I had dozen heirloom plants shipped in from seed savers exchange during the heat wave at the end of May. The arrived a day early and were sitting in the box in 90+ heat for some time before I found them. I planted 8 of them pretty quickly without giving them time in part shade to harden because I knew that if I did not get them in the ground I wouldn't get to them for some time (due to busy schedule) and I was worried about killing them in the heat. Most of them are doing fine now but I still have two starts that are yet to be planted. They were hardened off in the shade but still showed signs of distress and became covered in aphids very quickly. I rinsed them and removed most of them but they still look like they are suffering and are showing some leaf curl and yellowing. the photos were taken about two days ago. They are being kept in part shade they were only put on top of the table for photos. You can see a few aphids on the Mexican midget in the top photo. Today they are largely covered in dead aphids.
Is there any hope for these starts? I'm new to gardening so I'm not even sure if I'm watering them appropriately or if they were doomed from the get-go from shock of shipping to a hot location. Any help/ advice is welcome.
- onlylobster
- Full Member
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- Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 2:35 pm
- Location: New Jersey
- Lindsaylew82
- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Wed May 21, 2014 9:26 pm
- Location: Upstate, SC
Agreed. It is hard for me to think of New Jersey being hot, but there have actually been times when your temperatures have exceeded mine. Remove the lower leaves and plant most of the stem in the soil. They should do better. The aphids attack plants that are weak so keep an eye out for their return. Put out ant bait.