Hi Amanda, and welcome to Tomatoland,

Agree, it's not likely the seedlings' fault. Are they all the same variety/source? Or are there different ones?

Tomatoes have no choice but to grow when they have proper care and conditions. Lots of light, some good fertilizer, a healthy amount of water, space to put in roots, and a mild temperature. Which ones are they not getting?

PC

Well the seeds are sourced from at least over fifty places. They have plenty of full sunlight, watered well, more than enough space; their roots haven't even reached the edges, and the temp is a expected since I planted them in late March. They just got an inch or so tall and just stopped. Extra fertilizer I haven't used because they're so small. No signs of damage, deficiencies, illness, or pests. Just not growing.

I've babied them for a couple of months now, thinking any time now, and I'm getting ready to pack it in.

Hi Amanda, Don't give up just yet, it may still be early enough to get an August & September crop from those plants, and seeds to save for next year.

To follow-up with what PC mentioned, any chance you can post an example pic or two? Also, do you know the brand of potting soil you are using?

There's a quite a few things that will slow down a plant's growth, but they usually bring along other visual symptons. There is one thing i've seen to freeze-frame a vegetable plant's growth, that appear healthy otherwise, and that is having plant's sit behind certain types of UV treated glass.

Steve

These are transplants growing inside right? When you say "plenty of full sunlight" does that mean they are outside? No such thing as plenty of full sunlight INside. Windows just can't cut it.

Do they have true leaves? If so then at 2 months of age they could easily need some feeding if there were no nutrients in the potting mix.

So hopefully we aren't talking about seeds that were planted directly in the garden. Reached the edges of what? What potting mix? "Watered well" can often mean over-watered which means root rot and stunted growth.

Dave

Seeds from fifty sources? Wow. You are growing a lot of plants! Have you grown tomatoes from seed before?

If I had to guess on the info we had now, I'd have to guess they're not growing because of not enough light -- because it's in a window with no artificial. Possibly overwatered as well. If that's the case, you could start hardening them off so they can start getting some outside light levels.

It would be great to see pictures, and know more about your tomato growing situation. I, too, am wondering what the roots haven't reached the edges of. Cells? 4" pots?

Jenn

Inside or outside, planting medium, watering schedule, location, all could be factors.

We'd like to help you, and as you can see everyone is trying to get a better idea of what the plants look like. Steve asked for a picture, but but he speaks for all of us to see them if you can post one by just clicking on the "photo" link below where you type your message, it is very easy to upload a picture on this site.

It sounds to me like they are under fertilized, since you said the other things are taken care of, except for fertilizer. But as others have mentioned, the answer is in the details! Bring them on!
PC

I had something similar with my patio tomato, it just stayed the same size for about a month, not showing signs of stress, not growing any new leaves... just sitting there, chilling out. Temps rose and it started growing again, now its added 3 inches in the past few days. Has it been cool in your area?

<their roots haven't even reached the edges>

Only way I can think of where that comment might apply is if using peat pellets or maybe peat pots. If so then that is likely the cause of the problems.

Dave

They are in seed starting mix in 3 inch pots outside and not over watered, I transplanted two and the roots were perfectly healthy. They have the first pair of true leaves and nothing more. I answered what was asked and many assumptions were made.

I don't have any photos right now but otherwise they are just healthy green little guys.

What about your seeding media? This year something unusual happened... I used a fresh bag of seeding mix to start my tomato seeds, they all came up fine and potted up fine. Then, a month or so later I used the same opened bag of seeding mix for my melon seeds and just a few came up and those grew very very slowly. I gave up and just planted new melon seeds directly in the garden and they came up fine and grew fast although it was probably a little too cold to plant them directly. I think something contaminated my seeding mix between the time I started my tomato seeds and the time I planted the first melon seeds. I did everything exactly as I've always done successfully in years past so it seemed the only explanation. I tossed the bag, lesson learned....

Amanda, seed starting mix is just that, for starting the seeds only. There are no nutrients in that. You need to either get them transplanted into potting mix if growing in containers, or into the ground. Right now they are starving.

I agree with carriehelene. Even if your mix is good you need to do something drastic like repot or plant out.

Sorry for making assumptions; we are just trying to help you here. Have you grown tomatos from seed before so you have some basis for comparison?

Traditionally, you start giving diluted fertilizer when they get their first true leaves. I would give some soluble fertilizer immediately.

Also, tomatos are stimulated into growth by transplanting, so if you started the seeds in the 3" pots and haven't transplanted them, pot them up/plant them out now and that will help.

If indeed they are healthy but just slow, doing these things should stimulate growth.