tomato seedling weaknesses_032625
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[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Dallas Garden School Podcast. I'm your host and your garden educator. Callie works Leary. Today we have a question from my student, Paula. Paula writes, hi Callie. I've learned so much from your classes. I have a question about my recent seedlings. Since I have a relatively small garden, I started three seedlings, each of several different tomato and pepper varieties.
Most did very well, but I had two tomato varieties. Brandy wine and German Johnson that germinated but did not thrive. They all had the same soil, water, fertilizer, and light. In fact, they were in the same seed starting seeds, starting tray with my other varieties. The Brandy wine seed was purchased from Baker Creek and the German Johnson from Johnny Seeds.
Any ideas why certain varieties would not farewell when all the others thrived? Just trying to learn more for next year. It was so satisfying to watch them grow. I am hooked now. Paula, I'm so glad that you have caught the indoor seed starting bug. [00:01:00] I think it's truly life changing and one of my favorite skills, that I employ when I garden.
The first thing that I would say is that this is not uncommon, and this happens to me every year that I start seasoned indoors. I'll start 30 different tomato varieties and invariably. Three to four of them will result in seedlings that just didn't thrive. They were smaller than the others. They were weaker than the others, and there are a lot of different reasons why this can occur.
Unfortunately, because I don't know the exact conditions you were growing your seedlings in. I can't give you a definitive reason why this would happen, but let's explore why certain seedlings may not thrive when others do under the same exact conditions. The first thing that comes to my mind
is that you are growing two heirloom varieties. Heirloom varieties have been around for a very long time, but that also [00:02:00] introduces quite a bit of risk and I'll explain why. These varieties are open pollinated, which means they. Are not selectively bred. When you buy a hybrid, the parent varieties have been selected and specifically bred to produce this hybrid variety.
And because of that, it's a much more controlled process. There's less variation from seed to seed. When you are selling heirloom seeds, there is a distinct possibility that one seed company. Has a slightly different strain of a particular heirloom variety than another seed company. It all depends on where they're sourcing their seed from, how carefully those conditions were in which the seed was produced, and wherever that grower got their stock from.
That could also be a strain that is slightly different. Because it's grown in an [00:03:00] open field, or it could be grown in a controlled greenhouse, but there is a possibility of genetic mutation. There's possibility of cross pollination with other varieties. There's all sorts of different things that can go on.
So my first thinking about the brandy wine seedling that didn't, didn't thrive as perhaps Baker Creek is selling a particular strain that's slightly different. And is more sensitive to indoor conditions. So one of the reasons that a specific variety will do better than another in indoor conditions is just what that variety has adapted to grow under.
There are specific varieties that I've grown in the past, and I've grown many, many of the seedlings. When I used to sell my heirloom tomatoes, I would grow not just five different plants of one variety. I'd grow 50. With those numbers, and because I was growing across a number of different plug trays, I could really see it was an issue with the variety itself.
For some reason, that [00:04:00] particular variety did not like the conditions of indoor household. Seed starting, which are not as highly controlled as a greenhouse. It can be challenging to keep the conditions consistent over the time that those seedlings will stay in the cell tray.
So yes, there are specific varieties that just do not like to be started in a home indoor seed starting set up. This variety of brandy wine that Baker Creek is selling, that could also be a problem with that particular strain. I don't want to knock Baker Creek. I purchased their seeds.
I'm obsessed with their orange hat, tomato variety that produces these micro dwarf tomatoes. They did extremely well for me this year, I also have had problems with Baker Creek Seeds in the past. I think Baker Creek's strength is the sheer number of different varieties and having unique and rare and exotic varieties.
I don't think the strength is necessarily. In consistency and reliability of [00:05:00] their seeds, which is why Johnny's tends to be my favorite because Johnny's, they are supplying seeds primarily to professional growers. So they need to make sure that these are doing well versus Baker Creek is selling to the general public for the most part.
It could be that this brandy wine strain did not tolerate indoor conditions very well. It could also be that the seed from Baker Creek. Was not as high quality as you needed it to be. Now I cannot remember whether or not I have grown German Johnson, but this is another heirloom variety. The same things could be happening.
That particular strain of German Johnson or German Johnson itself could be less well suited to starting indoors in a household. Now you said that is from Johnny's, and I find that all seeds from Johnny's tend to be extremely reliable. Because you didn't have, hundreds of different seedlings among multiple cell trays to compare it to, it could [00:06:00] be.
Simply a result of the conditions that that specific seedling variety was under. If you planted them together, maybe that row of the plug tray perhaps didn't receive as much light as the other ones. Maybe it didn't receive the same amount of water. There could be some minor circumstances that that particular variety
did not get what it needed and was set back and then couldn't, just couldn't recover. So another thing that I see happening, especially if you're growing multiple varieties in one cell tray, is that you may have a particular variety that germinates later than others, or perhaps those particular seeds were accidentally planted a little deeper.
So if they germinate later than the others, they're already kind of set back, and as the other seedlings grow, that particular seedling. Could be shaded out by the seedlings around it. That was one of the things that I found this year. I had [00:07:00] specific seedlings. Where they were positioned in the plug tray.
They did not get optimal conditions, and so they ended up being weaker for me, than they otherwise would have. One of my favorite varieties is carbon, and carbon are seeds that I get from Johnny's. Carbon has done exceptionally well for me, both as a seedling, indoors and in the field.
For some reason, it just didn't get what it needed to thrive. What it said to me was, this is something that I've had success for multiple years. In the past it did not do as well and was a very weak seedling.
I'm attributing that to some sort of condition where it was in the plug tray, if, if it was shaded out by other things. So that's where my mind landed on that one. There were other varieties that I started for the first time this year. Even varieties from Johnny's and other seed companies that didn't do as well.
But because I'm growing them for the first time, I'm unable to determine whether it was the conditions they were being grown in [00:08:00] or the variety itself. That means that I need to. Grow that again next year to determine whether I'm still getting those weak seedling results from that particular variety.
Overall I would attribute this less to the particular varieties you chose and more to the particular conditions these varieties had these particular strains of a specific variety may not be as strong as others. The reason I say that about strains is that brandy wine is a tomato, an heirloom tomato, that I have grown for many, many years and have had no problem with as a seedling.
So for me, that says this could be an issue with that particular strain. Or with conditions. Since I don't know the specific conditions that your seedlings were in, don't worry about this too much. This is very normal and happens for all sorts of different reasons.
Just try again and remember that this is a possibility. It's [00:09:00] unlikely. Anything you did, you probably provided the correct conditions. But whatever that teeny tiny microclimate for that seedling was. Could have been suboptimal, resulting in seedlings that didn't thrive. To recap, it could be a particular strain that that seed company is selling.
It could be that particular variety is more sensitive to the conditions present in a home indoor seed starting station, versus being started by a commercial grower in a highly controlled environment. It could also be where the particular seedling was in the tray. Maybe it germinated a little late, if you're only having a problem with a few seedlings whatever you were doing was right if you were having consistent problems with every variety.
Then it could be a condition you need to improve next time. But overall your seedlings did really well. It was just a few varieties that didn't thrive, so don't give up. I recommend [00:10:00] starting these varieties again next year, or starting them in May for a fall planting.
And if you get the same results, you can attribute it to either the seed you sourced. Or that particular variety just doesn't do well for indoor seed starting. So maybe something that you don't want to grow again, I would highly recommend that you save these seeds, the exact seeds that you used.
If you have leftovers, store them in an airtight container out of direct sunlight in the coolest area of your house, and then either replant them again indoors in May for a fall planting, or save them carefully so that you can use them again next year. And then you can rule out whether it was the seed itself or just random conditions that caused it.
Hope that illuminates some of this process. And as I repeat to all my students, there is a science to nurses, Jordan, and there is an art and sometimes. Things happen that are beyond our control and we just have to accept that there's going to be a [00:11:00] certain percentage of seedlings that no matter, even if we are the most perfect seed start in the entire world, no matter how many years of experience you have, there are always going to be things that don't necessarily work out.
If you would like to get help with a gardening conundrum you can leave me a voice message. You can go to speak pipe.com/the Dallas Garden School. Leave me a voice message and it could be played here on the podcast and I can provide an answer to a gardening question that you might have.
Happy gardening, and until next time.
