Wilting and Stunted Growth in veggie garden?

15 years ago

During the hot, sunny part of the day my tomatoes, cucs, and now basil are wilting something terriable. They do recover at night. Growth is stuned on everything, an eggplant is dead, onions died, beets never got bigger than an eye ball and have now stopped growing. Fennal is not growing, but leaves are yelling and die off. Other an the no growth and dieing issues the plants look good at night, no pests, molds, etc.

I have amended the soil with compost and manure every year for the last three years, though it is still very clayish. This winter I took down a black walnut that was near, so juglone could be an issue. But my perinnal garden that was under the former walnut is fine, would that not be a good indicator?

Should I just give up? Or try a raised bed in this same place so I have more control over the soil?

Also, I did check my soil, the ph is 6.5, it was low on nitrogen and I have used a general fertalizer 15-30-15 twice in the last 7 weeks.

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Comments (2)

ruthieg__tx
15 years ago
If we had some kind of idea about where you live and the high temps, it might help...wilting in the middle of the day here in my area (Texas) is very common...and lots of leaves yellow and die off because of the heat ..are you giving them plenty of water?...Depending on the amount of course, but heavy fertilizing every 7 weeks might be too much of a good thing...
justaguy2
15 years ago
You don't give an indication of where you live so it is hard to comments on some things. Onions will brown and die back when ready for harvest.

An overall lack of growth can be from not enough sun, not enough(or too much) water, lack of nitrogen and other causes.

One thing I wanted to comment on is that if you had a soil test and found your N low then this wasn't a good idea: Also, I did check my soil, the ph is 6.5, it was low on nitrogen and I have used a general fertalizer 15-30-15 twice in the last 7 weeks.

You might think since the first number is 15 that there is plenty of N for the plants. Here is the thing about fertilizer numbers. It isn't the total amount of N, it is the ratio of N to the others. You are giving a fertilizer with high phosphorous which is pointless and sometimes counter productive unless you have low P in the soil. Your fertilizer should have the first number highest so the plants take up more nitrogen than anything else.

That your plants wilt by day and spring back at night means the plants can't take up water fast enough in the heat. This is somewhat normal for many plants when it is scorching hot out (90F+), has that been the case?
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Wilting and Stunted Growth in veggie garden?

Comments (2)

ruthieg__tx

justaguy2

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