Thanks so much for the advice! I did fertilize it last summer and it looked ok for most of the winter. It seems like the yellowing of the leaves happened most abruptly around the same time I started putting it outside.
I added a little plant food to the top of the soil and might do a dilute seaweed leaf spray in a few weeks if it doesn’t improve. I’ll also remove the fruit in April if they don’t finish ripening this month.
I also plan to put it in a bigger pot this summer, once it’s hardened off outside and doing better.
Close up of leaves below - I do see some tiny specks that might be some kind of mites. I’ll wipe the leaves down to remove them.
Garden soil is like dirt (it’s actually topsoil that has probably been harvested from a new housing development). It’s not sterile and can introduce pathogens to your potted plants (also it is a lot heavier than potting soil and drains slower, which is often a problem for plants in pots). Potting soil is sterile media consisting of, like, vermiculite, perlite, peat moss or coconut coir, among other things, but no dirt, and drains more freely. Bagged garden soil usually has slow release fertilizer added to it (as does potting soil).
That’s why I mentioned the compost she spread on her beds last fall. Many professional growers use 100% compost, or a compost plus looseners like perlite or vermiculite for seed starting. I personally feel like commercial potting mix is too light and airy.
But a lot of potted plants get root rot because they are overwatered, which is a separate issue, but using garden soil would further exacerbate this.
(I like potting soil for plants in pots. I always water from the bottom and don’t have a problem with them drying out too fast (except for the inherent dryness of the climate anyway). In fact, letting the potted-up plants mostly dry out between waterings has allowed me to encourage them to develop very vigorous root systems!)
As a temporary solution, There were a lot of plant pots around the house that held plants that didn’t quite make it for one reason or another, that held nearly-unused potting soil. Salvaged pots and potting soil from some of those.
For others, mixed perlite and, for some, bagged garden soil, for others, compost from the yard. Only did this for tomato seedlings that had to be potted up or likely die. Those tomatoes that hadn’t developed a strong sprout yet (it’s been almost a month) were sacrificed.
Most other things were seeded mid-month and should be fine until midway through next? Order is supposed to be in effect until the 11th.
I could probably order potting soil and more small containers online???
i know people use all kinds of stuff. I’ve watched some YouTube videos of a guy in India who just takes dirt out of his back yard… to start seeds in! I just… would worry I would get a lot worse results. (I get super seed starting results and I don’t want to jinx it!)
I’m not NOT worried, but some of these guys would NOT have lived in their current arrangements for two weeks, so I figured it was a risk one way or another.
But I over-planted either way, so the amount of living tomatoes will probably be plenty.
And… As you can see I am running out of shelf space, again, despite my setup of another shelf elsewhere and my ruthless culling.
I started a bunch of seeds last week: lettuce and greens mix in soil, peppers and tomatoes in a wet paper towel. Everything sprouted last week but the tomato seeds, and I was getting really worried. But today half of them sprouted! Yay growing things!
Starting to harden off the leafy greens that can be transplanted beginning of April over the next week. They were gonna be indoor plants, but I don’t have thespace, and some ofthem aren’t thriving indoors.
