Leaves on tomato seedlings dying

9 years ago

I've had several tomato seedlings going for about a month and things have been going well. I re-potted them from peat moss awhile ago and they really started to take off, but now the leaves are curling and dying. It started really suddenly, but since I haven't changed my watering habits or the amount of sun they receive, I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong.

Can anyone help?

Comments (8)

jackleroy
Original Author
9 years ago
This is a younger seedling and you can see the leaves at the top of the picture doing the same thing.
missingtheobvious
9 years ago
What medium did you use to pot them?

Is the top seedling in its permanent pot? If so, how large is the pot and what variety is the seedling?
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seysonn
9 years ago
I think they've got sunburn. I might be wrong.
jackleroy
Original Author
9 years ago
Neither plant is in its permanent pot. The top is a super beef and the bottom is a quarter century, both from Burpee. They are both in potting soil. I have others in the same medium that are doing really well.

Sunburn was my first reaction, but the past week have been overly cloudy, rainy and cold, so I haven't been putting them out at all. They've been staying inside on the windowsill to get as much light as possible. Today was the first day that I put them outside again and they seem to have gotten a little worse.
labradors_gw
9 years ago
It looks like sunburn/wind-burn to me.

Linda
digdirt2
9 years ago
Agree. Environmental damage (sun and Wind) due to lack of proper hardening off procedures. In and out and in and out doesn't work at all well.

Google 'how to harden off plants'.

Dave
jackleroy
Original Author
9 years ago
Okay, I'll stop putting them out for awhile. Is there anything else I can do to help them recover?
digdirt2
9 years ago
Okay, I'll stop putting them out for awhile. Is there anything else I can do to help them recover?

Sorry but I don't think you understand what we are saying. You cannot radically change the environment of a plant without damage. The damage is done now since they weren't hardened off first so you might as well leave them out. The damaged parts will die and fall off but the new growth will slowly replace it and should be ok . Taking them back inside only to move them back out side later on will only reverse the progress made and then cause more damage.

Plants need to be very gradually - over a period of 7-10 days - exposed to the the outside when they have been grown indoors. This is called Hardening Off and there are FAQs here as well as lots of internet info about it.. They never go from inside directly into the bright sun.

Rather they go in slow steps from inside out into the world. First to sheltered shade like a screen porch or under a deck, then into shade protected from wind and high temps, then into light sun for a few hours, and gradually over several days into more and more sun for longer periods.

And once they start out they don't go back indoors again except briefly in the case of severe storms or such.

Dave