Rapid Growth in Containers After Just One Week

Just some pictures to show how fast everything's growing! First, the heirloom tomato plant that I just couldn't bring myself to toss because my Mom gave it to me:

 

Next, the sweet pepper that struggled in the beginning, "Carmen":

 

 

Now, the cabbage:

 



 



Everything's doing really well, and the best part is that I don't have to worry about animals eating them!

Potting Soils - The Results Are In

 

 

 

Well, I made an important discovery:  the type of potting soil you use is extremely important. 

 

The plants in all of these pictures were started by seed at the same time, yet some of the plants took off while others remained slow-growing.  The obvious factor?  The potting soil.

 

I used 3 different kinds and had the best results - hands down - with the first bag that I purchased.  I got it from Sixteen Acres Garden Center.  I do not have the name of it right now, but I am going to go back and get another bag of it.  It was a "slow-release fertilizer" type.  Anyway, I can see from these pictures that all the seedlings that I transplanted into 12-oz cups with this fertilizer did the best.

 

 

One final experiment:  Two weeks ago, I was about to throw out a bunch of tiny tomato seedlings that just never seemed to grow.  However, I noticed that I didn't have any Red Grape Tomato plants or Lee Fanelli Heirloom plants, so I decided to do a little experiment.  Suspecting that the reason they never grew was due to the lousy potting soil, I replanted them in the Fox Farm Ocean Forest (FFOF)potting soil.  These pictures show what a difference the potting sol made over just 2 weeks.  The first picture shows the seedlings that I was about to throw out:

 

 

These next two pictures show the seedlings after just 2 weeks:

 

 



Potting Soil

This is the first year that I have ever had any success with growing plants from seed, but what a learning experience it has been!

One of the challenges I always face is "damping off" , or "root rot", due to over-watering.  This year (aside from my first try at pepper plants) everything has gone really well, thanks to peat pellets. I tried 2 different kinds, peat and soil pellets and like the peat pellets better (I lost a whole flat of marigolds using the Jiffy pellets).

I noticed that the seedlings I transplanted first have done so much better than the seedlings I did in the following weeks.  I think it's because of the potting soil.  The first potting soil I used had a slow-release fertilizer incorporated in it.  Then, when I ran out, I was tempted to buy a really cheap potting soil called Jolly Gardener.  Well, this gardener isn't feeling too jolly!

The second potting soil was damp in the bag, and felt really heavy.  I think the dampness hurt the roots, because the plants have pretty much stopped growing.  I have tried a new potting soil called Fox Farm Ocean Forest (FFOF) which has been touted all over gardening forums.  Still, my seedlings seem dejected.  I think the longer the seedlings sit around in their peat pots, the more they lose energy to grow.

One of the biggest questions I have had is how and when to fertilize the plants.  Again, the first potting soil with the slow-release fertilizer seems to have worked best.

Last week, I started getting extremely concerned because I noticed some of the tomato leaves looking a bit shriveled, and I discovered some tiny bugs floating around.  Someone at the garden center told me that I probably have fungus mites, due to dampness.  Darn that Jolly Gardener! Her recommendation was to bring the plants up out of the basement to get some air and dry off.  So that's what I did.

Any way, here is a photo comparing two tomato seedlings, both sown on April 6th.  What a difference!

In all fairness, the plant on the left was sitting in a peat pellet for at least 2 weeks while I waited for it to develop true leaves.  I'm not sure why some of the plants grew so much quicker than the others.