Are those indoors or outside?

Indoors - about eight weeks I think. This is after the first potting-up. Lights are between 1 and four inches above seedlings. Bottom watering about once a week, they've been sprayed with a light seaweed mixture a couple times but no fertilizer other than some perlite mixed in with the starter.

Very unfortunate, I do not know what it is.

Just wait for advice someone may know this problem.

Caelian

Where did you get the dirt? Is it a commercial mix?

I was thinking pill bugs, but they're not exactly small (except when young). A picture would be useful if you can find one.

It's ProMix All Purpose starting mix with some added perlite and vermiculite. I don't think I'll be able to get a photo - they are that small, it's really hard to even find some. Could it be a nitrogen burn or something?

By the looks of things I am not so sure it's insect related damage. Maybe the tiny brown bugs you are seeing are springtails, if so they would not cause the damage you are seeing.

How often do you water and fertilize? Do you use any spray fertilizer on the leaves? I ask since a lot of your leaves are mishapened, curled and dry dead spots on a few of them.

Mark

I don't fertilize as the perlite already has some nitrogen in it (.04%). The Pro Mix also has some perlite premixed in and I'm adding some additional in. I don't think enough to really make a difference. I am watering about once a week when the soil is quite dried out. As I mentioned, I am bottom watering but not letting the seedlings sit in water.

Hi misterpatrick, at this point I would say a nutrient deficiency. I would get a nice balanced fertilizer just having nitrogen is not enough. Maybe some others can advise on the plants conditions, but that is what I would do if they were my plants.

Mark

As far as I know, perlite is not a nutrient.

.04 percent is as good as nothing. But you have sprayed them with seaweed (which is a nutrient) and twice with insecticidal soap. The damage may be from all that stuff. If you haven't already done it, I would spray them with clean water to rinse off the other stuff.

Most people don't think they can harm plants with organic sprays but it is easy to damage certain plants with too high concentration of any soap, especially if plants are exposed to sun after spraying. Back off the soap spray concentration.

I'd also suggest you find another potting media or check your water for total soluble salt (TSS) content before starting tomatoes. Test plant a few cucumber seed in the mix- they are more sensative to salt and will tell you in a hurry if your mix is the problem.

Promix is generally considered a high quality mix, so I wouldn't worry about that. It does look like something chewed on your leaves, but maybe you've killed it. Maybe you should just wait and watch. Sometimes we over think these things.

Thanks for the tips. The soap was only applied after I saw damage and only twice over a period of two weeks. I used ProMix last year with no trouble so don't think it's that. In any case, I'll just watch and wait. Several of the plants already have blossoms on them which is surprising as they are only a few inches tall. If they're healthy enough to bear fruit I won't complain.

The tomatoes get started in a couple weeks so we'll see how things look then. But from what I read if it is pests, many of the pests that attack peppers ignore tomatoes. As I mentioned, I have several flats if lettuce, micro-greens and herbs going and there haven't been any problems there. FWIW, same soil mix with those.