Tomatoes are considered one of the most popular vegetables and are not difficult to grow.
However, tomato plants still need a lot of attention and care in order to grow healthy and strong. These need lots of care already from the seedling phase.
If you want to have healthy tomato plants, you should do the right things while the plant is small. But sometimes we all face problems with our tomato seedlings.
There can be problems like stunted growth, yellow seedling or even seedlings which are dying.
In this article, I will list a few of the reasons why your tomato seedlings are dying.
Transplants Shock
Transplant shock is almost inevitable when you have seedlings because, at a certain point, these will need to be transplanted from the pots to the ground into your garden. And let’s face it: plants are not meant to be planted from one place to another.
Unless you sow your tomato seeds directly in the garden, you will face transplant shock when transferring your tomatoes.
Tomato seedlings are especially sensitive to transplant because their root system hates being disturbed. Sometimes, after transplanting, some seedlings cannot face this shock and these will die.
So, when you transplant your seedlings, make sure you disturb the roots as little as possible. Don’t shake the soil off the roots. Just remove the rootball from the pot, and put it in the ground in its new place.
Be very gently, as you don’t want to damage the roots. The more roots that come with the plant from the pot, the more chance it has to survive the transplanting process.
After transplanting, you should water thoroughly the seedling, making sure the plant gets enough water in its new place. This helps the seedling to settle in quicker and the transplant shock can be avoided or reduced.
Remember, when you remove the seedling from its pot, you should always plant it straight away in its new place. If left out of the pot and not planted back in the ground, the roots will get dry and these will die; therefore, the seedling will die as well.
How to Treat Transplant Shock
If the transplant shock occurs even if you’ve been cautious, you can cure it so the seedling can adapt quicker.
You should keep the plants’ soil well-watered, ensuring that the plants are not standing in water. Also, you can fertilize the soil, so the plant can quickly focus on growing new roots to adapt to its new environment.
Sometimes transplant shock can be caused by the change of the temperature as well, so it is advised to “train” your seedling before transplanting, by moving them outside to get some sun and fresh air every day.
One or two weeks before you plan to transplant your seedlings, and the temperatures are ideal, the weather is not too windy or too sunny, then you can put the pots with the seedling out for few hours per day.
This will help them to adapt more quickly to the new soil, temperatures and weather conditions.
Damping-Off Disease
The Damping-off disease is caused by different fungi like Pythium, Rhizoctonia, Fusarium and Phytophthora. These are types of fungi that can be found in the ground and can cause the plants’ death.
The Damping-off disease occurs usually when seeds are sown indoors or under glass, however, this can affect seedlings outdoors as well.
This disease can affect most seedlings not only tomato plants. It can affect them particularly under conditions of high humidity, cold temperature and poor air circulation. Also, if you sow the seedlings too close to each other, damping-off disease can form easily.
The Damping-off disease usually appears in the springtime when the light levels are low, the temperature is cold and the seedlings grow slowly. However, if the environment is not beneficial for the tomato plants, this could appear at any time of the year.
Symptoms of Damping-off disease can be that seedlings fail to emerge (pre-emerge damping-off) or the seedlings collapse and die, and usually, these are covered in a whitish fungal growth.
Unfortunately, there is no chemical treatment available for the control of this disease. But you can easily prevent it.
Always use clean and sterile containers when sowing the seeds. Never reuse containers in which damping-off has been present.
The soil is important as well. Ideally, use soil which is for sowing, but if you are using a home-produced compost you should sterilise it before sowing the seeds.
Keep seedlings well ventilated to prevent high humidity, do not overwater and avoid overcrowding of the seedlings.
Environmental Issues
If there is not disease or pets present, and your seedlings were not transplanted and are still in their habitual environment, but these are still dying, then you should ask yourself: what am I doing wrong?
Well, there are a few things that you can be do wrong, and if these are not revised, then your seedlings can die.
Watering
Watering incorrectly can cause many problems and can lead to dying seedlings.
Tomatoes like moisturised soils, but they hate when it is too wet. Overwatering is the most common problem. This can lead to fungal diseases or can drown the seedlings’ roots.
If overwatered, the seedlings are unable to absorb the needed nutrients.
Underwatering can cause problems as well, but not as quick as overwatering. However, if you don’t water your seedling for a long time, these will dry out completely and will die.
Nutrients
Overfertilizing will damage the seedlings’ roots as well, and these will die if you continue to fertilize.
If you use good quality soil, you don’t need to fertilize your seedlings because the soil contains all the needed nutrients.
However, it can happen that the soil is not as good as expected, is lacking in nutrients and the seedling will not have enough energy to grow or survive.
Light
Tomato seedlings need at least 5 hours of light each day. If there is not enough light for them, they will die.
Or if there is too much and too strong light, this can affect your seedlings negatively as well.
Ideally, tomato seedlings need 12 hours of light (or 8 hours is good enough as well) and 12 hours of darkness. They need light to grow healthy and strong, but seedlings need some rest as well, and they cannot get it without darkness.
Airflow
Good airflow is essential for healthy tomato seedlings because if this is missing, fungal or bacterial diseases can occur.
Ensure good airflow by ventilating the room where you keep your seedlings and by sowing tomato seeds to a sufficient distance from one to the other.
By preventing overcrowding of your seedlings, you ensure proper airflow and prevent diseases.
Temperature
Too hot or too cold temperatures can kill your tomato seedlings as well.
As I mentioned above, the cold temperature can give your seedling a shock which can be fatal to it.
If the temperature is too hot, then that can lead to the seedling drying out. This, if untreated, will kill your plant.
Ensure a constant temperature above 10°C/ 50°F and your seedling will be fine.
Wrap Up
Finding out what causes your tomato plant problems will help you correct them.
There are factors which you cannot be control, like the weather for instance, but you can prevent the problems causing by these.
For example, you cannot cure fungal disease, but you can prevent these by offering your seedlings the needed care, like proper airflow, consistent watering, appropriate temperatures and adequate transplanting.
If you watch out for these factors and you amend when there is a problem, then you can save your seedling from dying.
Reference
https://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/articles/2002/tomatowilt.shtml