlite/vermiculite and when I've overwatered, my plants look like that. I feel your pain.
 
S

Sojourner

Member
dubwise said:
I dont use coco....I use perlite/vermiculite and when I've overwatered, my plants look like that. I feel your pain.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it was probably a bad idea to go the coco route here. I had been wanting to switch my growroom from soil to coco for a while after reading through the whole H3ad goes Coco thread.

I was planing on starting some of my witche's weed and camelot kush in coco, but I thought I should give it a test run with something else, just to make sure I got it down. I thought I had everything going just well, when for some reason everything took a turn for the worse very quickly.

I tried to do everything right with the coco, I PH checked the nutrient mix, always right around 5.8-6.3, which seemed perfectly fine. I've always had success in the past feeding my veggies Vegan compost tea or fox farm Big Bloom.

Right now I have transplanted half of the seedlings to larger containers using my usual potting soil. They all still look pretty bad, but I'm hopeful some of them will make it.

I'd still appreciate any help, either just on what went wrong, or how to better save my seedlings.

Thanks
 
buckeye-leaf

buckeye-leaf

cannabis enthusiast
Veteran
ive grown 'maters for many years and mostly they thrive in just regular old tilled dirt. indoors they can be really finicky and i see your growin cherry, indoors they do really shitty bud pretty much a waste of time.
 
S

Sojourner

Member
buckeye-leaf said:
ive grown 'maters for many years and mostly they thrive in just regular old tilled dirt. indoors they can be really finicky and i see your growin cherry, indoors they do really shitty bud pretty much a waste of time.
Click to expand...
I wasn't intending to grow them inside the full duration, just to veg a little bigger and plant outside in my garden. I normally just buy tomatos at the local nursery mid may, but they never really have that big of a selection and are a little pricey

I wanted to start some inside early, both to have more variety and as a test run of coco. I'm pretty sure I've only lost about half the tomatos, as some of them after transplant are starting to perk up more.

I would like maybe some input on what went wrong, because otherwise the only lesson I learned is don't try to grow tomatos in coco coir. The wilting and everything looks very similar to what happens when seedlings get overwatered. But I'm pretty much certain I didn't overwater, if anything they might of gotten slightly less water then they should have.
 
1

10k

burnt out og'er
Veteran
Are the worst ones getting a little mushy at the base of the stem then flopping over ?
If so, I believe they're damping off.

I would have started the seedlings in a good seed started soil, for transplant outdoors after carefully hardening them off to the sunlit climate.

hth
 
C

coconaut

I've had great success with tomatoes in coir, I don't believe it's the fault of the coco.
 
S

Sojourner

Member
Update

Update

I lost about 10 seedlings, but most of them recovered after I transplanted them in larger containers and increased the nutrients. I have 44 tomato plants all outside and doing excellent. I'll be posting a thread in this gardening forum sometime in the next week detailing my vegetable garden


Heres a couple pictures of just a few of my tomatos now
picture.php

picture.php
 
F

Franky4fingers

Tomatos need full days light and do not over water.... you either are getting nutrient burn or watering during the daylight instead of the early morning ..... the wilting typically occurs from over watering
 
S

sweetestsin420

yay!tomatos!!lol
im glad they survived,this year,my tomatoes all died,sucks cus in my whole life iv only ever grown ONE tomato plant,and it was big and beautiful,ad the tomatos i did get were soooooooooo good,can i ask what variety those are?heirloom?
 
S

SeaMaiden

Sojourner said:
I lost about 10 seedlings, but most of them recovered after I transplanted them in larger containers and increased the nutrients. I have 44 tomato plants all outside and doing excellent. I'll be posting a thread in this gardening forum sometime in the next week detailing my vegetable garden


Heres a couple pictures of just a few of my tomatos now
View Image
View Image
Click to expand...
Much better! Do you trim out the lowers, do any growth or canopy control? I did that this year, they were much easier to handle. Also was able to stop blossom end rot by using Sea-90, then I read a paper done by some Italian scientists that showed better growth when a small amount of seawater was used on tomatoes.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-04/tomato-sea
http://www.livescience.com/7194-healthier-tomatoes-grown-seawater.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080428092116.htm
 
D

Drift13

Member
I grow tomatoes from seed and it's all heirloom stock. For blossom-end rot I use Garden Lime, mainly for the calcium. Right now I have German Johnson's, Cherokee Purples, Black Prince, Black Krim, Jubilee, Roma, Brandywines, Chocolate Cherrys, Chadwic Cherrys & Yellow Teardrop Cherrys. I LOVE MY MATERS... :woohoo:
 
BrownThumb

BrownThumb

Member
Drift13 said:
I grow tomatoes from seed and it's all heirloom stock. For blossom-end rot I use Garden Lime, mainly for the calcium. Right now I have German Johnson's, Cherokee Purples, Black Prince, Black Krim, Jubilee, Roma, Brandywines, Chocolate Cherrys, Chadwic Cherrys & Yellow Teardrop Cherrys. I LOVE MY MATERS... :woohoo:
Click to expand...

You have all of these going in winter? I guess you have a greenhouse or are indoors. I appreciate your taste very much, I am partial to BP's, but have done several different heirloom varieties, not always successfully. I have done probably half or more of the strains you list, none of which would be the cherries you have cookin'. Ever do Coure de toro or Caspian pink?
 
D

Drift13

Member
BrownThumb said:
You have all of these going in winter? I guess you have a greenhouse or are indoors. I appreciate your taste very much, I am partial to BP's, but have done several different heirloom varieties, not always successfully. I have done probably half or more of the strains you list, none of which would be the cherries you have cookin'. Ever do Coure de toro or Caspian pink?
Click to expand...

I live in grow-zone 9b(fla) and do all my Mater's in 5 gallon buckets. That way when we get a frost or freeze.....into the garage they go. Yes heirlooms can be a real PIA to grow. One of my biggest problems is splitting but for the most part that's because of the way I water. I'm getting better at it with practice.
I have not heard of either of those, Coure de toro or Caspian pink. I'll google and check them out. I'm always up for a new type of heirloom tomato. :tiphat:
 
BrownThumb

BrownThumb

Member
Hi Drift,

I missed that you had replied. I have the same issues with watering, but I am hard-headed and do it by hand. I have been growing in 55 gallon barrels cut in half, which you would think would make watering simpler, but it's still tricky. I guess I could smarten up and start using some hydro spikes to regulate water delivery, aye? LOL. BTW, check out JL Hudson Seedsmans catalogue if you have not seen it. I just got the 2013 edition and it's got some really interesting species...heirlooms I have not even heard of and a whole lot more. They may charge you a buck to mail you one.
 
N

noyd666

Sojourner said:
Hi everyone. I'm really in need of some help to save my tomatos.

I have started a bunch of tomato seeds inside this year, they have all been coming along quite nicely until all of the sudden they have all started looking very sickly and their leaves are wilting and they're falling over.


Heres how they looked 10 days ago. I did notice some leaves were turning a little bit yellow, but I wasn't over concerned. View Image
And five days agoView Image



Here is what I was confronted with today when I went to check on them: These two are the worst of the bunch, but they are all looking rather bad. View Image View Image

This is my first test of using coco coir as a grow medium, as well as my first time starting tomatos inside. I have been feeding the tomatos General hydroponics Vegan compost tea at 3/4 strength. They appeared to have been thriving with that and I was just getting ready to try feeding at full strength, but all the tomatos are looking too sickly to try that now.

To me, they look as if they have been overwatered, but I'm not entirely sure. I don't believe I have overwatered them. I have been keeping the coco moist, but certainly not water logged. I've been watering on average once every three to four days. Before I water I always feel the surface of the coco and lift the container up, making sure it feels noticeably lighter and the coco feeling slightly moist between my fingers.

I would appreciate any second opinion or advice on how to save my tomatos.
Thanks
Click to expand...
:) if water did that , ima sticking to rum an coke.:tiphat:
 
N

noyd666

gross lisse,been in ground about 3 weeks seem to be bushing, g.l usually grow up, maybe there been crossed with every thing like cannibis . how about a tomcann, or canntom. best o new year folks.:thank you:
 
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