Question
1 good 1 bad
hi there I have started several different petunia plants (all the seeds came from a plant i had bought last year). I started all the seeds in jiffy cups and have already transfered them all to bigger pots just over a month ago and in the last week or so i have noticed that 2 outta 5 of my plants are starting to die off. 2 plants are in singles pots and the other 3 are in one big pot together. 1 of the ones that dying is in a single pot and other one is in the big pot. any tips on how i can liven them back up again would be absolutly awsome! thanks Erica
AnswerErica,
Your first problem is that all these sprouts are different plants, and you've got several plants growing together in the same pot. They are too crowded, so the individual plants can't thrive. Even the "good ones' will start to fail if they are so crowded. I know that it's hard to separate out one tiny seed per jiffy pot, but the plants are more likely to thrive if you do. Right now I'm not sure if you'll be successful in separating them or not, but you could either try to gently pull them apart after knocking them out of the soil, and plant each individual plant in a pot, watering well after you get the plants in their pots.
The other way to do this is to just pull the smaller, weaker ones out and toss them. Hard to do, but this way the strongest one isn't disturbed by transplanting.
The second thing that may be going on is that since the plants are crowded, they are more likely to get the fungal condition called "damping off" - when air circulation isn't good, the fungi can grow and cause the seedling stems to collapse and the plants to die. Some people put a small fan near their seedlings to get the circulation going. Be sure to water the plants deeply when you water, and then let the soil dry before watering again. (but water before the plants wilt.) Watering deeply is better than just a tad of water given more frequently because if the soil is damp the plants will develop deeper roots.
Don't fertilize until the plants have a few more leaves - fertilizer too early can cause root burn instead of growth.
I hope this helps!
C.L.
