A Master Gardener told me to quit babying my seedlings, she was right

I've been starting my tomatoes and peppers in those little peat pots for years, misting them twice a day, keeping them under a grow light for 16 hours. Then this older woman at the community garden in Boise watched me for like 5 minutes and said "you're raising weaklings, they need wind and tough love." So I stopped the misting, put a small fan on them for 2 hours a day, and let them dry out between waterings. The stems got way thicker in about 10 days. Transplanting last week was so much easier, they didn't flop over. Has anyone else gotten advice that went against everything you read online?

2 comments

2 Comments

milam426d ago

Burned through a whole tray of basil seedlings last spring trying to mimic that "tough love" approach, and let me tell you, my kitchen smelled like regret for a week. @felix488, I feel you on the stress-bonsai thing, I once grew a pepper plant so stunted it could've passed for a desk ornament. But the fan trick honestly saved my tomatoes too, they went from flimsy little spaghetti noodles to actual plants with backbone. I do think there's a sweet spot between helicopter parenting and full neglect, my windowsill is proof of how badly that balance can go sideways.

felix4886d ago

My first batch of "tough love" tomatoes ended up looking more like stressed-out bonsai trees, so maybe I overcorrected a bit. But yeah, the fan trick is the real deal, my stems are finally doing those little muscle flexes.