sorry, need help again Sungold seedlings

11 years ago

Hello again:

If anyone gets a chance, please look at these, I could really use some input: https://plus.google.com/photos/104467923746994449105/albums/5764068270189716033?authkey=CImBooiXyoti

The first one is the one I got into a big pot. It's been in there for about 2 weeks. It has not grown much, except for some underground leaves that I didn't cut off right before I buried it pretty good. I took those off a day or two ago. (The other mistakes I made was I didn't spread out the already-boundish roots very much, after letting them get potbound. Three rookie errors so far.)

My question is: should I leave it in there, or take it out and plant another seed, or make a clone? The plants that went into big pots at my friend's house -- same litter, but she's near the coast so it's not blistering hot -- grew ginormously as soon as they got some space, but mine hasn't.

Otoh, the leaves on my little plant are very nice and green and sturdy, *except* for the curled ones at the top. I guess whatever new energy it had went into the underground leaves that I didn't cut off well enough. What do people think, up or down on this plant?

My second question is: as for the seedlings still in the too small pots, are they goners? Should I clone? Or would they still grow if I got them in a big pot? I have another big pot, I just need to get more soil.

It will get much hotter soon, so that makes me reluctant to start all over with new seeds/clones, because I thought someone said here that if it gets too hot, then the plants won't like that either. But I will start over if I have to.

Your input is appreciated!! I love this website. I've been reading lots of things in this forum, but it's so much info that I get a bit lost.

Comments (4)

carolyn137
11 years ago
need 2, I didn't even look at the picture b'c I know that all of the folks I know in the LA are sow their seeds around Xmas and plant out the seedlings by the end of Jan up to about the first of March b'c they have to get them out there before the HOT weather hits and no pollination can take place and growth of the plants themselves slows considerably.

A few years ago I was invited to do a dog and pony show at Hortus Nursery, not that far from pacific Palisades where the plants were still for sale when I was there, which was early March. Hortus went under but the weather remains the same.

And there are several places in CA, including the LA area where Tomatomania holds their plant sales as well as the ones in Long Beach, and all are held in the Feb/march time span/

So at this point I don't know what to tell you to do but I wouldn't have much hope of any tomatoes in the LA area doing well in your HOT summers.

Carolyn
digdirt2
11 years ago
Are you in Los Angeles, California or in Louisiana? Like Carolyn I assumed you mean California. If so have you checked in with the folks on the California Gardening forum to find out your proper planting times?

Of course even if you do mean Louisiana then your planting times would be much earlier in the year too.

Either way while now is not tomato growing time for you, you'll have a nice fall gardening season that many of us don't get.

So just leave it for now and keep it watered and babied and once the weather breaks, if it survives, it should perk up and grow.

Dave
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Need2SeeGreen 10 (SoCal)
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks so much for the help! I will just leave it in there and see what happens. And thanks for the California forum tip, I hadn't noticed it.
Tomatobaby
11 years ago
It definitely does not look good. You have very few leaves. The plant looks really stressed. I live in LA as well and i have a patio garden and i find that self watering containers work better than either clay or plastic pots. And for sungold you need at least a 15 gal pot. I have also successfully propagated suckers in the last 2weeks. I just made sure the sucker is no more than4 inches and got a shady spot for it.