Help! Garden isnt doing well - Pictures Attached!

[waterman13]

I planted my garden from bonnie plant farm started plants about a month ago. I live in Southern Alabama, I have a raised garden I made it this year and filled it with top soil mixed with composted manure. For the past month my plants have been looking great! Green and healthy as can be. In the past week they have all started to look kind of sick. I water about 2-3 times per week, the soil always feels a little moist to me but never soggy.

My better boy tomatoes leaves are turning yellow at the bottom. See pic -

[img]https://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee511/waterman13/tomato.jpg[/img]

My cucumbers leaves are turning yellow with big brown spots.

[img]https://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee511/waterman13/cukes.jpg[/img]

Some of my cherry tomatoes leaves are dried and wilted looking.

[img]https://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee511/waterman13/cherrytomator.jpg[/img]

And my mint and cilantro plants are turning PURPLE!?

[img]https://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee511/waterman13/cilantro.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee511/waterman13/mint.jpg[/img]

Any help would be greatly appreciated! This is my first garden and I want it to live and produce so badly!!!

THANKS!!!

[jal_ut]

Tell us what you put under the bed when you made it. Did you just put the fill soil directly on the soil that was already there?.

Depending on how much manure you actually put on it, that soil may be a little hot. If that is the case, the best thing is to water it deeply, really saturate it, then not again for a week or until the plants wilt. A good deep watering once a week is usually the best method of watering.

If you put a root blocker of some sort under the bed that is part of your problem. A raised bed should always be built on the existing soil so the roots can go down. The roots of most veggies will go to 3 feet deep and some much deeper.

Those tomatoes look OK. I would not worry too much about the lower leaves turning yellow. The cukes don't look good though. Good luck.

[waterman13]

Before I put the fill soil on the soil that was already there I tilled it up and mixed in composted leaves/non composted leaves. There is nothing blocking the roots from going down deep.

I put 6 cuft of composted manure mixed with 14 cuft of top soil to fill my raised bed. I also added about two cups of 10-10-10 fertilized to the existing soil before I covered it with the raised bed and the new soil.

Also, I have a drip irrigation system buried about 2" beneath the top of the soil.

I'm thinking there is a lack of nutrients in the soil, possibly caused by too many plants packed in my 4x8 area sucking all the nutrients out of the soil. What do you all think?

Thanks for your quick reply.

[jal_ut]

I'm thinking there is a lack of nutrients in the soil,

I think it is more likely that there is too many nutrients in the soil. Give it a real good soaking and see if it perks up. I think two cubic feet of manure on that much space would have been ample, then you added chemicals besides.

Manure and compost are both pretty hot as things go and should be used as amendments to soil in judicial amounts, not used as growing mediums. An inch of manure on an area is plenty.

[Francis Barnswallow]

You won't have a problem growing the mint......unless you don't want it any more like me. I can't get rid of the stuff, it's like hydrilla in a lake. Once it starts it never ends.

[Duets]

You won't have a problem growing the mint......unless you don't want it any more like me. I can't get rid of the stuff, it's like hydrilla in a lake. Once it starts it never ends.

Tip: grow mints in containers, then their growth is restricted & won't take over the garden.

[waterman13]

Question - how long would it take for the "hot soil" to damage the plants. I don't know much but I would suspect that if I put in too much manure and fertilizer before planting the plants it would of showed up earlier...?

For the first month the plants looked great. Does it usually take about a month or more for the plants to become damaged from overuse of fertilizer?

[jal_ut]

How many hours of sunshine does this plot get?

Why don't you spread about a tablespoon of that 10-10-10 around the cucumber plant and water it in good and see what happens. If it improves within a few days, you will have your answer.

[applestar]

This reminds me a lot of what gixxerific was going through early last spring after putting down loads of manure that perhaps wasn't completely composted.

[waterman13]

The plot only gets about 6-7 hours of sun. I'll try the fertilizer around the cucumber and see what happens.

Thanks!

[mscratch]

I am looking at that tree and sparse grass and thinking location is probably more of the deal that is causing your garden to do what its doing..trees will suck up your moisture like a sponge, especially the shallow roots that thrive on moisture near ground level... and the shade isnt so great either which comes back to the location.. am not sure if its a tree or a stump actually but the grass isnt doing so well there so I assumed its a tree.

[gixxerific]

This reminds me a lot of what gixxerific was going through early last spring after putting down loads of manure that perhaps wasn't completely composted.

You had to bring me into this didn't you?

I can't remember if I brough manuer in if I did it was the fall before. It should have been good I think?!? This year only compost. We shall see if there is a differance.

Weather plays a big part in it as well.