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What to do with these tomatoes???

17 years ago

Today I took some pics of my tomato plants...I am concerned that they are not looking too healthy, I started them from seed on March 17th and my three questions are in my area (cape cod, ma)...is it too early to transplant outside? Does anything look wrong with them? ...and once I transplant them, do you think they'll come back and darken up...because some of them seem really light and discolored to me.



Thanks, docbuttons

Comments (7)

  • 17 years ago

    When is your last frost date? Those babies look kinda "leggy" to me. If your last frost date was 10 - 14 days ago, I'd put them in the ground and bury them pretty deep. Those 2"x2" cells are pretty small for plants of that size. (I know, I've BTDT!) If your plant out date is more than two weeks out, you may want to "pot up" to something bigger. Like at least an 8 ounce, or as big as 10 or 16 ounce plastic cup.

    Those babies have probably depleted any nutrients in your potting mix (if there were any) and are quite root bound by now. Again, this is the voice of experience. I have had some in the past that looked just like those and after the initial transplant shock, once in the garden they greened up nicely.

    I would suggest that you bury about half the stem when you do transplant.

    Bets

  • 17 years ago

    Not knowing what varieties of tomatoes those are, here are some suggestions. Find out your last frost date and plan to plant no sooner than one to two weeks after that date. If that is about three two to three weeks from now, repot them in 12 ounce or larger cups. Secondly, they need hardened off before you plant them outside. The leaf in the bottom picture is sunburned. Either put them out where they get filtered sun or in a coldframe partially covered. A simple hardening off box I make is four bails of straw as the sides and a piece of lattice on top to regulate the amount of sunlight. If its going to get really cold I throw a few blankets over the lattice or if its going to rain, a tarp over it. Your plants will be fine with a little TLC.

  • 17 years ago

    They look root bound to me. I'd pot up to larger coontainers and provide themm with as much light as possible.

  • 17 years ago

    They need to be transplanted immediately. Those little tiny squares are starting to make them rootbound & cause issues. I can tell from just looking at that pic for a second. Put them in some bigger containers (preferably not peat pots...plastic cups work well) & leave them in there for a few weeks, letting them reroot & strengthen back up. Make sure to put up to the cotyledons. You might also want to give them a "boost" with some diluted water-based fertilizer after the transplant to help with the shock. Keep them out of that cold rainy Cape Cod weather i've seen so many times before (since I was born in Mass & vacationed there all the tim). Maybe an indoor windowsill that gets plenty of sunlight until they're over the transplant shock (few days to a week). Of course, keep the outdoors if it's going to be a somewhat sunny warm day (not too much direct sunlight though). Water well, as needed & you should be good to go in about a week. The plants, when you finally put them in the ground in a few weeks will take less than a half of a day to straighten back up & reroot into their final homes. Just my two cents.

    - Steve

  • 17 years ago

    Found this online:
    http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim20supp1/states/MA.pdf

    I live in East Wareham...but am unsure how to read the chart. Also, the two pics above were the worst of the bunch...the ones that I have not yet transplanted into italian ice size cups and more into peat pots. Someone above said not to use peat pots...why's that? I planned on transplanting them directly in the garden once the fear of frost is gone. I have been bringing them all outside for a few hours ar first and now several hours at a time.
    Thanks...docbuttons

  • 17 years ago

    Peat Pots have their uses. They are great seed starters, IMO. Once the seedling starts to get any real leaves, I remove my plants from them, if I use peat pots. They are moisture suckers & will suck dry a tomato seedling, especially one in the stage yours are in, needing much more water than a baby mato plant. Do an experiment to prove to yourself what I am saying. Take an empty peat pot that's dry with no holes, fil it halfway full with water...wait 5-10 minutes & go back to it and see how much of the water is left in it. Use what you want, as peat pots will work if you water the plants more than normal (and can do it more frequently, especially on sunny days), but I just don't like them for anything besides seed starting.

  • 17 years ago

    I have to agree 100% with the dislike of peat pots. Their only real use is with plants that really respond poorly to having their roots messed with. This is my first year with my own garden and I learned pretty quickly to dislike them. I moved to plain old dixie cups with holes drilled in the bottom. Start in 72 cell started trays, pot up to 9 oz cups, then pot up again to 16 oz cups. One think I like about the cups is they come in clear so you can see exactly when the plant is starting to become root bound and pot up accordingly. They work better, are cheaper, and they're reusable. Just a quick run through the dishwasher has them looking like new and ready for storage or your next round of seedlings. Heck I even did my first planting of corn like this minus the starter tray and it worked beautifully.

    On the tomato plants in your pics they'll do just fine. They look like they didn't have enough light and are leggy and soft just like my mom's. She just trims off all the leaves minus the growing point and trenches them in. They won 't start off quite as quickly as plants that had plenty of light, but they'll recover and turn into beautiful plants. That's one of the nice things about tomatoes. They're extremely resilient.

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