I started tomatoes and peppers in peat pellets on february 27, so they are about 7.5 weeks old. in the pic I have:

4 early girl and 4 steak sandwich tomatoes
5 banana peppers
5 bell peppers
6 hot peppers (assorted mix)

I transplanted to the peat pots probably about 4 weeks ago and I have been feeding with Miracle grow once a week at the suggested house plant amount. They have been by a south facing window since they sprouted, and moved away from the window at night. For the past couple weeks they have spent all day in the sunroom.








First of all I feel like they all should be A LOT bigger (not based on experience, mostly based on how the tom's and pep's at Lowe's look)


The second picture is one of the SS tomatoes; yes its about 4 inches tall.

Also as you can see, a lot of the plants are yellowing on the original leaves (forgot what they're called)

and also a few of the tomatoes have a very deep purple tint under the leaves, not sure if this is a problem or not.

any opinions or advice?

You desperately need to get rid of those immediately--ship them to me, I'll give you my address, and I'll take care of..."proper disposal." Yeah, that's it, proper disposal.

haha sure so you can properly "bury" them in your garden right?

Well good to know Im still on the right track! Yeah I looked at some of Micheal Wises pics and figured the fluorescent played a major part in the size difference. I will definitely start them that way in the future.

Im glad you mentioned that about the peat pots. I forgot to ask. Also is there a shelf life for miracle grow? the box I have was left here by the previous home owners so I have no idea how old it is. The cardboard packaging doesn't look that old though.

Also the plants will be going in some raised beds, any thoughts on ideal soil composition? I have them about 60% full of top soil from the front yard, and I was thinking of filling them the rest of the way with compost.

Ok, I have done many peppers from seed, mainly hot. I don't use peat pots myself. I use a heat mat with the seeds in Miracle Grow starting soil in the plastic trays and use fluorescent light as well Then when they get 2-4 true leaves I transplant to potting soil. Good soil drainage is key for peppers. My garden soil consists of a mix of compost, aged maure, and sand. Don't put too much N or you will get only a nice shrub, no peppers. Also I put some bone meal in as well. I have ones started last summer they are more than ready to go in the garden. A timer for the lights to go on and off helps so you don't forget. TW does a similar soil mix. Watch for aphids early and cut worms. I tried to overwinter 2 Habs. but I don't think they made it.

Strange I have used this soil como. for a long time and have had great results. I replenish it every year and till up the garden. Do you have any other suggestions on the soil, maybe garden soil or top soil? I always thought top soil was a somewhat root restrictive.

I would use compost. A couple of years ago I filled my raised beds with only compost, the bagged stuff from the big box stores. It does settle, but adding a little new stuff each year is a good thing.
You will probably need to add some fertilizer though. I did notice the plants in the compost didn't get as big as the ones in my regular garden bed. Not that they were all that less productive. I still had too many peppers an tomatoes from the plants in the compost only bed.

From last year in compost only. (I couldn't figure out how to add a thumbnail photo)
Click here for more information

I do add age dried cow manure, and some bone meal to this combo as I have said, every year. This year added more sand 16-50pd bags because I can tell drainage from winter wasn't good. I have tons of peppers, pickled and dried. I grew the Burpee Big Mama Romas for 4 years, they grow huge. Pro mix compost is what I have been using up to last year it has calcium in it. My supplier went belly up so this year is mushroom compost. Drip soaker for the watering. Morp, what are you using for mulch? TW says not to use wood chips because it raises acidity. I haven't used mulch because as I have said on other posts my soil tend to naturally hold moisture, originally swampland filled in. Except in drought conditions.

First you need to understand there is no way you can obtain the results that commercial green houses obtain, or those plants you see at the Box Stores like Lowes. They use sterile soil-less growing mediums (Pro-Mix), synthetic fertilizers tailored to the specific plant under ideal lighting, humidity, and temperature conditions. They even use a hormone that slows down the growth so you get those nice stalky thick main stems and branches with deep deep green leaves.

OK now that we have that out of the way, Morph is absolutely correct, you used about the worst germination conditions you can use by using a south window. I can see from your pictures you have LEGGY plants and that is caused by too little light. The leggy plants is a defense of the plants trying to reach a good light source. Next year use a closet with a good fluorescent tube lights on a pulley system so you can keep the light just inches from the plants. A heating mat is also a good idea.

Not to worry though, get them hardened off and transplanted as soon as weather permits. I am organic when it comes to gardening vegies. I do use compost in raised beds, plus a home made fertilizer developed by a dear ole friend of mine by the name of Darrel Merrill (aka The Tomato Man of Tulsa, RIP Darrel). In each planting hole remove the soil for the hole and mix it with.

1 T Epsom Salt for magnesium and sulfur.
1 T Blood Meal for nitrogen.
1/2 C of Bone Meal for phosphorous.
1/2 C of Green Sand for trace elements mainly iron and copper.
1 whole banana with skin cut into thin slices for potassium.
2 Crushed Calcium tablets to help prevent BER. I use a coffee grinder to crush them up

Plant with soil-fertilizer mix until hole is half full, fill the hole with luke-warm water to prevent transplant shock, then fill the rest of the way with soil-fertilizer mix.

After planted I mulch with Alfalfa hay and keep building it up as the plant grows till I get about 1 foot of depth.

As for fertilizing you probable will not need any if you do the above especially if you use alfalfa mulch. But if you do you can use either Manure or Alfalfa Tea every 2-weeks. Mix 1 T Epson Salt with either a handful of alfalfa pellets, or 1 pound of well rotted manure in 5 gallons of water left to set at least over night.

One word of warning, do not kill your plants with kindness. By that I mean DO NOT push too much nitrogen on them. You will end up with great big healthy looking green bushes and wonder where the fruit is.

TW, this is the first year for me to grow heirloom, Brandywine do you have any experience on this, or is it the same formula. I've read they can be tricky with suckers.

Mostly all i grow is heirloom varieties and yes I have grown the original Brandywine introduced by the Johnson and Stokes Seed Coin 1889. Be careful because there are a lot of tomatoes out there that bear the Brandywine name but they are not what they claim. I gave up on them because when I lived in TX, they did not hold up well to the hot weather,. I would get a few tomatoes off the plant, and then they just shut down in the heat. So if you live in a hot humid climate, don't expect much as they are not known to do well in the heat.

For me the trick to get Brandywine to produce here was roll the dice. Start seeds around Xmas, plant first week of March and hope we did not get a hard freeze by the end of March. That way they had a chance to produce fruit before the hot weather hits in May /June and they shut down.

The other trick which we can do in TX is we have two tomato seasons, Spring planting, and Fall.

Besides there are two others I like a lot better called the Cherokee Purple and Carbon. These are the black tomatoes. My main stays when in TX were Marianas Peace (a huge beefsteak). Arkansas Traveler (prolific producer in heat), Box Car Willie, Creole, Radiator Charlie (aka Mortgage Lifter), Black Cherry, Sweet 100 OP, and a F1 Hybrid orange cherry called Sun Gold (sweetest tomato you will every eat and prolific all the way to first frost.)

Other than rich organic soil, the other bit of advice I can give you is give tomato plants lots of room with excellent air circulation. Don't get greedy and plants them too close together. Find a spot that receives full sum from morning to up around 4 or 5 in the afternoon with lots of air movement. Space them no closer than 3 feet, 4 or more preferable.

To give you an example the Sweet 100 OP and Sun Gold on a barb fence line with 10 foot spacing. Before the season ends the vines overtake each other as the main vine gets up to 20 feet in length. It was nothing unusual to get 600 to 800 tomatoes off each vine.

Unfortunately where I live now in Prescott AZ, I am afraid I might not get to plant mators. Put some out 2 weeks ago, and last week it dropped to 16 degrees and snowed. Killed all plants out of the green house. Not unusual to have late May and early June snow fall here. Damn Arizona is a cold as Hell place.

EDIT NOTE:

For a commercial made fertilizer a lot of pros and enthusiast us a product called TOMATO TONE. It is an organic product very similar to my home made recipe.