branches falling off

[duajones]

of off several of my seedlings. Potted up a week ago using what turned out to be poor quality potting soil but plants looked ok afterwards. But last couple of days a few of the seedlings have dropped whole branches near the bottom of the plant. A couple of them I just barely touched and they fell off. Is this a damping problem or what? Plants are somewhat leggy but look normal otherwise. temp is around 75 degrees and i have a small fan that I rotate between the two sets of plants. Lights are within an inch or so of the plants as well.

[Suze]

Duane,

I don't have a concrete answer to your question, but I will tell you that I've had the same thing happen occasionally and the plants ended up being just fine.

When it's happened to me, the plants were a few weeks old (but still under lights, close to that time/size when one starts to think about getting them outside), and didn't show any other signs of stress or major nutrient deficiencies. I use a good soilless mix and am pretty good at knowing when to water or not.

In any case, they seemed fine once I got them outside to harden off.

[Fusion_power]

Big plants. Fluorescent lights. The plants are suffering from photo deficiency. Can you put them outdoors in bright sunlight? Harden them off first of course. A mild feeding would probably help too. Sounds like they are low on potassium and maybe nitrogen.

Tomatoes are very temperamental about temperature when first taken outdoors. They don't like temps below 55 degrees AT ALL. Below 45 degrees they will go into a lasting sulk refusing to grow even if the temperature rises. Once they are acclimated to outdoor temps and direct sunshine, they can handle temps down to about 35 degrees without significant problems. But don't expect seedlings to take it!

Fusion

[duajones]

thanks for your replies. I cant move them into sunlight right now as we have had mostly cloudy and rainy days lately. Hoping the weather permits me to do so in the near future. Gave them a mild feeding of worm casing tea last night. And just out of curiosity, I checked the temp of the soil in my prepared beds this morning and the temp was 55. With the cool weather we have been having, I expected it to be much cooler. I would love to have these plants in the ground by the end of February.

[bcday]

I cant move them into sunlight right now as we have had mostly cloudy and rainy days lately.

You shouldn't move them into sunlight right now anyway -- see above where Fusion says, "Harden them off first of course".

The cloudy weather you are having is better right now, to give them a few days to get used to outdoor conditions before exposing them to bright sun.

Are you sure the potting soil that you say is poor quality, isn't keeping the roots too wet? Tomatoes don't do well if the roots are waterlogged all the time. Maybe they just need a chance to dry out a little (not to where they wilt, of course). Plant roots need fresh air too. :wink: