23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
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).
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.
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.
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
Keep outer skins dried, and mulch and dirt pulled back from the top half of the bulb as it progresses. This is some extra work that the commercial growers probably do not do.
The drying skins at the top can accumulate rain, whick, if not quickly dried, can start to rot. This can not only ruin that cover layer to the onion but can tranfer some of the fungus to healthy, growing leaves.
-Terry
Posted by AiliDeSpain 6a - Utah (My Page) on
Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 20:52
You need more than one plant for them to be pollinated as they rely on cross pollination for fruit production.
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Not true, with due respect to your opinion.
Do they sap that on that on the tag, that you need 2 plants?
I have proven that theory WRONG not once, twice but 3 times.
If Your tomatillo does not set fruit, for some reason, it is not because you have just one of them. It can happen when you have 2 or more.
Just past season I had just ONE tomtillo plant. It continued flowering til September, BUT no fruits. Come late September it suddenly was loaded with husks. But It was too late and no time to grow and ripen.
ABOUT SUPPORT:
I think a medium size 3-ring cage is best. Because they get bushy and one stake is not enough.
The fact that they rely on cross pollination is a fact, having one plant produce fruit means that it is being pollinated by another tomatillo plant that isn't yours via insect pollination.
I start my own plants from seed so no I did not read this on a nursery tag. I thought staking would be adequate but I also have cages I can use, I actually wasn't planning on caging anything this year because they are not strong enough to support non Bush type plants and that's what I'm growing this year.
throw my white frost fabric over them for shade
That will only trap some of the heat. You need to rig it up on some sort of support over them for it to be effective at shading so there is air circulation between it and the plants.
And if you have enough double layer it to cut the sun even more.
Keep in mind that temps at ground level are an average of 5 degrees cooler than at the 5-6' level of weather station readings.
Dave
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.