by The cause of most problems when growing seedlings at home are the mistakes of the gardeners themselves – from improper storage of seeds or an unsuccessful choice of soil for sowing to illiterate manipulations with young plants.
Here are the top 7 most common problems with seedlings – we will tell you how to avoid the main mistakes when growing seedlings and what to do if this or that situation does arise.
1. No seedlings appear
The first problem can be called such a state of affairs when the seeds have not sprouted at all and the seedlings are in no hurry to even peck out of the ground.
There may be many reasons for this, so you need to be careful already at the stage of buying seeds in a store or collecting and storing them yourself. In addition to sowing low-quality seeds, at the very initial stages of preparing for growing seedlings, you can make the following mistakes: forget to disinfect the container and tools, not pickle the seeds or treat them in an overly concentrated solution, choose the wrong soil and again – forget to treat it, plant small seeds too deeply when sowing.
How to avoid all these mistakes and properly prepare seeds, containers, soil and tools for the sowing process itself is described in detail in our materials.
2. The seedlings died
Your seeds sprouted without any problems, but the young plants may suddenly start to fall over for seemingly no reason.
In fact, if you look closely at the base of the tiny stems, you will easily find the cause, and its name is black leg (pythium, pythium root rot, lodging of seedlings). This affliction is caused by various phytopathogens (soil fungi and bacteria), and it looks like browning (blackening) of the root collar and roots with subsequent thinning of the stem in this place; often, abundant light mycelium is visible on the affected tissues. Usually, the disease leads to the death of weak, slowly developing shoots already at the stage of their emergence from the soil.
Preventive measures against the occurrence of black leg include disinfection of soil before sowing, pre-sowing seed treatment, and adherence to agricultural practices when growing seedlings (especially humidity and temperature conditions).
Control measures include soaking seeds, pouring the substrate and seedlings under the root with a solution of any biological fungicide or bactericide: Alirin-B, Fitosporin-M, Sporobacterin, Trichocin, Gamair, Baktofit, Gliocladin, Trichoderma Veride 471.
3. The seedlings stretch out
The opposite situation to the one described above is when the seedlings do not lie down “on the root”, but, on the contrary, become excessively thin and stretch upward, often bending to one side.
The most likely reason for this situation is the lack of light in young plants, in search of which they “stretch” with all their might to the nearest light source. This is especially true in conditions of dense plantings, when plants have to literally compete for resources.
If you did not observe the sowing dates of a particular crop and it sprouted too early, the seedlings will suffer from a lack of light, stretch out and weaken. And in principle, for cultivating seedlings indoors in the middle zone (above 40-50 parallel) in the winter-spring months, it is imperative to provide additional lighting due to the short daylight hours during this period. And little light means little energy for growth and life. Depending on the type of crop, seedlings may need 11-17 hours of full lighting (morning additional lighting + daytime natural light + evening additional lighting).
4. The seedlings are too thin and pale
Have you provided your plants with adequate lighting, but they still look weak and pale? Perhaps it is high time to feed them.
In the first days of life, the seedlings feed on the reserves of the former seed, then they begin to consume nutrients from the soil, but since its volume is limited, as a rule, to a very small planting container, the seedlings may soon lack nutrition.
You can choose specialized “store-bought” products as your first fertilizers (usually they are labeled as such, “for seedlings”) or prepare the fertilizer yourself from literally what you have on hand.
Do not forget that “overfeeding” is just as dangerous for young plants as “starvation”, so use fertilizers strictly according to the schedule and in the right doses.
5. The seedlings are wilting
If the seedlings are withering right before your eyes, most often the problem lies in the violation of the watering and feeding schedule for the seedlings, as well as in too dry and hot air.
We have already told you how important it is to establish a feeding regime, but do not forget about the watering regime. After all, plants can wither both due to a lack of water (tissue turgor is lost) and due to its excess (the roots rot and the above-ground part withers).
Water the seedlings with water at room temperature as the top layer of soil dries out, avoiding stagnation of moisture and drying out of the entire root zone. In hot sunny weather, water the seedlings more often, on cloudy days, reduce watering to a minimum. When watering, make sure that the soil is moistened throughout the entire container, and not just on top.
Another source of such trouble, as we have already said, can be dryness and heat in the room with seedlings. Check whether the phytolamp is too close to the tender young plants, whether the shoots are overdried by streams of dry air from radiators or drafts from cracks in the window, whether the sun “fries” them during the daytime on the windowsill. If so, correct the situation.
6. The soil under the seedlings is covered with a crust or mold.
High-quality soil is the key to the growth of strong seedlings. If the soil under the plants is covered with a crust or a fluffy coating of mold, this is not a good sign – it is time to take measures to prevent the attack from spreading to the seedlings.
First of all, review your watering schedule – soil compaction and cracks in it most often indicate a lack of moisture (often coupled with excessively dry air in the room) or that you forget to carefully loosen the soil under the plants. If you are not sure about the need for watering, regularly check the soil moisture with a wooden stick.
A hard gray or whitish coating on the soil surface usually forms due to poor quality or high salt and impurity content in irrigation water. Therefore, it is recommended to water seedlings with well-settled, or even better, filtered soft water.
If you see a fluffy coating of white, gray or other color under the plants, it is most likely a fungal infection that could “hide” in the soil or on the seeds themselves, and with the onset of favorable conditions (usually a combination of high humidity and heat) began to actively develop. In this case, the areas of soil with mold must be urgently removed, the crops must be watered with a solution of biofungicides approved for seedlings, and in the future, strictly adhere to the conditions for its cultivation.
7. The seedlings stopped growing after picking.
Seedlings that droop or stop growing after picking are quite common. The fact is that if they are transplanted carelessly into new containers, the roots are often damaged, the plant does not receive the necessary nutrition and, as a result, begins to wither.
Gardeners sometimes add problems to themselves and stress to plants by pinching roots during picking to stimulate the growth of the root system as a whole. Of course, after such a traumatic procedure, the seedlings need time to recover and therefore they stop growing for some time.
In this case, you just need to leave the transplanted plants alone, providing them with the proper conditions (warmth, watering, enough diffused light) – in about 3-4 weeks the seedlings will start growing again. If this does not happen, check whether the plants are suffering from a draft, whether you are watering them with too cold water, and whether the containers with seedlings are in a warm enough room.
Growing seedlings at home is not the most difficult task, but it also requires attention and precision if you want to see your plants healthy and strong. We hope that our material will help novice gardeners avoid the most common problems with seedlings, and if they arise, correct the situation in a timely and competent manner.
