A Seedling Mistake That Could Kill Your Tomatoes

About This Episode

The Grumpy Gardener busts a common myth about seedings. Plus, Grumpy’s pick for plant of the month.

Question Of The Week

"I'm starting tomatoes from seed. A friend told me to pinch off the top two leaves when they appear, and the plant will grow stronger. What do you say?" -Kate.

Grumpy's Answer: Well Kate, I say you're lucky I'm here, because if you follow your friend's advice, you will kill all of your seedlings. See, the first two leaves on a seedling are called seed leaves, and their purpose is to nourish the seedling immediately after it germinates.

Now, after a short period, a set of true leaves will appear from between the seed leaves. The seed leaves will turn yellow and drop, and your plant will commence growing many more sets of true leaves. But don't pick off the first set of seed leaves, or the seedling will immediately die, and that would be bad. Bad, I tell you.

Plant Of The Month

Chick Charms

It's a succulent, and the common name describes the plant's unique growth habit. It's a rosette, which is a fancy name for a tightly wound ball of leaves, about two to three inches tall. That's what it looks like, and about six inches wide. In the center is called the hen. Now, how it reproduces is baby plants, which are called the chicks, sprout out all around her, and they can be detached and planted elsewhere, so you can get more hens and more chicks. Now, there's this guy I know. His name's Chris Hansen, and he's a plant breeder. And he's a hens and chicks, and all sorts of succulents fanatic. And he's developed a whole new series of hens and chicks, called Chick Charms. And what they do is they feature striking foliage, like gold, red, burgundy, copper, plum, silver, and all of these different colors. So they're much more colorful than the common ones, and they change colors throughout the year.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener. For more than 20 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow Ask Grumpy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don't miss an episode.

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.