Feeding seedlings?

[smallblueplanet]

I was wondering, when is the right time to start feeding veggie seedlings? Here's a piccy of my aubs and some chilli seedlings, still in the cells they germinated in. When should I think about feeding them?

- chilli (lhs) & aubs (rhs) seedlings

[pigletwillie]

They will be fine SBP, till you need to pot them on and then the added compost will suffice. You will only really need to start feeding once planted out and they start to flower, otherwise you will get lots of soft sappy growth that is just loved by pests and disease.

[smallblueplanet]

Thanks PW - those pesky pests and diseases will have to look elsewhere for 'sappy growth'!

I thought one or two of the 'taller' seedlings needed hardening up anyway (think they shot slightly in the heated prop)! lol!

[rustylady]

Agree with Pigletwillie, they don't need feeding. When you re-pot into slightly larger pots the new compost will take care of that. However, they do look a bit lanky, and it looks from your picture as if they're on a windowsill in the house (maybe too warm and not quite enough light?)