23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Jean,
The green house is about 75 of cloudy days and 80-85 with sun (then I open the vents). At night it gets to about 55-60.

What kind of potting mix are you using? Are you fertilizing them? Are you over or under-watering? A picture would be helpful.

Thanks terry_neoh for all those possible problems, it's really good to know all these. I will definitely look them up for more info and see if I can dig around to see what's down there.

And, the pollination, yes, I've been going out each morning with a tiny paintbrush to pollinate if I have to. It's kind of fun! I've also tried to plant more flowers around to attract the bees.

Thanks art_1! I had high hopes for Mel's Mix, but it was disappointing. The mix was just too light and needed more "substance" as my neighbor told me.

Looks like you may not have selected a suitable compost element for your Mel's mix. I've been using homemade compost in Mel's mix for years and it works well, as advertised and expected. Also, the bed doesn't look raised to me. The idea is to use Mel's mix on top of the native soil, not incorporated into it.

As was said, leafminers. Do as the other poster suggested.

BTW, did you know that the red russian kale is a superb self-sower? Let them go to seed and you won't have to buy seed again, most likely.

Pea sprouts are delicious. If you do need to thin make a salad or stir fry with the peas and micro-kale.

Still, the idea of eating seedlings is not attractive to me... So I'll transplant this Sunday before the rain.

Here's an update. They look a bit better now now that they have more air circulation and less watering. The peat pots actually got a chance to dry lately. Here's a closer look at the possible mold. Probably mold, yes?

A look at the curl and yellowing. The new leaf looks green and happy at least.

Thanks for catching that Slimy. I missed the okra completely.

Dave

Assuming the soil textures in equal condition, the one thing that decides plants watering need is the characteristic of their roots. The stronger, longer, wider, deeper root types need less watering(the exceptions here are those root crops that need a lot water ) and the shorter, weaker, shallower root types need as frequent watering as they could get(i.e. most leafy vege and squash family).

So Wayne, does corn have to be covered if there is a freeze coming. My soil is warm enough but my last freeze is May 15th. Of course, I could just try some and see what happens. Where else could I get my jollies for just a $2 packet of seeds?

Sweet corn is more tender than field corn and anything below 35ð or 36ð may damage them some. Freezing temps ? forget it.

Covering helps, yes.

It is the heat more than anything else and that was considerably exacerbated by being in containers. Early march is overly late to plant in the Orlando area - mid to late january is the correct time. A half-zone north in Lake county I plant in late january and that generally strikes a good balance between mostly avoiding frost-nip to the emerging foliage and the mature plants running into long hot days. Greater Orlando has much fewer frost events, depending of where you are you might even plant in late December.

I planted red potatoes bought from the farmer's market. This book I'm reading said to plant in March so I did. I'll try February next year. I put 4-5 potatoes per gallon 15 gallon container.

Thank you all for your comments and advice.

It's erratic spring weather out here (80s one day, 50 the next, high winds, sometimes frost- Colorado!) I definitely started the melons too early- they are going crazy! I wanted a jump on the season and got too eager. The aerogarden is great for seed starting but now I have near 60 plants in need of bigger pots because it got crowded. I put some in peat pots but have been reading that those aren't good (for moisture management) so will be heading back to the store to get plastic pots for the super-leggy tomatoes and peppers.

well, good thing about leggy tomatoes is you can just bury them deep when you transplant.

OMG the kittens are so cute and cuddly !

Cats are very good on voles. Mine are inside/outside cats and living in doesn't blunt their predacious edge.

Getting old does, however, alas.

The change in the leaf stems give them a higher surface area to volume ratio, which would make them more efficient at expelling and evaporating water. It would do this either to rid itelf of harmful ammounts of water, or to cool the plant, or a combination of both.

However, leaves (foiliage) woud be naturally more efficient at these tasks than stems. So maybe something on the leaves like naturally occurring wax, or a build-up of sprays and dust, could be blocking the leaves from efficiently evaporating. Maybe hosing them down good with a light soap (quickly-you don't want to soak them if they are alteady too wet.) Good luck, and remember that new squash plants grow very quickly (from seed) and may be your easiest way out of this problem.
-Terry

This post was edited by terry_neoh on Thu, May 1, 14 at 6:12

Flat, markedly elongated, and split stems are caused by a severe insufficiency of the needed light if grown indoors or sun if grown outdoors. You don't indicate where growing - in or out. Their color is also an indication of very poor light/sun exposure.

Ambient air temps can contribute to the problem but since you give no indication of your location or zone I can't comment on how that could have contributed in this case.

These seedlings are not salvageable.

Dave