Well, it's my first year gardening but I thought I read somewhere about clear cups being bad for roots?

You know, I never would have thought of that. I looked into it a little further, and it can also encourage the growth of algae, which explains the funny looking green stuff growing around the roots of my pepper plants!

I've repotted all of them in the red Solo cups, so we'll see if they improve. Thanks for the tip!

What is the medium that you are growing them in and do you have drainage holes in the cups?

Just wondering if you are using a medium that has the water retention crystals in it?

Linda

Hope your plants start doing better :D

The purpling is common for very young plants. You'll find many questions here about it.

It has to do with their inability to uptake nutrients like P, not that there is a lack of it so most of us just ignore it. It disappears all on its own as the plant roots mature and temps warm..

The recommendation against clear cups is because roots are negatively phototropic - don't like light. :)

Dave

Clear cups and 18 hours of light (maybe intense too ! ?).

I had that problem with my peppers early on when the light were to close and running for 18 hours. But it went away after I increased the distance and reduce hours to 12. Could be just a coincidence, I am not sure.

I think you are worrying too much about your babies. They look OK to me. Mine are purple too but they are purple every year and every year I have tomatoes out my ears in July.

edit: You should see my little heart tomato plants.

Some varieties do that when there is nothing wrong with them. If you want to see sick tomatoes look at some of the other pictures here. If your plants don't continue to grow or get yellow and sickly then you can worry.

This post was edited by helenh on Tue, Apr 8, 14 at 11:38

Can I ask bgtriblle what ended up happening with his tomatoes?