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Growing Tomato Plants from Seed
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Thud
Posted 5/16/2015 13:58 (#4573643 - in reply to #4573219)
Subject: RE: Growing Tomato Plants from Seed


Near-north Ontario, French River
Size of the egg tray isn't an issue commercial plant growers grow tomato seedlings in 288 cell plastic trays that measure 3/4"x3/4"x1.5"deep. Back when we grew tomatoes for Heinz we would often be forced to hold plants at the farm due to poor weather. Wasn't unheard of to have 8-10tall plants growing in those tiny cells before the weather cleared enough to get them in the ground. Ideally we liked them in the 4-5" height range but sometime it doesn't work out that way. Not sure why your plants would be stunted though. Getting plenty of light? Adequate but not excessive water? Plant growers here would stress the plants prior to shipping to stiffen the stems, referred to it as 'hardening them off". Usually at it involved was setting them in the shade, holding back some water to wilt them a bit then watering to liven them back up. Do that a couple of times and they get a nice stiff purplish stem that will hold up against the winds in a open field situation. Pull a plant out of the carton and take a look at the roots, only thing I can think of and its a long shot is that the roots are somehow being affected by the carton....I would think cardboard would be fairly inert but a styrofoam or plastic tray could have some sort of treatment applied that could be affecting the roots.
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