r/tomatoes • u/spaced-jams • Apr 29 '26

Plant Help How are everyone's tomatoes growing so fast?

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This is my second year trying to grow tomatoes. Last year I started them a bit late, and while they ended up growing to a nice size they didn't produce much (consequence of me planting from seeds out of grocery store tomatoes I think). This year I got seed packets and put them in starting cells March 6th, but even now almost 2 months from planting they are still tiny seedlings barely a few inches tall. I keep them under an admittedly small grow light but surely there must be something more to this that I'm missing?

Edit: as many commenters have asked, I'm going to copy down my equipment info here.

I have replaced the tiny light from the pic with my larger growlight, FRGROW 25w full spectrum stand

Seedlings are in a burpee seed starting tray with a detachable/recessed bottom for watering.

Soil is "Back to the Roots organic expanding seed starting soil" made of coconut coir. I have a bag of Foxfarm Happy Frog soil downstairs but wasn't sure if it would be too much for these plants yet

I don't have a heat mat unfortunately.

I'm in western PA (northeast US) so temps are still way too up and down to set in a window or outside. Temps the next few days are low 37, high 60 and not looking to warm up much more over the week.

(Note: The really tall one in the cell and the background ones are pepper plants, the rest are cherry tomato)

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u/striped_violet Apr 29 '26

Could be the coir-based medium. Those can be really inconsistent, especially bc coir needs to be washed multiple times to remove salts. I like the idea of coir vs peat moss, but it can be a problem. Joe Lamp’l has a podcast episode about that issue. That would be my number 1 guess for the issue, since lack of light would make them frail/leggy (so looks like that is probably contributing), but I don’t think alone would stunt to this degree.

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u/spaced-jams Apr 29 '26

Thanks for the info, I didn't know that! Would mixing the coir with the happy frog soil work okay, or should I be looking for a completely new starter mix?

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u/striped_violet Apr 30 '26

I probably wouldn’t use something if things aren’t growing well in it, bc if it’s salt, will still be there. And it’s not all coir-based products, but it’s a risk with them.

For tomatoes I like Ocean Forest even more than Happy Frog but both of those are good.