skinnyhoops,

Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster is not appropriate for starting seedlings. It has too much phosphorous, and it contains most of its nitrogen as urea, which is unavailable in a sterile medium. In the absence of soil microbes to break it down, urea can accumulate to toxic levels in a sterile medium.

Soluble nutrients frequently have no calcium, which is an essential growth nutrient. And some are deficient in sulfur, which is usually provided as a sulfate.

However, your seedlings are a little young to be exhibiting nutrient deficiencies.

You stated that you used one quarter strength. Was that ¼ teaspoon per gallon?

ZM

that said.. i dont understand why they look all that bad ...

regardless ... just use water ... they should be in the ground .. before those little plants use up whats already in the media ...

what is more curious to me.. is that the neighbor planted his in the ground 2 weeks ago up here in z5 ....

i dont know why you are messing around with them indoors in z9 ... get them into mother earth.. as soon as you can ...

did you water the soil.. or did you wet the foliage???

anything.. including just water.. can hurt seedlings.. sometimes ....

when i did seeds.. i use 10% ... every watering.. your 25% was pretty strong.. for babes of this size ....

good luck

ken

zenman, for one quarter strength I just made a gallon of full strength, then I poured 1 quart of full strength solution into a 2nd empty gallon jug. Added 3 quarts of plain water to the 1 quart of full strength solution to dillute it to a 25% strength.

ken_adrian, they're not indoors. They have been outside since day 1, I'm just starting them in this growing system because of our heavy rains and we get alot of snails which attack fresh seedlings alot. The growing media is absorbing water from the capillary mat underneath, and I only put water in the watering tray so no need to water from above. The foilage has remained dry that way. I think it boils down to the high strength fertilizer that I thought was dilluted enough. Looks like it was just too much for them. Live and learn hehe

Thanks for the feedback. :)

I think you've learned the hard way about fertilizing. I wait until mine are in the ground before giving them anything, if I even bother to fertilize. Slow growers may get a little from time to time, but I rarely feed all my plants.

I agree, I learned the hard way. Sometimes you have to lose some before you can win some. At least they are still growing from what I can tell.

Today I transplanted some of the bigger plants from my 72-cell growing system into bigger pots. The roots were starting to peek out of the bottom of their starter cells, so now they are in bigger pots for more room to grow.

Burpee's Tequila Lime zinnias are an odd lot, in my experience. Several of mine were single, and I discarded them on that basis. I think they have possibilities if you could cross them with large white cactus flowered zinnias. Some of the Tequila Limes have a white center, while others have a light green center. I plan to work with them some more.

ZM

So Skinnyhoops, how are they looking now? They never looked that bad to me because there is so much diversity among zinnias.

holtzclaw, they actually recovered very well! below is a picture of them now with lil blooms forming

{{gwi:6343}}

{{gwi:6344}}

I thought they would be fine. One more reason to love zinnias!