Oh, wow...did I just screw this up?

Ok, so this is my very first grow. Well, my first grow that's not vegetables for my garden, so I'm not a total stranger to indoor growing. Wanted to go somewhat organic, as I always do for tomatoes, peppers, etc. Popped 3 bag seeds in water, once they cracked put into 6 in pots with a coco/perlite/worm castings/fish meal/bonemeal/azomite mix (my own blend I use for veggies). I hadn't done any pre-sprouting this year for my vegetable garden due to crazy work schedule, so my worm bin sat all summer until now. Seeds one and two came up just fine, seed three hadn't seen any signs of movement, so I let it go. So today seed #3 pops up, completely bent in half. I'm pretty sure, like any other plant it will probably straighten up ok, but starting to notice in all three of my pots I have these other little sprouts shooting up everywhere (!). It totally slipped my mind that when I put up tomatoes last year, I'd given the pulp, skins and seeds to the worms. They ate it just fine, but it never occurred to me that the worms wouldn't digest seeds, and seeds would survive and stay dormant in that kind of environment. Now my medium is contaminated with tomato seeds. Sigh.

So at this point, I'm wondering if I should I just scrap this entire mystery seed grow, wait for my good seeds and just start over with new growth medium (MINUS the worm castings)? Or could this grow possibly be salvaged by picking out the rogue tomato seedlings and hoping this seed might have some good genetics that are worth my trouble? I've been assured they're from a good strain but, eh...no idea exactly what they are, so I named them "Scooby Doo" (cause they're a mystery) lol. Comments much appreciated, thank you.

once the tomatoes grow big enough to pull just pull them no big deal

Pulling them out will be difficult if you wait too long as the roots will become entangled. Wait a little until the plant has developed some decent roots and snip off the tomato heads. The roots will die. So long as the soil isn't saturated rot won't be much of an issue. That or transplant now with care. GL

Ok, cool. I just wanted to make sure those little freeloaders won't be sapping nutes from my plants. Not familiar with this plant, so I'm not terribly sure how fragile these seedlings are. Don't think I'll transplant, so I'll just let them go a bit and chop some tomato heads as I go along. You guys are great, thanks so much for your help!

welcome to RIU @v0x

i wouldn't scrap your grow! just remove the little sprouts as you see them and/or start topping off their heads. my experience comes from: i store my soil in the garage and have three totes; one for just HF soil mixed with EWC only, one that is cooked already and one that is cooking. the garage is pretty much full in my little area, so i also keep my bird feed stuff next to it. i made the mistake of setting a full container of bird seed on top of the already-cooked tote and you all know what happened--it spilled. i spent the next few weeks being surprised every time i opened up that tote--sprouts everywhere. in fact, occasionally they are still sprouting up in my new potted plants and i'm just picking them out. it's cool the seeds survived being eaten by worms and you ignoring it for so long. nature is amazing.

undercovergrow said:

welcome to RIU @v0x

i wouldn't scrap your grow! just remove the little sprouts as you see them and/or start topping off their heads. my experience comes from: i store my soil in the garage and have three totes; one for just HF soil mixed with EWC only, one that is cooked already and one that is cooking. the garage is pretty much full in my little area, so i also keep my bird feed stuff next to it. i made the mistake of setting a full container of bird seed on top of the already-cooked tote and you all know what happened--it spilled. i spent the next few weeks being surprised every time i opened up that tote--sprouts everywhere. in fact, occasionally they are still sprouting up in my new potted plants and i'm just picking them out. it's cool the seeds survived being eaten by worms and you ignoring it for so long. nature is amazing.

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Phew! Glad to hear that I'm not alone! And you're absolutely right, I really should be marveling at the miracle of life, instead of freaking out at my perceived mistake. Thanks for that.

Outdoor soil should be BAKED in an oven to kill all seeds and pathogens before bringing it indoors. Period! Do this on a day your old lady is out because it stinks. Bad. But no bugs, no 'shrooms, no termaters. No bugs. None.

Ha! I AM the old lady in this one person house, so it's all good, brother! Thanks for the advice!

v0x said:

Ha! I AM the old lady in this one person house, so it's all good, brother! Thanks for the advice!

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Right on, sister. Grow away!