Help my seedlings are in distress!

[lostinthewoods]

HELP!!

The seedlings that we started about 1 1/2 weeks ago are ill. Some of the tomatoes are starting to yellow on the leaves, while others seem to just shrivel up and dye! I've posted a pic here so you can see what I mean. It is as if the stems are just collapsing in the center and the top of the plant is just falling over. I would google this but I don't even know where to start.

Can anyone help me?

Who? What? Why? Most of all, how to fix it?


lost


http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i58/lostinthewuds/IMGP1625.jpg

[AlchemyAcres]

It's damping off.
Your soil is too wet.

You can try potting up to a bigger pot , even though it's a bit earlier for that, to get things dried out.

Try keeping the soil drier in the future and water with chamomile tea.


~Martin

[lostinthewoods]

Thanks Martin!

I just got the same advice from another forum so I'm hoping that opening up my "green house" containers and warming up the soil some will help. Any suggestions on keeping the soil any warmer?

Thanks again!
lost

[AlchemyAcres]

I like to keep the soil temperature at about 75 degrees for most things, until true leaves develop, then I keep things a bit cooler.

A small fan, after germination, will improve air circulation and help prevent damping off. Be sure to check the soil temp and not just the air temperature, soil temp will be cooler due to evaporation.

Also, fill your containers all the way to the top with soil mix next time, that'll help with air circulation too.


~Martin

[CarolAnn]

Yup - that's damping off all right. I've done that more than a few times to my poor lil' seedlings. :P

Besides being very careful not to water too much, you might try a somewhat lighter soil mix for seed starting - a little peat moss or vermiculite in the mix will fluff it up.

You can warm up the soil by putting your flats on a heat register, too. If that's too warm, you could put a board under the flat to keep it up a bit.

My bro in law uses a heat tape that was designed to wrap pipes to keep them from freezing, and winds it back and forth under his flats. They have an enclosed but unheated sunroom to start plants and do just fine with the bottom heat. Since he started using the heating tapes, germination is also much better.