Tomato and courgette ansgt

[lackaDAISYcal]

My tomato and cougette plants were raised from seed in a propagator and are now in the greenhouse. I went in today to pot them on into grow bags and noticed that the tomatoes are papery and yellow (they have been regularly watered so it isn't that) and the stems of the courgette plants have rotted through at the base of the flowers

I'm a bit of a gardening novice so have no idea what is wrong (although I suspect the tomates might just have exhausted the nutrients in the compost in their small pots and just want feeding)

Does anyone have any advice?

anyone?

are you over watering? or over feeding?

what has the temperature been like in the greenhouse?

are either of them sitting in water?

how big are the tomatoes and the pots they are in?

I think your tomatos could be suffering from a mineral deficiency. The symptoms of various deficiencies are:

Nitrogen - upper leaves pale green, lower leaves yellow and dead.

Potassium - all leaves yellow with dead spots.

Magnesium - upper leaves normal, lower ones pale green or yellow.

Phosphorus - purple leaves and poor root growth

Calcium - upper leaves white, lower leaves almost normal

Sulphur - poor root growth & dead stem apex.

So I'd try a tomato feed to rejuvenate them.

The courgettes seem to be prone to rot when conditions are damp - happened to mine last year. I try to water them away from the plants and I've also seen a suggestion to rest the fruits on glass (rather than earth) to stop them rotting. I'm not really sure what cases it though.

courgettes could be down to

a) cold weather,

b) the flowers havent been pollinated and so will die. you need both male and female flowers for the courgette to properly develop. dont worry as the season progresses and gets warmer you'll get more flowers out at once and more chance of both male and female flowers to they'll all then develop fine.

ooooh thanks for all the replies. the courgettes are in trays and there is still water in the bottom, so maybe overwatered?

the tomatoes are just looking ill. they arre in small peat pots and are about five inches high. some have two little plants in them, so probably not enough minerals.

I'm not sure about the temp in the greenhouse as we don't have a thermometer. In fact it;s not even a proper greenhoouse, just one of those metal framed/polyprop covered things, but walk in like a greenhouse. It was very humid in there today though and the inside was all misted up. I've left the door open to let the air circulate. It's been shut up since the weekend.

I will get them into the grow bags today and give them a feed.

The soil in the growbags is very wet. DH added a gallon of water to each one as per the instructions, but it seems very soggy in there now. will this help or hinder the courgettes?

Can I plant cougettes out into our raised bed? I'm in the N of England. We just thought they'd do better in the greenhouse.

sorry for all the questions

hey manky

You can plant courgettes outside - they don't need to be in a green house

If it's a polination issue as manky suggests - which I think it may well be see here
then planting outside should be better as the insects can do their stuff more easily.

right, I will plant the courgettes outside and feed the tomatoes.

tomatoes don't need any help with pollenation these days do they? I have a vague recollection of my dear old gran tickling her tomato plants with one of the budgie's feathers.....but she was a bit barking, in the nicest possible way of course.

thanks for the link snorkle......Gardener's World website, now why didn't I think of that?

lackadaisy... .

most plants dont like to sit in waterlogged soil. if you have only a greenhouse like you describe your problems could be to do with fluctuating temperature. Beans and peas etc. are normally ok but courgettes and squashes i put on my windowsill inside so the temperature is more consistent.

its quite early for courgettes to be fruiting (although you may be lucky) because as the weather has been unreliable there wont be that many insects around to polinate. As long as you get them through the next few weeks they'll be fine and you'll be sick of courgettes by the end of the summer !

jesus i sound like a right know-it-all with that post. sorry!!!!

yeah, bog off, know it all

Seriously though, this has been a great help. I think DH (blame him as he's not here ) has been a bit over-zealous with the watering.

might be a know it all but at least im not killing off all my veg! haha!