The sneaky reason your seedlings keep dying on day 10

I killed three trays of tomato starts over two months before I realized my mistake. Turns out I was watering them with tap water that had too much chlorine, and it was nuking the roots right when they needed to spread out. Letting the water sit out for 24 hours before using it fixed everything. Has anyone else run into this with city water?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan54516d ago

Hold on, I actually let my tap water sit out for days and my tomatoes did worse. I think the chlorine helps kill off some bad bacteria in the soil that can mess with young roots. I switched to straight from the hose and my starts have been way healthier, no damping off or anything.

rowan_butler9316d ago

Oh MAN that's a really interesting take. I've been wondering about that myself. So if you're using straight hose water with all the chlorine and whatever else in it, have you noticed any issues with the soil bacteria long term? I mean, I get that it might help in the seedling stage but what about when those plants are in the ground and need all that beneficial stuff? I've always heard letting it sit was for the microbe life but maybe seedlings are a different story. What's your soil look like after a full season doing it that way?