New plants - dead within a week!

[TheAntiGardener]

I’m not good with plants. I can’t buy lavender after accepting that every single plant I buy turns to bone dry twigs within days, regardless of what I do with it. But I want to be good with them.

Last weekend I bought some tomato, courgette and carrot plants. Put the tomato and courgettes in individual (large) pots and carrots directly in the ground. All healthy-looking. It was clear within 24 hours that the courgettes were shrivelling. Yesterday I noticed the carrots looking like something had trampled them. Today they’re looking rather shrivelled too. Now the tomato plants are dropping and also look like they’re on the way out!

Conditions are: all in sunny spots, all planted in compost with plant food added in. It rained a lot at the weekend and the pots have not dried out - I added some more water later in the week.

Too much water? Wrong compost? Shouldn’t have used plant food? Shouldn’t have planted yet?

If I knew where I’d gone wrong I’d happily replace them, but I feel it’s a death sentence to any plant I might buy without some guidance. If anybody has some I’d be extremely thankful!

Possibly frost damage. I had a frost in my london garden last night

Tomatoes and courgettes are not frost lovers

Are they outside ? If so it’s frost damage, it’s too early to have them outside.

It's cold at night.

New plants don't survive in minus temperatures really. (Unless you're very lucky).
Don't worry I just lost x40 Dahlias because of minus temperatures. It happens to us all.

It is too early in the season to plant courgette plants and tomato ones outside without protection . I don't usually put tomatoes in the ground o( or pots) until the end of May ( I don't have a greenhouse) when the chance of night frosts are over

Much too cold to be out. Mine are in a plastic propagate in summerhouse with a blanket over at night and looking at the forecast they will be staying there for fair bit .

Carrots aren’t great transplanted, I wish places wouldn’t sell them in modules. You’re likely to get better results with a pack of seeds.

I can’t buy lavender after accepting that every single plant I buy turns to bone dry twigs within days
Lavender prefers an alkaline soil, not too much compost, just soil. Young plants need frequent watering until their roots are mature enough.

Thanks for the speedy responses! I will replace at the weekend and keep in the garage for now - assuming that’s warm enough? I had moved some other plants out of there thinking they’d be ok now - and they do seem to be - but these are obviously very young.

the last week has been unusually cold at night & lots of plants are suffering. wait until May for tender things like veg. In fact, I've never been able to grow tomatoes outside a greenhouse in London. And my courgettes are always eaten by slugs.

try peas or beans - those are much easier

Its freezing at night at the moment. Mine are struggling a bit even in the shelter of the greenhouse.

How much light does your garage get? Young plants will get very leggy if they are struggling to find light.

You might be better to wait a couple of weeks at least before replacing.

You'll need to harden them off by putting them outside during the day and bringing them back in at night. Should take a week or two, I think?

Thanks - I was keen to find a solution and try again asap to ‘put it right’, but I obviously need to be more patient.

Thanks also parietal and FoolsAssassin for the useful comments on growing carrots from seed and easier plants to try too.

We also grow our tomatoes in the green house

Op the general rule is nothing goes out till the third week in may, as all risk of frost should habe passed by then. If you’re looking to replace don’t do it till this time,

My tomatoes are inside my house, too cold to put them out even in the greenhouse, they will go out there next month when the chance of frost has gone, I have only just planted my courgette seeds, I don’t plant them out until June. Carrots I have planted outside and are doing ok. It’s not worth planting much outside until May, it’s still close to freezing in the evenings.

It’s too early to put tomatoes etc outside. And it’s been colder than usual this past couple of weeks. Keeping them in the garage won’t work either because there’s no light. Either put them on a window sill or in a greenhouse until at least May.

You need to keep your toms. etc on a window ledge in a heated room at night until these frosts go away.

Then you put them out during the day and in at night.

Then you put them out all the time.

By heated room I mean not the garage as it’s too cold. In a house. Where you have the heating on during cold days.

You need somewhere which will stay above freezing, and where they will get a good light. My tomatoes are in 9cm pots in the unheated conservatory at the moment. I’ve only just sown my courgettes, again in the conservatory.

I always give newly planted seedlings a slug of water to keep them going while their roots are feeling a bit fragile from the repotting. Then water them again when the surface of the soil is dry and the soil itself is beginning to dry. Don’t feed newly repotted seedlings, there’s plenty of nutrients in the soil, and an added feed is too rich for them.

If you’re planting into pots, wait till the seedlings are settled and visibly growing before you put them in the sun.

Finally, if you’re not totally confident, it’s worth only doing it to some of the seedlings while you see how it goes. I’ve just moved one out of 4 plants out of the propagator - if it’s too early, I’ve still got three left.

Oh no, I've just planted all my veg out this weekend (they've been hardened off int he cold frame for a couple of weeks). Thinking we're well past cold nights now (SW). Oh dear, maybe too keen this year...

Watch the weather forecast and look the sky in the early evening.

If there are clouds they keep the heat in. If no clouds then the heat goes up and away and it will be colder and can be frosty.

You can also see a hazy ring round the moon when it’s going to be frosty that night too.

If you’ve planted out I don’t know if putting something over the delicate plants would help. Like a layer of fleece. Or some people cut the bottom off water or cola etc bottles and insert them standing up with caps removed into the ground over the baby plant to give some protection.

Fleece at night I mean. Bottles at night but if hot you’d have to remove in the morning so the plants don’t fry in the heat.

The next day

I think with veg there’s a temptation to get sowing as soon as you can ti get an early crop. Some years it does pay off but when it’s like this there isn’t anything to be gained.

Things sown later do catch up mostly with their earlier sown counterparts and often do better as the early ones have struggled with temperature and light issues.