Tomato plant issue...

[andyoxon]

Last year the San Marzano2 plants did well from new seeds, then outside.  This year I used the left over (packet) seeds, which all germinated, but since then have failed to thrive.  I planted out x4 at about 6-8cm,  two weeks ago, and they've hardly grown.  The x2 plants I left inside, have similarly not grown well.  Used fresh compost.  Some of the leaves are yellowy.

Any ideas?

[rafletcher]

Over watering perhaps? Ours did take a while to get going this tear, they've been out over a month ("Big Boy" fnarr fnarr) and really only started to get a wriggle on a week ago.

Did you put some blood, fish & bone down before planting out? It helps with root growth.

[Basil]

Hmm.  How many of my French beans germinated this year?  Not one. Not bloody one.
OK, it was an old seed packet, but I expected to get a better return than that.
I know it's not too late to start again, (Just) but I can no longer be bottomed.

[Flite]

I used a different (Which recommended) seed compost this year. The early sowings (braccicas, beet, leeks, courgettes etc germinated OK, but then just stopped growing. Never had this problem before, so I probably left it a bit late to liquid feed and think the whole batch might not be worth planting out.
The compost contained a lot of cocofibre - horrid to handle and fill modules evenly, and tricky to water.
Back to Sylvagrow now.

[andyoxon]

Thanks all.

Maybe overwatering a tad, but I've not had this before & had a fair few yrs of tomatoes.  Just trying some tomorite on them.

[ElyDave]

Try a bit of Epsom salts as well, normally needed when they are in fruit, not tried it on smaller plants

[rafletcher]

I used a different (Which recommended) seed compost this year. The early sowings (braccicas, beet, leeks, courgettes etc germinated OK, but then just stopped growing. Never had this problem before, so I probably left it a bit late to liquid feed and think the whole batch might not be worth planting out.
The compost contained a lot of cocofibre - horrid to handle and fill modules evenly, and tricky to water.
Back to Sylvagrow now.

I don't use seed compost, just multipurpose. Tried peat free last year, with disasterous results - not this year, although it was reduced peat. Still holds a lot of water cf peat.

[rafletcher]

Hmm.  How many of my French beans germinated this year?  Not one. Not bloody one.
OK, it was an old seed packet, but I expected to get a better return than that.
I know it's not too late to start again, (Just) but I can no longer be bottomed.

By contrast I got 11/15 from the fisrt batch, now 3 weeks old, and 15/15 from the second after 10 days.  They'll get planted out next week and a third batch started.

[ElyDave]

Looking at my outdoor toms in pots, they seem a bit yellow as well, and these are the ones in coir. I used it extensively for germination this year and it worked very well, but seems different in nutrient balance vs my usual peat free multipurpose. I've started feeding them just in case.

[Flite]

I've used Sylvagrow peat free multipurpose for potting on and containers for many years now - it includes bark, not coir or green waste. Melcourt, who make it, were pioneers in the use of pine bark in commercial growing media in the 1970s, so they do know what they are doing!
This year, after the disaster of a coirbased seed compost, I used Sylvagrow for seed sowing as well - good results so far.

[Rod Marton]

I've used Sylvagrow peat free multipurpose for potting on and containers for many years now - it includes bark, not coir or green waste. Melcourt, who make it, were pioneers in the use of pine bark in commercial growing media in the 1970s, so they do know what they are doing!
This year, after the disaster of a coirbased seed compost, I used Sylvagrow for seed sowing as well - good results so far.

+1 for Sylvagrow - I used their growbags for the first time last year and they were like rocket fuel for tomatoes. Unfortunately I bought two Sylvagrow ones and two from another manufacturer (I don't remember which) and the tomato plants in those just stood there. So this year I used their only their growbags and multipurpose compost - these seems to worked well too except that my peppers failed to germinate in it. Though there are a number of possible reasons for this.

[ElyDave]

I generally use New Horizons  peat free, bark based, i think, works very well for my bonsai with varying proportions of grit and sand