I water everything in the nursery each morning before opening the blinds to give the seedlings plenty of light, sun and general warmth. I am wondering though if the all day heat is a bit too much for some. I have already had two failed attempts at starting mizuna in the nursery as it gets to a certain stage then overnight shrivels up and keels over. Now I have concerns about the aubergines and mint...
Over the past week some of the leaves on my young aubergine plants have developed white patches which are kind of see through, almost like the green part has been rubbed off to reveal a more delicate opaque colour beneath. I assume this is to do with watering/moisture/heat but I'm not entirely sure what this means. It is not all of the leaves, just one affected leaf on two or three of the plants and apart from the white patches, the plant looks perfectly fine and healthy. I read that aubergines do need a bit of humidity so perhaps I should put a little pot of water next to the plants?
On a similar theme to the failed mizuna growing, my tray of mint was doing fine until yesterday when it decided to keel over. The packet instructions said to keep the soil on the dry side, and I've been careful not to over water but perhaps the heat by the south facing window is too much for this too?
Now that the weather has warmed up, I might try sowing more seed for mint etc in pots in the coldframe instead. The aubergines should also be ok to go out in the cold frame during the day now to harden off. Hopefully taking them out of the nursery will prevent any further white patches developing.
Finally today, a tip for any other novice veggie growers out there - be very careful which way you put large seeds such as courgette in the soil when sowing. This is what happens when you get it wrong and put the seed in upside down by accident. I did wonder why this wasn't getting any bigger when the other two that came up are pretty big now. On closer inspection I realised that I was looking at roots, not a shoot. I've turned it the right way up so I'll have to wait and see if it survives. I'm pretty impressed that it got this far in its upside down state.
3 comments:
I think it may be too hot during the day and you might be overcompensating by watering them too much - for some reason I think of mizuna as being relatively cold tolerant. As for mint I grow mine in a pot in a semi shaded spot on the veg patch and it seems to do fine.
Thanks for that John. I'll try sowing some more mint outdoors and perhaps I should sow some mizuna out in the cold frame too.
The compost in the pots by the south facing window do tend to dry out rather quickly so you are probably right that I might be overcompensating when watering.
I can see that my cold frame is going to get rather full!
Thanks for the tip about the courgette seeds. I rushed downstairs to check mine weren't coming through bottom up, but they seem to be doing OK. Worth knowing for other seeds too.
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