[Market-farming] Need help with broccoli seedlings
Bobbett
bobbett at alltel.net
Thu Mar 19 00:58:25 EDT 2009
Hi, all, hope someone can help me.
I currently have growing indoors under lights about 38 trays of
seedlings. Half of them are cole crops. All the plants are about 4-6
wks old and have 4-8 true (adult) leaves. I started hardening off half
of them a few days ago for transplant into my garden next week (under
row covers).
In one tray of broccoli, that hasn't started the hardening off procedure
yet, I noticed the the leaves are starting to yellow. The most yellow
ones are the baby leaves (the first two that form after the seedling
emerges). At first I thought that was normal since those leaves
normally die off/dry up and fall off, but now I've noticed that some of
the adult leaves are also starting to yellow. The yellow is starting
from the outer, rounded edge of the leaves and making its way back in.
And oddly enough, it's only one tray of seedlings doing this (all trays
are mixed varieites, btw).
Is the yellow from not enough feedings (fertilizer) or too much? As far
as I know, all seedlings have been fed equally, but I might have
over-fed or under-fed one tray here or there. I'm currently using:
Fish Emulsion that's OMRI certified N-P-K is 2-4-0.5
I have yet to use it at the dilution recommended for adult plants. I
started with 1/4 dilution, and then did 1/2 dilution. I've fed all the
plants maybe 3x total in the past six weeks.
If I'm over-feeding, then I'll stop. But if I'm under feeding, what do
you suggest I do? I have the Fish Emulsion as stated above, but also
have another Fish Emulsion rated 5-1-1, or I have a Foliar Spray (that
I've never used) that's 3-2-2.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I really don't want to loose
this tray of 50 plants, nor do I want to put sickly ones outside into my
garden.
Bobbett, KY zone 6
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