There is nothing more frustrating than to keep having the same problem in the garden year after year. Especially when you had perfect results for years and then out of nowhere suddenly nothing goes as it should.
This is what has been happening to me with the tomato and pepper seedlings for the past 3 years.
I’ve been growing my own seedlings for over 10 years and they were always healthy, big, and better than any I could buy. 
I used to have so big seedlings that I had to place little sticks even while they were in pots.

seedlings 2017

Past 3 years something has changed. I’ve been having problems with my seedlings. First, the pepper seeds didn’t germinate as they should, and now I’m starting to have problems with my tomatoes.
First I lost the best seedling space when we had to build our balcony stairs and this is the reason why I can never get them to grow big enough. This was the sunniest and warmest place in the whole garden, but it was still protected enough from the extreme heat. Now I lost that nice spot and I can’t find a better one. 
Also, I had another big problem in the past two years and that’s Pythium root rot. This year I came to the conclusion that one of the substrate bags that I bought was infected and this devastated my seedlings.

Last year I had some damage but nothing too serious, I replaced the damaged and infected seedlings with the extra seedlings I had. This year for my tomatoes and some peppers I’ve used 2/3 of the bag I bought last year and this year they killed almost 50% of my seedlings. 
I never had any problems with this substrate company, I use professional substrate and it was always good quality and healthy. Last year one bag was good and the other bag was weird from the start. The soil in the bag is darker than usual, lumpy, takes up more moisture than it should, makes a crust, and just doesn’t act like the usual substrate does. This year I bought 2 new bags and they are the same as it was before, dark brown doesn’t make lumps, there is no crust and doesn’t make mud so it seems that only this one bag I bought last year was the problem. Still, this bag did a lot of damage. I lost most of my tomatoes and some peppers.
The issue that made things even worse is that due to the COVID-19 I couldn’t get any cure or help for my seedlings. I can’t get to the agricultural pharmacy and I can’t buy anything to help them, and since I never had root rot before I don’t have anything at home.


This brought me to the dilemma if I will continue growing these seedlings next year or I will give up. 
I decided to ask our local family farm if they could deliver the seedlings to me next year. If they accept I will definitely stop sowing tomatoes and peppers. I will continue sowing all the other seedlings, especially cabbages, zucchinis, and early vegetables, but tomatoes and peppers I will buy. I will maybe sow some of the “special” varieties like Green zebra or Indigo rose but other than that nothing.

This week I also had the: “I had enough moment”. I was carrying my seedlings in and out again and then I decided it was enough of this. I keep carrying my seedlings because of the lack of space in the greenhouse and my greenhouse is filled with pots that will never germinate or never grow big enough. So I kinda lost it and started throwing every single tomato pot that didn’t have the seedlings big enough for my taste. I threw 3/4 of the bags. I’ve also thrown some of the peppers pots, transplanting the good peppers with the other good peppers and just throwing every single seedling that was too small. 

In the end, I managed to throw enough of the pots to be able to have only one greenhouse on the balcony. If I had to do it again I probably wouldn’t do it, but I was too mad at that time to feel sorry for the seedlings. If they weren’t good enough they ended up in the trash. I was so mad that even Srećko tried to protect the seedlings and did the worried inspections every couple of minutes. 

So after this intervention, I’ve placed all my good seedlings in the covered greenhouse, so I don’t have to carry them indoors anymore, cabbage seedlings were placed in the wooden box since they don’t need to be protected from the cold and the beans and flowers ended up on a small bench where they will get enough sun. 

It was a drastic move but now at least I can move around the balcony, also I don’t get frustrated every single time I open my greenhouses.