A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Seedlings dying

I've decided to start things from seed this year. I had 12 romaine lettuces, 12 onions, a few watermelons and cantaloupes, and a few flowers as a small start. Nearly all of them germinated into nice seedlings, however problems soon emerged. The lettuce seedlings grew tall and skinny and start to wilt over and die after a few weeks, right as the true lettuce leaves started to form and emerge. The onions grew nice and tall to about three to four inches, and then wilted over and died. The watermelons grew tall with a thicker stem, but then they all died. Seems like the stem, just before the leaves, kind of bent over and creased over with no cause? The cantaloupe is fine as of now. The flowers, I had maybe six zinnias and six verbenas, also wilted and died off. Right now there is one of each that did not die yet. What did I do wrong? It's really starting to frustrate me, and I lost a lot of time now. They are indoors getting light from a window facing southeast. Are they not getting enough light or something? They've been watered, with the soil constantly moist.

Sorry, that really is frustrating, but you have time to start again. We haven't started yet but I have really cut back on what I will start indoors because of previous results. Don't bother starting the flowers indoors. The zinnias grow great from seeds planted directly into the garden. We had so many beautiful ones last year and I saved lots of seeds. I will probably only grow tomatoes and cukes inside and will start them April 1, since we can't put in the ground til the 3rd or 4th week in May. As for your problem, maybe they were watered too much. Not sure, but it's a possibility. Maybe someone else will have other thoughts. Good luck and enjoy your gardening!!

Thanks. I reseeded everything last night. I'll try to keep the water down this time. I do have to say, the soil was pretty wet at times. For some reason, every single basil seedling is doing fine, and none of them died on their own. I'm looking forward to what other people have to say about this. I would hate for the same thing to happen again.

What you have going on is called dampening off. It is cause by a fungus that happening when plants stay wet to long. Starting plants from seed is a very economical way to plant a garden. However, you can lose young plants to fungus disease before they even come up. Damping-off is a fungal disease that can kill seedlings overnight. The fungus rots the stems at the soil surface, causing the seedlings to fall over and die. A way to control this problem is with improved circulation. Brew up some Weak chamomile tea (after it has cooled)it is a natural fungicide. Cinnamon powder is also a good one to use. Hope this helps.

I've never heard that about chamomile. Thanks.

Thanks waterwise. That does sound like what is going on. I've been finding a parts of the soil (peat pellets actually) covered in white material. I've been taking it off on the pellets that have the still living plants in them. But a lot of the plants were wilting before the stem rotted. Is this typical before the fungus kills it?

The white stuff on your pellets means they're not getting enough air circulation. If your pellets are in a mini greenhouse like mine, leaving the cover off at night should get rid of the problem. seedlings will actually benefit from a dip in temperatures at night. Damping off is literally the seedling too damp, and where the seedling pokes out of the soil, the stem would be brown (fungus - damping off is a fungal thing). Leggy seedlings will not have the brown 'area' where the seedlings meets the soil. They just snap.

Tall and skinny also sounds to me like very 'leggy seedlings.' The small long skinny stem is a result of not enough light. The thin long stem won't be strong enough to support the leaves. Another sign of leggy seedlings is if the stem between leaves are larger than usual. seedlings are very sensitive to light and need ample of it. If they don't get enough, they'll stretch to find it. You can't make a seedlings better again after it's gone leggy (ie you can't make the stretch stem grow shorter) but as soon as you provide them with enough light, the new growth will no longer be leggy. Some plants you can bury the seedling deeper when you're transplanting (like tomatoes; they will root along the stem).

Yes it is. It is a fungus that attacks the stem at soil level. as soon as the seeds are sprouted remove any clear dome or plastic cover. then water from the bottom, allow the tops to stay just damp not saturated. Do you use grow lights? Or just a sunny window? There is a fungicide which controls damping off. It is called No-Damp.

A fan going in the room where the seedlings are growing helps lots too.

Kenny, I've left the cover off of the tray after germination. Since it's indoors, there isn't a dip in temperature. And it is true that there isn't too much light. I've put it beside my window, and it doesn't seem to get as much light as if it were outside. Though I'm afraid to put them outside right now because of the temperature. I'm a bit north of Philadelphia, and it gets to a few degrees above freezing at times. What window should I put the plants in for maximum sunlight? Currently, it's in front of a south east facing window.

Waterwise, I'll start to water from the bottom now. The entire time, I've been watering at the base of the stem.

Rosepetal, I have a small fan that I can use. I'll try it out for better ventilation.

Just if anyone was interested, here's a picture taken from about thirty minutes ago. The lettuces are starting to germinate, the larger one has been out for maybe two or three days. This is how the other lettuces that died off looked like, and then they just kept growing and growing upwards. The stems didn't seem to get much thicker than that. By the way, I gave the peat pellets a light coat of cinnamon as suggested. I see no fungus as of now.

I don't have grow lights so I use the window in my room (a west window with a tree in front). One thing to remember is that seedlings will stretch to the brightest light, so to prevent them from stretching too much, you'll want to rotate the tray of seedlings 180* (in essence so they will bend the opposite way to straighten up). If they've bent too much to one side, they will still grow straight when you turn your tray, but they'll have a little kink in the stem (which I've never had as a problem that impedes growth)I think your south window is fine. You need to give them as much light as you can.

If there are people walking in and out of the room with your seedlings during the day and no one going through at night, the temperature will naturally drop a few degrees (*F) If they are by the window, the temperature will naturally drop as well (with the sun gone at night).

Most commercial growers and greenhouses have fans blowing almost all the time. The fan does two things:
1) help create air circulation (no air circulation=fungal disease starting like damping off)
2) help make the seedlings sturdier with the breeze continuously brushing the seedlings (acts like how the wind would outside)

There was a university that did a study: brushing your hand gently over the top of seedlings twice a day will make them grow shorter than unbrushed seedlings, but will be stockier.



Try googling up 'leggy seedlings' to see if you have a similar problem. You have to be careful with cinnamon. Even though it is a good fungicide, it does, to an extend limit root growth. So like most things, less is more :) Would you happen to have a picture of the flopped seedlings (a shot of where the stem snapped would be great)

Thanks everyone. I'm keeping the lights in my room after sunset on for a few extra hours, usually until 11 or 12 PM. I'm thinking about putting them down in my basement and rigging up the fluorescents to supply some light for a longer time. It's colder down there too, as opposed to the 70 degrees in my room. I'm hoping that'll help to stop them from growing too leggy. I'll try out brushing my hand against them twice a day. It certainly can't hurt. Maybe I'll start pruning a little after they get bigger.

Here is a link to a vegetable planting guide at a seed company (which shall remain nameless). Just click on "vegetable planting guide" and you'll get a pdf file. For your purposes, it gives you the time to plant inside & outside. As somone commented above about the flowers, some of your seeds can just go straight into the ground as soon as the soil is warm enough. The guide also gives optimal soil temps.