Hey Guys,

I am new to the forum and have a couple of questions. Thank you to anyone who can provide some insight.

I am starting my garden from seeds this year. I have tried it once before but the seedlings damped off so this is my second attempt and I am somewhat apprehensive.

Here are some background details about how the plants are currently set up.

- I used heat mats until they germinated and then I unplugged them.
- I have two(4 total bar lights) 4800 lumens, 5000k led shop lights above them. Up until taking these photos, they were approximately 4" above the plants
- I used a seed starting mix, moistened with boiling water(but allowed to cool before planting seeds) in hopes of preventing fungus and disease
- Using Jiffy Pro Hex 72 cell seed starting trays, and bottom watering. I did not use the plastic dome cover at any point as I read this could cause fungus to develop if not removed very early.

The seedlings do not seem to be healthy. I am especially concerned about the tomato seedlings, because as you can see in the below photos they are droopy and leaning pretty far over. Also, the cucumber leaves seem to be curling up and feel a bit leathery though the squash plants right beside them are doing great. When I noticed the curling of the leaves I placed a fan, pointed indirectly toward the shelf with the plants, and the curling seemed to improve a little bit, but after two days is still in the shape captured in the photo.

Tomato Seedlings:






Cucumbers:




Thank you all for providing such a great community for us gardeners!

Hmmm...I don't think those seedlings look bad. (Or maybe my eyes are just bad).

My first guess is maybe a watering issue- either too much or too little. Bottom watering is my preference as well as spraying with a fine mist bottle. But you're right in that too much water will encourage damp off.

Hopefully someone else will come along with an opinion.

Karen

Hello juanson,
First of all, welcome to this forum. Secondly, I tend to agree with Karen, that based on those pictures, those seedlings don't look too bad. However, your posted pictures are kind of small. I think they could be bigger even if you took them with a phone, which their portrait format would suggest (although it is possible to take landscape format pictures with a phone.)

I usually upload photos that are 1000 pixels wide, like this example cropped and up-sampled from one of your pictures. What appears here is just a "thumbnail" of the uploaded picture. I have uploaded a picture of one of my hybrid zinnias to demonstrate that you can have two thumbnails side by side.

The advantage of uploading larger pictures is that you can click on the picture here to see a larger version. Try that by clicking on a picture.

And, you can see it a little bit better still (if you are viewing on a computer instead of a phone) by hitting your F11 key to hide your browser's heading material. Click on F11 again to get the browser headings back. You can make the big picture go away by clicking on the X in the lower right-hand corner of the picture.

OK, back to your seedlings. I am curious, what are those white strips with blue on the end in your photos?

ZM

I wondered that too.

Karen

Welcome to the forum! How are the seedlings doing now?

When you water do you remove the excess water after half an hour or so? You don't want the seedlings sitting in water. Also now that they have a set of true leaves are you feeding them? I feed mine with Miracle-Gro at 1/4 to 1/2 strength with the added bonus of Epsom salts added to the water. I have a 1 gallon milk jug filled with reverse osmosis water. Then I add 1 tablespoon Epsom Salt and 1/2 teaspoon miracle gro. Basically, the ES helps the plant cells open so they can absorb nutrients easier.

I have a water softener so cannot use the salty water on my plants.

Epsom salts, hmm. I have an unused bag of lavender epsom salts for the bath. I'm guessing that would be bad?

I, also, have Lavender scented but chose not to use it. I purchased an unscented for my plants. I wonder if I would've ended up with Lavender scented tomato plants? What a treat that would have been!