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Tomato plant progress

Some of the cherry tomato plants on my balcony. If anyone knows why the ones in the back are growing much faster than the ones in the foreground please let me know. All were planted on the same day, and transplanted on the same day, and get watered equally.

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  • I'm not a massive expert, so I may be totally off-base, but:

    • I think it's reasonable for there to be some variability in growth rates just due to genetics, especially at an early stage.
    • The soil may have different levels of nutrients, or the soil may have uneven levels of compactness, meaning some of the roots may take a bit longer to branch out.
    • Lastly, I'm not sure I'm seeing this correctly, but it looks like you have multiple seedlings stuck together in each pot?

    What seeds are you using, btw?

    • Ill send a pic of the seed pack when i get home, but yea youre right. It seems someone put more than one seed in the small pots when he planted them

      • I was taught to have one plant per container. So the plan goes like this, plant a few seeds based on how old the seeds are. Let them sprout. Let them get to first true leaves. Then the hard part, thin out the weaker plants. If you don't thin them out then the roots will compete with each other and you risk losing out altogether on fruits. I suspect the plants in the back are just doing better with being crowded. Those back plant leaves are larger it seems. So they're cruising, or they're just a different variety. The front ones are doing worse because roots are too packed together. Sometimes you must snip them with scissors to thin them out so you don't mess with the roots of the one's you want to keep. You may be in this position now. Thinning may seem cruel, experiment with it and you may come to the conclusion that it is necessary for many tasty tomatoes.

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