seedling pictures?

can someone post a few pictures of their seedlings that are only a few days old? Somehow without the heatewr on I had half a dozen pepper plants and two or three tomato plants pop up in the last two days. So like I have read on here a dozen or more times I very gingerly stuck a pencil into the vermiculite and pulled them up to transplant them to my styrafoam cups with MM. Two of the transplants are already whillting and falling over. To me they look very weak and spindly and they just cannot support the weight of themselves. I tried to prop them up on a popcicle stick and add some more MM to them in the hopes that it would support them more while they had a chance to grow but I am not sure its going to work.

Can someone post a picture or two of their young seedlings that I could use to compare my plants too?

Here are the pictures of tomatoes and peppers, day 12 after sowing on both.
Tomatoes take somewhere between 4 and 10 days to emerge, and peppers typically take longer, but once they germinate, there's not stopping them.

Weak and spindly seedlings means two things, too much water, and not enough sun. With tomatoes it's not a big deal, they grow roots from all parts of the stem, so you can just bury them deeper. Not sure about peppers, but worth a shot. I had the same problem with broccolis, and ended up burying them deeper twice. They are still alive and kicking. Definitely add more light - it fixes everything.

Good luck

Peppers


Tomatoes

i don't know if its the picture or if your plants are really that green but mine definitely are not that color. When mine sprout they are very light green almost white, and within three days usually they die.

Here are my seedlings in vermiculite, just before transplanting to MM. I always transplanted them from vermiculite to cells with-in a couple of days after germination.

Revolution lettuce


Tomatoes ready to transfer to MM


Tomatoes transplanted to MM in seedling cells


Once my seedlings were transferred into seedling cells with MM, they were then grown under shop light fixtures with one cool and one warm flourescent bulb. I kept the light bulbs about two inches above the top of the plants.

When mine first germinate they are then looking for sunlight and sometimes I don't move them right away so they start to get leggy.
Once under the lights, tho, they start to fatten up a bit.

In the smaller tray are seedlings that just germinated which I now placed under the light. I was holding them there to take the photo. As you can see from the older ones on the right and in the back, they seem to reform once they get under the lights and start growing. I think these were broccoli and cabbages. They are very green, not pale.
The leggy mass on the left was some experiment in starting several seeds in single 2" soil blocks which didn't work for me. I can't even remember what I sowed in those blocks.

This is my first time starting all my veggies and several kinds of flowers from seed. I won't post any pics, as mine are tallish and searching for light. Not really very pretty, but they're alive. Next year I'll get a grow light! The only yellowish seedlings I have are my cucumbers. But a friend who owns a garden center assured me that with some food they will green up. In with the compost... I've watered some seedlings with miracle grow in water to feed them too. Seems to keep things green and it was easy to water in the seedling packs rather than try and work any compost into such small containers.

those are ALOT shorter than mine when they got their leaves. Almost all of my seedlings got to about 2.5 to 3 inches tall before they got their leaves and they were super super thin. As soon as the leaves popped out they would fall over. Why would they grow so tall so fast before the leaves showed up? The only one that hasn't done that is my one pepper plant, right now he is only about .75 inches tall and is holding up well so far, time will tell how long he lasts though.

scmelik wrote:those are ALOT shorter than mine when they got their leaves. Almost all of my seedlings got to about 2.5 to 3 inches tall before they got their leaves and they were super super thin. As soon as the leaves popped out they would fall over. Why would they grow so tall so fast before the leaves showed up? The only one that hasn't done that is my one pepper plant, right now he is only about .75 inches tall and is holding up well so far, time will tell how long he lasts though.

Mine were 3/4 in up to 1 1/2 inch when the leaves opened, but I buried them to the seed leaves when I transplanted the seedlings into the seedling cells with MM.

Are your seedlings under lights while they germinate? Once they start to germinate, they really need some light or they will stretch and get truly spindly.

Furbalsmom wrote:

scmelik wrote:those are ALOT shorter than mine when they got their leaves. Almost all of my seedlings got to about 2.5 to 3 inches tall before they got their leaves and they were super super thin. As soon as the leaves popped out they would fall over. Why would they grow so tall so fast before the leaves showed up? The only one that hasn't done that is my one pepper plant, right now he is only about .75 inches tall and is holding up well so far, time will tell how long he lasts though.

Mine were 3/4 in up to 1 1/2 inch when the leaves opened, but I buried them to the seed leaves when I transplanted the seedlings into the seedling cells with MM.

Are your seedlings under lights while they germinate? Once they start to germinate, they really need some light or they will stretch and get truly spindly.

no i do not have them under any type of light other than my regular kitchen light, I wanted to do a growing table but not this year it is going to have to wait until next year.

Try putting your seed in pots on a warm windowsill where there is plenty of daylight (but not blazing hot sun).

Except for lettuce that requires light to germinate, I sow my seedlings, spritz with warm water or weak green tea and place the tray in a quiet spot away from light, covered with something like a dome or a fast food clear plastic top or even tucked into a plastic bag to retain moisture. I spritz now and again if they need more moisture until they pop. They need some warmth to germinate.

Once they germinate, then they are placed under lights. Even if they start out leggy, they seem to even out later.

I know seeds need warmth firstly. Then the sprouts need sunlight or artificial light to grow.

I'm sure when you get your seed-growing supplies next year, you'll find starting seeds a lot easier.

scmelik wrote:

Furbalsmom wrote:

scmelik wrote:those are ALOT shorter than mine when they got their leaves. Almost all of my seedlings got to about 2.5 to 3 inches tall before they got their leaves and they were super super thin. As soon as the leaves popped out they would fall over. Why would they grow so tall so fast before the leaves showed up? The only one that hasn't done that is my one pepper plant, right now he is only about .75 inches tall and is holding up well so far, time will tell how long he lasts though.

Mine were 3/4 in up to 1 1/2 inch when the leaves opened, but I buried them to the seed leaves when I transplanted the seedlings into the seedling cells with MM.

Are your seedlings under lights while they germinate? Once they start to germinate, they really need some light or they will stretch and get truly spindly.

no i do not have them under any type of light other than my regular kitchen light, I wanted to do a growing table but not this year it is going to have to wait until next year.

Seedlings need lots of light once they germinate. A sunny window at the very least. What sort of kitchen light are you talking about? If it's a ceiling fixture, sorry that's not going to cut it. You can get an inexpensive shop light from Home Depot, that would work much better.

So if you people are posting pictures of seedlings here, is there someone with a picture of a spinach (nores) seedling? I would like to know how a spinach seedling looks like since I have never planted them before. My problem is that I sow my spinach outdoor straight away, and only one came up and it is not exactly the spot where I seeded them but it is still close enough if the seed floated away a bit after watering, thus I am not really convinced that it is spinach or weed. And now we are talking about it anyway, do birds like spinach seed or not?

I'll take a picture when I get back from duty at the community garden.

It comes up with two skinny prongs, and then round leaves come up in the middle. That gives you an idea, at least. Til later.

Zephyros wrote:So if you people are posting pictures of seedlings here, is there someone with a picture of a spinach (nores) seedling? I would like to know how a spinach seedling looks like since I have never planted them before. My problem is that I sow my spinach outdoor straight away, and only one came up and it is not exactly the spot where I seeded them but it is still close enough if the seed floated away a bit after watering, thus I am not really convinced that it is spinach or weed. And now we are talking about it anyway, do birds like spinach seed or not?

Here is my spinach from last year: