7 Solutions For Stunted Seedlings 

40 years ago my grandma had the same hat Jacques is sporting these days. In fact, I have a gorgeous photo of her looking stately in her VERY EPIC garden (posing in front of dahlias). Every time I see that hat, I think of her!

00:35 Bad or incorrectly stored seeds 01:48 Overwatering 03:11 Placement of seedlings in elements 04:08 Leaving them too long in starting pot 06:07 Seed-starting soil not having enough nutrients 920% worm castings) has big objects to screen out 09:20 Add fertilizer 2 weeks 10:22 Extra tips

I get my trays from local nurseries. They usually have stacks and stacks just going to the dump. Sometimes i have to dig through to find a full tray of undamaged cells but it's free and worth it. And, sometimes they have discarded plants you can take too. I came back with a truck load of 10gal pots, 1gal pots, 4in pots, and a few trays of 6 ans 4 cell trays. I also found a 155 cell tray that they used for their incoming tissue culture, which works really well for seedlings (especially onions) but needed transplanted very fast. I like the fast dry out time, to help strong growth and keep down mold/fungus. The nursery i went to had just began hiring and planning for the upcoming spring season, and they are in a high end area, which means they were throwing out anything that didn't look perfect. Came home with 2 dozen 1 gallon pots with purple sages, various lavenders, a few augastaches, and a whole bunch of others. Then i decided to apply for their wholesale position just for the spring and was able to bring home flats and flats of discarded plants. I brought home so many pepper plants that my own seedlings are still in their 6 packs lol. It's only 13.50/hr but i lost 20lbs in 2 months and I'm happier than ever exchanging corporate life for one that i get to say good morning to a 100 foot greenhouse of blooming violas every day.

I tend to use my own seed starting mix consisting of 2 cups shredded/blended dry leaves, 1 cup perlite, 1/2 cup of ground soil, 2tbsp bone meal, 2tbsp dried, crushed banana peels.The seedlings always do fine for about a month or so without needing extra feeding.

No matter how many weed growing channels I check out, when it comes to general gardening tips, nothing beats your channel, thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us! Especially that soil composition depending on time of the year and water evaporation is really useful and makes a lot of sense to unlock further understanding of the plant science itself! I'm training with weed, but the plan is to become self sufficient on food production too, so it's pointless to learn about weed growing in a vacuum haha especially with all the bro science out there.

Great video, Kevin! With regards to the comment on over-watering, this is spot on. I read a great quote from a greenhouse research specialist on watering..."The job isn’t 'to water’-the job is to dry the plants out so you can water." Understanding this and applying it in your seed propagation can go a long way to having success. Another quote, “Fish grow in water, roots grow in air.” Keep up the epic work!

I’ve learned more from your videos than I have from two years of botany classes in college.. thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! ☀️

This explains A LOT about why my seedling failed this year. Can't wait to implement these tips into my fall harvest

It's the 30 March 2024 and I am about to go out to start seedlings. This video and the other Epic Gardening gem "Don’t Make THESE Seedling Mistakes" have given me so much useful information to keep in mind and practice when planting that I cannot wait to see the results. Thank you for sharing these tips & ideas.

this is my first year ever to garden vegetables for food and I'm learning as I go along thanks so much for your channel there is so much to learn southern California greetings

One of the reasons I find that seedlings become stunted is due to potting mix which is too loose. Lots of people say you should use something loose like coconut coir to start seeds because "their weak seedling roots can't break through dirt". Which is utter nonsense. Most if not all seedling roots are well-equipped to penetrate through plain dirt - if they were not, they'd never survive or propogate in the wild. Coconut coir is actually subpar for root entrainment since it's TOO loose; seedling roots can't get ahold of it very well and can fail to establish, and risk of root damage is greater when transplanting. I've never had luck starting seeds in coir or similar. As long as the mix you're using is free of clumps and large bits of organic matter, it will work fine.

Makes so much sense. Not only about seeds being kept freash. Love your little set up amazing. I appreciate you admitting a pro like you have suffered aswell from stunted seedlings and giving hope .Thanks for another amazing job

Loving the transitions/summoning effects when Jacques appears in EG videos!

Those wood peices in my store-bought potting mix did exactly what is stated here. It blocked a few of my seeds from being able to grow. I figured that out a little too late and had to start over. I make my own mix now. I do like the screen idea. I'll do that with the potting mix I stopped using.

Loved the six cells. I started everything in them, even corn! I had to up-pot the corn pretty quickly though. The four cells will be great for those fast growing seedlings than need a bit more room.

I'm waiting on the 4-cell pots because I strongly dislike up-potting from the smaller seed starting trays. I also sift my potting soil to use for starts, and I like to put vermiculite on top of the soil to help prevent damping off (but vermiculite seems to have disappeared from garden center shelves recently). I'm looking forward to trying out your trays with the design you have. I like the side slits for root development.

Hi kevin, moved and bought a house in Vegas last year. I now have a permaculture cottage garden. 35 plus fruit trees. 4 chickens/vege patch and herb patch. And 300 plus species of flowering plants. Thanks for the video 😊

The combined wisdom of Eric and Jacques is Epic. Thanks for the good advice on seedlings. This is my 1st time planting seeds, other than zinnias, which are easy - drop and cover.

KEVIN! I just wanna say two things; 1) great information as usual, I certainly appreciate it. 2) The anime transitions/animations! Need these to remain. You did some Naruto ones the other day, and this one had what looked like a DBZ animation with Jacques. Perfect. Thank you

I live up in Ohio, and I'm consistently frustrated with how my seedlings start off indoors, mostly because I wasn't ever really taught how to *care* about my seeds. My dad'd start tomato seeds in a big 50 count tray with peat disks, one seed per disk, and that's the way he taught me to do it, so in my tiny apartment starting seeds 1-by-1 in a tiny little 8-count tray has been frustrating as heck. But I've been learning a lot since I started watching regularly, and I think I know what I'm getting myself for Christmas.

Leggy seedlings are always more my problem than stunted. I know how to prevent it, it’s just hard with my property’s sub light and my area’s soil. I’m trying though and of course still have had some epic harvests (just starting from seeds is kind of hard).

I’ve been watering all my seedlings and even plants that need an added nutrient with mycorrhiza. It’s like a miracle liquid that not only allows roots to get stronger but your entire plants will love you!

Good tip on sifting the potting soil. I've used it to start seeds but with massive wood chips getting in the way. I have a ton of it so I'm not going to go buy "seed starting mix" when I can just use what I have lol

In my experience, the best seed starting mix, and honestly generally all-around potting mix is equal parts coco coir and well draining potting mix, and as much perlite and/or vermiculite as needed. To use in containers with more mature plants, go with one part coco coir, one part quality organic compost, two parts well draining potting soil, and as much perlite and/or vermiculite as needed, as well as any fertilizers or other amendments you might want to add. I have been using both of these mixes for years in zone 6B/7A with great results. Although I recently switched from peat moss to coco coir and do not regret it one bit. Environmental impact aside, I think it is the superior growing medium between the two.

I use those large wood chunks from the potting mix to fill the bottom of pots in which I grow all season and also as mulch on top of the all season potted plants. So, I put wood chunks into the bottom of my medium sized pot about 1/4 of the way up the sides. Then, I fill the pot withing 1/2 inch of the top with the screened potting soil for the same mix. I plant the seed / seedling / plant in the soil and water in well. Last I top the moist soil around the plant with more wood chunks and place in the appropriate growing area. I use the whole bag of potting mix and see it as a positive win/win for my gardening needs. Great video. Thanks for sharing.

i hate the concept of thinning. ..I just move them to a new place..I can't imagine cutting them down...I know that's common in gardening..but still. lol

I started using the 6 cell trays and I love them - the roots are out the bottom you use your finger to push the plant out and they are sturdy and reusable- love love love them

I have been experimenting with adding worm castings to my starter mix for tomatoes and cucumbers. I find as little as 4% makes a noticeable improvement. I have not observed any further improvement with concentrations above 10%.

That tip on sifting the potting mix to save money on seed starting mix is aces! Thank you so much for the information.

ooohhhh.I love the idea to clip the smaller ones..love your little scissor things..I love your pull along seedling tray too!😊lots of great tips on seed starting.thankyou..This really is the best video I have watched on starting seeds..

So many great tips!! I definitely did many things wrong this year but I’m so excited to keep learning. Next years garden will be even better!

I use small blocks of soil, peat blocks. It gives me more control and I see the roots start to poke out of them when they need to be planted into something bigger. I found this method a couple of years ago and I've had nothing but success with my seedlings since then.

Wow. I've never heard that the roots wouldn't auras out of over watering and that's why it stunts them. MIND BLOWN! Thank you!

All the seedlings that grew from seed in our new garden beds became stunted. Also, they were looking yellow. Added fertiliser high in nitrogen and seems to have fixed the problem. Turns out the "top of the range" soil we bought wasn't so tops after all 😒Thanks for these tips

I add rooibos and kelp powder with a little bit of tumeric and part mushroom compost with regular ground soil and old potting mix with some perilite and a little sand. Its worked really well. I also add crushed pistachio sells (unsalted or throughly washed if salted) for drainage.

Two amazing gardeners and teachers together, awesome video thank you!

This was an excellent video, that many people don't talk about.

Thank you. Usually I just buy starts cuz I suck at starting seeds. This year I did a bunch of seeds, some worked and some didn't. Jiffy peat pods had a near 100% germination rate for me tho. Very much recomend.

thank you - this video saved my tomatoe babies...i had 24 stunted plants... hubby and i started our seeds at the same time- shared seeds from baker creek ... shared grow lights... our trays were similiar.. we watered the same.. the only difference was he used those little pods you water and they expand... i used potting mix. his seeds just took off. mine got just past their true leaves and stopped.. so after 6 weeks i sat down and repotted all my tomatoe plants. and after a week they finally took off... i lost about 5 of them. but that is ok... i planted so many expecting to loose some.. so i still do not completely understand why his took off and mine stalled... other than something to do with my potting mix. which was just coco coir and some worm castings.

I bought calabrese crushed hot peppers 10 years ago in a food store in NY. I just sprouted them and they are stronger than any other seed I got. Left them on the counter where the sun hits a few hrs a day.

Thanks coach, this is the pep talk I needed to get back in the game! I'll keep you posted..

Such an informative video. Learned so much about why my seed starter soil always lets me down. Thank you for the help!!

This is good video it helped lift a weight off my shoulders for next year before I had no idea where I was going to start with my seeds amazing video thank you!

Great video!! I’m currently doing some test runs on seedlings under lights trying to build some confidence for the coming season.

Mine were stunted for several weeks. Finally, reburrying my tomatoes a little deeper helped. I used large yogurt containers and have decided the trick is to start low fill, and slowly fill with actual soil every week as it grows taller.

oh man 2 of my favorite garden youtubers together!!! what a treat!

FABULOUS - FABULOUS- JUST PERFECT. Great video guys as I have had some trouble recently raising my seedlings but not anymore. Thank You & Cheers Denise- Australia

Solid information. Going to have to exercise fertilizer this year. I think that’s why my tomatoes stunted last year since I start them 3-4 months ahead of plant out.

You helped me, actually understand and learn clearly in the way that you've explained yourself in this amazing vid. Thank you

I find myself watching you a lot more because your zoomed-in videos fit my Fold3 without getting too cropped lol Your videos always help me freshen up on the many nuances of this amazing hobby.... stay classy! ;)

Dude, you just explained my issue with seedlings, thank you!

First timer here. I'm trying to grow some bell peppers and salad bowl lettuce. A few of my pepper plants look to be doing better than the rest. My lettuce plants seem to be doing good also. I started with the paper towel method and once my lettuce plants started to sprout I put them in cells (about 4 or 5 seeds per cell. Not sure if that's OK but so far they look like they are doing well.). I think I gotta break up my plants in their cell but not sure how to do that without damaging the plants. I'm really hoping I can care for them well enough to produce a good crop. It's exciting so far but I'm so scared they are gonna die. As far as watering, I was under the impression that I shouldn't allow the soil to dry out completely so I have been watering when I see the top soil become light brown.

That's almost what I do for starter mix, but I don't even buy potting mix. I will pick a spot in the garden to steal some established soil and mix that with ready compost and sift, the mulch your left with is perfect for covering the top soil after you transplant back into the garden! Nothing goes to waste!

Great video. Will keep in mind to add worm castings in spring start soil. Thanks for sharing.

I definitely want some of the bigger trays. The 6 cell works great but they only allow so much growth.

$55 for your tray?😱😳 nice tray but even if i waa rich I wouldnt buy.

I use organic burpee seed starting mix which is mostly coco and perlite with a little nutrients. one thing about castings is if it's clumps up it'll get mushy

I do love growing vegetables. Thank for sharing tips to grow

Perfect timing! Pretty sure my seedlings have wet feet. Up potted and going to let them dry before they get some water! It’s overcast and windy so the perfect day to rectify the problem! 😁

In the town where I live in New Jersey, our house has no space with enough sun to grow vegetables, and it's all -- basically it's a rock garden that was built in 1930 with three ponds that are interconnected. There are actually five ponds, going from our house, which used to be a dentist's office, but which looks kind of like an English cottage, to the big house, where the dentist lived. It's a beautiful garden, but no room for veggies, and very little sun. Lots of mature trees. Weeping cedars, dogwoods, arbor vitae, split leaf Japanese maples, and on and on. Anyway, in our town we can rent a small garden plot. There are all these very small plots that the town kind of built, which lots of wasted space and not enough growing space. I planted asparagus plants a few years ago, and they didn't all make it, but we had some delicious asparagus this year. But we were late getting started this year, and my plot was very overgrown. And there are many strawberries in it, which I wanted to move to make room for beans, cowpeas, lima beans and tomatoes. So, we weed and weed and move 30 strawberries, we eat some asparagus, and then we start noticing baby asparagus plants all over the place. I started digging them out and potting them up. I must have at least 100, but many of them are tightly together. So I'm hoping that, rather than thinning them out, in the fall when they go dormant that we could take them out, wash the roots and untangle them. Do you think that might work?

I mix my own seed starting mix too because I can't be arsed to buy something different haha. I just eyeball the mix, but basically I do something like 40% soil, 40% cocopeat, 10% perlite and 10-20% composted cow manure (yes, I know that at 20% it adds up to more than 100% lol, sometimes I just toss in some extra) I screen out the cocopeat beforehand so that the bigger fibres get filtered out, and the resulting mix is fine textured and lightweight but holds moisture pretty well

Ive ended up landing on coconut coir, a lil perlite, a lil vermiculite, and hit it with half strength fish emulsion every other week after true leaves start. I just mix it in a gallon of water and bottom feed. so far Ive had great success for little cost and less work than sorting a mix. If I had time to do this Im sure it would work, but hitting the fish emulsion every 2 weeks gives me the extra time I need If Im late planting out

In the wild, seeds tend to germinate in humus, so I use pure compost that I make myself, for EVERYTHING. Starting seeds, growing plants in pots, and my raised beds are two feet high and filled with it. Seedlings started in compost are healthier, more robust and get plenty of nutrients.

I put lots of water in my tray and only water the top of the seedling cells a couple of times a week, just enough so the soil will wick up the water from the tray below. This helps the roots search for the water and eliminates dampening off.

Last year a huge number of my seedlings were stunted. This had never happened before- I had pepper plants that never progressed beyond their primary leaves. I think my compost was contaminated- it was a brand I'd never used before. This year I'm using a home compost blend because I have some to hand.

I planted my spinach seeds in the garden mix and way too deep. Also I didn’t fill the pots all the way up and now it’s so hot here. They are still alive but only look like small grass blades. I think I’ll just plant them n see if they live. This was my first attempt at seeding.

I enjoy growing rosmary but stretchy though as it give me a good base trunk later in life to graft for a good bonsai! Yes I grow them for bonsai....

What about plants that don't want to grow? I planted a dozen pepper seedlings on March 15 and now it's June and they are about 8 inches tall and haven't done anything. I have fertilized them.

I love your moveable seed table. Thanks for the tips.

I use photo box too .I also toss in a few moisture absorber from my daughter's sea weed snacks..so it's food safe too

Ok so, I need to back off my seedlings and quit watering and I also need to repot them in not seed starter. Thanks!!

Very very helpful! This is always a problem for me, and now I know why after this video.

This was super helpful. Explained all my mistakes. Thanks gents

i love your channel because i live in San Diego and your channel helps me alot to learn how to grow plants in the weather here. thanks alot!

Thinning too.late is my problem. I over seed to make sure I get germination then end up with too much. Watercress this year is crazy. Love thoss dragon fruit in the background I started some a few months ago. So fresh

Wow I never thought I’d be so excited for the release of seed trays. 😁 also, I really love the 6 tray bc they’re so sturdy and reusable.

I prefer using fibre root pots for seedlings. Don’t have to worry yourself about hurting the roots trying to take it out, you can just plant the pot in the soil and I’ll break down over time and be part of the soil.

I start my seedlings in the sun straight up. If they get enough water they will do fine. I get my best germination rates in full sun. Kelp is your biggest friend for stunted starts imo. A high quality dry soluble kelp I find will make anything come out of a funk. ❤️

Darn.. i need to buy an old blender and grind up my soil so its not chunky lol id like to make my soil strainer so i can make better seedling soil :/ lol thanks for your videos i really have learnt something today!

One unusual thing that I am starting now is coastal lupine(lupinus arboreus), a California native plant, in paper cups.

Rewatching older videos because it’s that time again! 🥳 Regarding supplemental light. I was just watching a video on a pro flower farmers YT and her lights were nowhere near her seedlings. I know that the super-close lighting is imperative to making stocky tomatoes but are there other exceptions? The reason I ask is because it’s such a pain to keep moving my lights and it may help to know that I can have a ‘tomato shelf’ and then an ‘everything else’ shelf where I can be lazy with my lights. Mama hates fighting her light system! 😂

This is my first year growing in Iowa. I used my Farmer's Almanac seed schedule for when to start things and when to plant things for my zip code and zone (5b). IT. WAS. DEAD. WRONG. I have plants getting stupid huge, growing out the bottoms of their pots, sitting under my plant lights in the basement. A lot of these like my peas could have started a month later than the planner told me. It just snowed and sleeted yesterday (on Easter). I still can't put my plants out. I'm wanting to put in a high tunnel or greenhouse, but we get gale force winds (up to 60mph gusts) quite often here in this open, flat area surrounded by bare corn fields. The worst part is that there's so many things we need to spend money on for getting infrastructure put together (last folks took ALL of the fencing and left a bunch of chickens so I gotta deal with that before they destroy the neighbors' fresh corn crops thanksalot) that we can't afford to buy things. Like more dirt. And bigger pots. Oh, and the nursery sent my Blueberry plants 2 months early and already out of dormancy so I'm trying to keep those alive in my house until we can stop freezing at night and having tornado winds for 5 minutes. 😭😭😭

I am not certain if you go back to your older videos and see new questions but I am not understanding what's going on with my carrot seedlings. They were tall and beautiful and after two months in the ground they are now turning brown and dying back. I live in zone 10a and we are already in the high 90s with 80% humidity. Not sure where I went wrong. I have excellent soil, I use happy frog from Fox Farms and Land & Sea compost. I use bone and kelp meal monthly but I use big bloom liquid plant fertilizer also from Fox Farms weekly. I use rain water when watering my veggies because we have a high % of calcium in our water so too avoid any burning or iron issue I just use my rain water that I collect. So what am I doing wrong, its so frustrating when I'm great at flowers/plants but veggies I struggle with.

You can mulch with the bark you screened out of the potting mix

I really like the special effects. That was a cool Flash effect.

lol My seeds are in a shoe box. 😂I didn’t know they lasted that long. I’m learning. Great idea. I’m trying to be more organized. 😊

Awesome point on ONLY using 20% of the vermicompost in the seed starting mix! I used closer to 50% at first and then I ran into problem #1 over watering/too much moisture. It's amazing how much moisture worm castings hold. Great video as always!🪱🪱🪱

Did I hear you say you owned Botanical Interests? I Have ordered seeds from there and I love the seed packets. I like that you add all of the info about the seed on the package

Great information for "next time." However, based on the title of this post, I thought there was going to be information on how to save plants that have signs of root rot at time of potting up or transplanting. Do you have a video pertaining to that? Thanks again for this video. Always good content.

I overwater my seedlings all the time I get so worried about them drying out. I'm learning to let them dry out a little more between waterings but it's so hard.

I am glad I watched this yesterday morning. I swear I learn something new every time I watch this channel. Keep these videos coming!!

FINALLY someone that also prefers fish emulsion fertilizer! It's done me good and is gentler than the blue stuff, so I like to use that. But, if I'm a little behind on the repotting and small cell issue, how often can I _foliar feed_ the seedlings? No one seems to think it's a viable thing to do, but I live in the frozen north and must start my seeds in the basement (only place to keep them safe from the cat) and due to the cooler temp, they just don't dry up nearly as fast. 3 days go by, soil is still pretty damp. I fear for root rot if I try and fertilize via bottom feed.

First time I had stunted seedlings. The seeds are new so I don't think that is the problem. I live in the low AZ desert zone 9b and I kept the trays outside. Some never germinated others were stunted. Tried some liquid fertilizer but getting them into the ground helped for some. Some are still stunted. Will have to investigate my problem some more. Thanks for the info to work with!!

From my experience the best way to have vegetables that grow very fast is to put seeds directly into the ground. In my country we produce seedlings in pots only in the cold season or for sale. I'm not sure how this works for hot climates, but in a temperate climate for some reason this makes a huge difference and requires less work at the same time.

I appreciate the video. I need to get over my aversion to thinning out plants. I know the science says to do it but it feels off

How do you do the urban gardening/homestead and make enough money at it? It's something I'm considering just for my love of it. Any advice?

Don't sow all your seeds in the same spot. Spread them out in the starting pot/container. They won't immediately compete upon germination, and you can let them get a bit bigger before choosing which ones to thin out.

Can’t wait for the 4 cell trays!!! If we bought the 6 cell, will we get an email saying we’re eligible to buy the release in December? So excited!!

This is my first time watching you. My grow tables are on wheels too!

So, if you planted too early and didn't fertilize enough (stunted, nutrient deficient plants) can you still put them in the ground and get a decent yield from them? Or would you be better off starting over?