Seedlings are Dying HELP

[Toxic1979]

These are pictures of my zucchini, and broccoli. I have no idea what is doing this to the leaves.


So far this year.... onions, cabbage, broccoli, zucchini, pumpkin and rutabaga are all doing the same thing. makes no sense to me. I had to throw out the rutabaga, and start over at week 4. Now I'm at week 4 again, and they are doing it all over again. Except earlier.

Please help.

Its not the heat.... it was only 9 celsius these past few days.

I've tried not watering them.... but then they just wilt because of no water. So I water them, then the leaves start drying out from the edges, and a few days later turn to crispy nothing.

The stalks seem to be fine..... I don't understand.

Today I tried hardening them off a little for the first time. So they may seem a little more stressed than usual. But this leaf curling upwards, and the edges drying out... that has been happening off and on, at random (because lettuce is not doing it at all) for about 4-5 weeks. Its frustrating, because I feel most of you will say its too much water, and you have to start over. GRR!

[applestar]

This was in response to another member, but may also apply to your zucchini and pumpkin:

Subject: Planting Out Zucchini and Cucumber Seedlings

They look a little stunted — I Think they need to be watered more or something. Take the ginger out of that tray and add water to the tray, keep adding if they suck all the water up and the tray is dry. Keeping the potting medium and extending roots moist helps them from feeling pot bound. Make sure this mix isn’t too acid and maybe start giving them some fertilizer — I say that but what I do is water them with used coffeee grounds-soaked water and juice/milk/soda bottle rinse water (when I rinse the bottles for recycling, I add water swish and pour into the jug of water for the seedlings. Put hard boiled egg shells in the jug.... that sort of thing.

When the first true leaf is twice as big as a seedleaf and 2nd one is about these ones size is around when I think is ideal to plant out. So start hardening them off accordingly. Squashes need to go in full sun location so you need to work them up to that. If weather is already good for them to be planted, and you’re not worried about slugs, etc (they LOVE the squash seedleaves), you could plant them now and not have to worry about hardening them off as carefully because these young leaves will adapt quickly — just Protect for the first couple of days if sunny.

[applestar]

As for rutabaga, take a look at this. I don’t even know if you can start then in containers, but if trying, would use much deeper — like 20 oz drink cup.

https://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/upl ... 7ch15.html

Root Development of Vegetable Crops: Chapter XV
RUTABAGA

[Toxic1979]

I don't think the issue is the water. I'm almost thinking they are getting too much water. But I don't think that would cause the leaves to dry up, and turn crispy. I literally mean I cut the leaf off and I can crumble it like dried basil leaves. And everyday I can go out cut more and more leaves off. This morning alone I killed about 7 plants. There are no leaves remaining on them.... but the stalk is perfect.

The leaves start browning at the edges, and then within 2-3 days the whole leaf is yellow/ brown and very dry. Shortly after its completely dried out.

The leaf curl... I thought this may be due to the heat. Sometimes in the day, with all the grow lights running, it does get a bit warmer in there. I few days I noticed it, so I vented the air. and turned on some fans.

Would it be possible that that they are root bound in these pots? Would that cause it?

What about a fertilizer on them? Would that cause something like this? Or would that just burn up the roots and cause the whole plant to die? I'm lost as its just the leaves being damaged. The few that I took out of the pots today, as there are no leaves on them, had plenty of roots.

I'm just going to scrap rutabaga this year. For the past two years I have been starting them in pots, and then transplanting them, but this year, they are dong the same thing that every other plant is doing.... drying and dying! Where everything is having the same symptoms, I'm trying to find the common cause among all the plants.....

Would the type of store bought soil matter? And if it did, would it matter this much?

[Toxic1979]

What about burning from the grow lights? I have quite a bit of space between plants and the lights all the same. there is a good 6-8 inches, and even those plants are showing the same signs.

[kayjay]

Hi. Under what conditions are you starting the seedlings - in a toasty warm house? In an outdoor garage? I ask because zucchini and pumpkin are hot weather veggies. The broccoli should be okay, I don't know what's going on with them, but 9C is awfully cold. Lettuce usually likes the cold, too. But I was afraid of leaving zucchini, pumpkin and cucumber seedlings out until the night time low was a minimum of 14C. For all of my seedlings, I try to harden them off more gently than that. There's no way I'd put them out if it was only 9C, even during the day, unless I had a greenhouse or something else to increase the temp from the sun.

BTW, I'm the person to whom Applestar was replying about my zucchini and cucumber seedlings. Our weather has been very hot and humid for the last week-and-a-half, highs in the 20s, humidex around 30, night lows of 14-20. I wouldn't have put them in the ground before that, and I brought them in at night to be on the safe side prior to this heat wave.

[applestar]

Would it be possible that that they are root bound in these pots? Would that cause it?

This is basically what I was saying in the two posts above.

Squash etc. I’ve had leaves like that on pot bound root damages seedlings and stunted by fellow seedling ground down squash.

I’m pretty sure I’m reading root depth to 10 inches for 4wk old rutabaga. Rutabaga is a single taproot crop so you probably shouldn’t let the root pressing on the pot bottom. How old were the rutabaga when you planted them out before?

[applestar]

Good thoughts about temp ^^^

I was noticing the warm vs cool weather crops too though I suppose in the north, you don’t have as much to worry about the cool weather crops not growing in the summer heat.

[Toxic1979]

OK... So this year has been an odd one given the extreme cold weather we are still getting. We are about 3 weeks behind on my planting due to actual frost in the evenings still. This is usually over around mid May.

I didn't change anything with plants. I just started to place them in the greenhouse during the day light hours to start hardening them off in hopes that I may be able to salvage them once this frost season ends. Everyday has been good sunlight with cloud cover. This is day 5 in the hardening process, in the greenhouse. The plants seem to be doing better. Hopefully someone has an explanation for this.

Applestar, even the rutabaga are showing new leaf growth, and perking up. All the plants still have some dry leaves, but like I stated, I didn't change anything. Thats includes cutting off those dry and dying leaves. But the majority of the plants are putting off new leaf growth, and the stalks still seem healthy and sturdy.

As for cool vs warm weather crops.... I have no choice ... short growing season. My zucchinis, pumpkin, green beans, are grown in the greenhouse. Outside at our peak summer months is 25 celsius at best, and 10-15 celsius in the evenings. Mind you, we also get 16 -18 hours of daylight for about 2 months. And over 12 hours for 4 months.

Right now I'm just hardening the plants of in the sunlight before I expose them to the wind elements later this week. So far they are staying out for about 10/12 hour with little signs of wilt. And if they do show wilt its due to the dry soil. They perk up again once in the dark for 12 hours.

In the past, my rutabagas were about 6 weeks old when planted out. These ones are about 4/5 weeks old now. My previous ones were about twice the size of these by now.