Purple tomato seedlings

[SimpleSimon]

Evening,

I've been away for a while and had someone looking after my tomatoe seedlings. Got back and they are all very purple. Trying to work out if I should resow them all. From research on the net seems to be phosphorus defeciency from having been watered with stone cold water from an outdoor water butt. Do they tend to recover from this? They are very very purple. I can pot them up and perhaps add some Epson salts but thinking maybe cut the losses and resow?

Edit: underside of a leaf -
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YN4B6F1mfwfR3TWW6

Underside of a different plant (the camera has made it quite bright so it's purple but not like glowing purple):

https://photos.app.goo.gl/G5LrCq6W3VthKfq6A
Ta
Simon

[SarrissUK]

If they look healthy, I wouldn't be too worried. I've not heard of that deficiency before either.

I grew purple tomatoes last year and the young seedlings were almost luminous with the purple. Are you sure it's not a purple variety that you're growing?

[smallblueplanet]

They look fine to me, I'm sure some of ours have frequently looked like that.

"A phosphorus deficiency will cause the leaves on a tomato plant to turn purple, especially if the plant is young or if temperatures are low (below 60 degrees Fahrenheit). Exposure to intense light can also cause purple leaves on tomato plants."

Water the compost with a bit of Epsom salts can't do any harm I'd of thought.

[veggiechicken]

Looks like its been too cold for them.
It knocks them back. They may recover.

[SimpleSimon]

Interesting point on the intense light as I'd not read that. They are defo under intense lights as they are in the grow tent with my chilli plants. A few inches away from 2 very bright grow lights. Couple that with the artic chill from near freezing water and I guess thats the culprit.

[Urban]

Yeh mine had gone a bit purple from the grow lights. Got them all out to the greenhouse today on a heated bed. Hopefully they will be ok

[ameno]

Purpling in tomato seedlings is usually a sign things are a bit too cold for them, night temperatures especially.

[MarkPelican]

As others have said, purpling is usually a sign of being too cold. They usually recover but could be knocked back. If you’ve space, I would sow some others and then choose the strongest looking plants later. If I’ve enough seeds I usually make two sowings at fortnightly intervals.