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Question by Samuel M: My tomato seedlings turned white and died whithin 3 hours of being planted, WTF?
Ok, I have been growing them indoors for 3 weeks under a florescent light and a red lamp. I planted them outdoors today, and they turned white and wilted within 3 hours. WTF happened? By wilted I mean looks like they were dead for a week.
Best answer:
Answer by sciencegravy
Sound like you didn’t “harden them off”, combined with transplant shock.
The way to do it (harden them off) is take your tray of seedlings out into sunlight for about two hours, then bring them back in. Each day increase their time in the sun by an hour or two, until, after a week, they are out in the sun all day long. THEN transplant them into the garden.
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You have to weather harden plants, you wouldn’t put a baby on a beach would you? The sun/UV burnt them to death. The ground may have not been warm enough either. Also the air temp may have been too cold. You have to take plants out for a few hours at a time increasing the time each day over a couple of weeks to get them used to the weather/sun/UV. Then once that is done you need to check if soil temp 60F then you can plant them. You have to do this with all plants that have been indoors. Also after all that it is best to plant on a cloudy day because of transplant shock. You’re ripping them up and moving them this is hard on them. Some plants like beans and cucumbers should be seeded in cocosoil or peat disks, this way you plant the whole thing so you don’t have to remove from soil as they don’t transplant well. Here is a good book to read on all this stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/1591862027/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365899185&sr=1-1&keywords=square+foot+gardening
certainly sounds like transplant shock and not hardening them off. i suggest you start over and this time harden off before transplanting and also when you transplant i suggest doing it early in the morning or in the evening when the sun is down.
In addition to the excellent advice you already got, I let a fan blow VERY gently on my plants from time to time while they are growing indoors, to toughen their stems. I put a ceiling fan on low enough so the plants just bob around gently, and just do that for an hour once in awhile. Or a small desk fan not blowing directly on the transplants, but enough so they move very gently. You shouldn’t do it too long – I did it by 3 hours the first time by mistake, and it set them back some. I forgot to turn it off.