Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Tomato and Chilli seedling growth

Gardeningjade123Gardeningjade123 Posts: 18
in Problem solving
Hello! I am totally new to absolutely everything gardening so please try to go easy on me and excuse me if this is a silly question. 

These are my chilli (Cayenne) and tomato (Alicante) seedlings around 6 weeks after planting (probably 5 weeks after germination). They are in multi purpose compost with John Innes and are on my sunny windowsill, is this a normal size for them at this stage? I feel as though they are growing incredibly slow although I have absolutely no idea. 

Any advice or opinions would be much appreciated! Thanks :)

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    edited May 2020
    Difficult to judge scale but you may have put them into pots which were a bit too large for them at the time.  Doing this slows them down a bit as the previously warm roots struggle to get going again in a large volume of cold, wet compost, but they will catch-up.  Particularly with peppers and chillies, it's best to prick the seedlings out into very small pots (eg 7cm) and then re-pot into slightly larger ones once the roots are touching the sides and bottom.  I do that several times before planting into final pots.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    Hi there Gardeningjade123 what lovely healthy looking plants. Mine are only slightly larger than yours (tomatoes and peppers - not chillis though) so no need to fret. They will romp away now the warmer weather has arrived, especially warmer nights.

    You don't say where you are but even here in sunny Berks it has been a bit chilly of late. You just need to be a bit patient and I am sure they will grow.  :)
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • Gardeningjade123Gardeningjade123 Posts: 18
    Thank you so much that has put my mind at ease! I’m in Stoke-on-Trent and yes it’s only been the past couple of days that it’s started to warm up, thanks again! :)
  • Gardeningjade123Gardeningjade123 Posts: 18
    BobTheGardener said:
    Difficult to judge scale but you may have put them into pots which were a bit too large for them at the time.  Doing this slows them down a bit as the previously warm roots struggle to get going again in a large volume of cold, wet compost, but they will catch-up.  Particularly with peppers and chillies, it's best to prick the seedlings out into very small pots (eg 7cm) and then re-pot into slightly larger ones once the roots are touching the sides and bottom.  I do that several times before planting into final pots.
    I think I definitely agree with you on this, it’s a lesson learnt I suppose but fingers crossed they still turn out okay, thanks for the advice! :)
Sign In or Register to comment.