Are you having trouble keeping your plants alive?

OK, I do not have a green thumb... but i can useually keep my flowers alive in my flower bed.

This year, not only can I not keep any flowers alive, either in the flower bed or in baskets, but my I've had two older shrubs turn brown and die

Is it just me or are other people having trouble keeping their plants alive this year?

What's going on?

Just my bad luck or is it more widespread?

Most my veggies in the garden are fine. Tomatoes arent too happy about this late, cold spring/summer we are having on the west coast of N. America.

Strange enough I am having the same problem.
There are only so many conditions that could be causing this...

We had a late spring summer, rain all through May.
I need a little more time to tell for sure the culprit.

At least I know its not Monsanto.

My plants have been doing fine. Bhut Jolokia's are growing & I'm waiting for them to flower. It may have to do with your geographic location. Did Kentucky experience any poisonous rain over the past year from the BP oil spill? It may have permeated your flower beds/ soil you used, thus inhibiting growth. Corexit ftw!

My plants are doing awesome
Do you use miracle Grow or somethnig?

How often do you water it?

Our tomatoes look the worst we have ever seen. East Texas. Dry as a bone this year ,
The usual 100 deg we would maybe get in august and the dry conditions we would only sometime get in september .
We are in terrible shape, the beans, cucumbers. and tomatoes look like they all have blight,,
Even every ones corn here never got to a good an tall. long skinny and bug infested
Everything looked pretty good till june first. Been a fight since then to keep them alive.
.

Zuchinni and yellow summer squash producing like mad. Must pick bush green beans tomorrow. Lots of fungus on the tomato plants which I treat with Ortho Daconil. It's always a challenge every year. Too must acid everywhere for some reason. Deep snow this winter must be it.

Gardens are great here too no problems in my city and we have alot of farms and what not no crop problems ???

Our garden is doing awesome but I have been using lots of water do to the high heat, trees and house plants doing good to.

reply to post by burntheships


lol, nope not monsanto... wonder if it is radiation in the rain?

reply to post by Crunkman919


I don't know but that might be just the culprit... good thought. Anyone know?

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Every other day per the instructions for these plants.

No problems here in NE. I used a new pellet time-release fertilizer this year, and things are thriving. I only grow flowers though.

We don't know where any of you live, but if you use water that has been treated with clorine to make up for the rainfall being far below normal in your area, that may be the problem. Plants don't like clorine. That is why green stuff always looks better after a simple rain shower than when you spend hours at it with a hose.

Plus, little rain equates with low humidity and this causes even standing water in bird baths, etc., and water sprayed on the ground to evaporate at a far faster rate than normal. This not exactly makes for a self-defeating system, but one that is greatly compromised over what Nature usually offers in terms of moisture..

This is my first year gardening...

I started 3 raised beds, everything is going great so far, ate a lot of sugar snap peas and strawberries already... with corn a few weeks away, same with green peppers... mustard greens seem to be ready but I dont know alot about them... and carrots and sunflowers are doing awesome, watermelon as well...

My only problem is iceburg lettuce... It never formed heads at all, and is now shooting up and starting to bolt(I think thats the right term)... I moved everything outside may 15th in PA... anyone who has grown iceburg before could give me some tips?

To add as a second thought... I also have to empty 2 dehumidifiers from the basement every day, and this water I use to water my garden

reply to post by morder1

iceburg lettuce is one of the first to bolt. it is even picker in its preference for cool temps than its other lettuce relatives.

did you know lettuce contains mild opiates?

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


Nope I sure didnt... very interesting info

So should I pick what leaves I have currently? How do I get it to grow into heads like you would get from the store, start much earlier?

Originally posted by morder1
reply to post by incrediblelousminds

 

Nope I sure didnt... very interesting info

So should I pick what leaves I have currently? How do I get it to grow into heads like you would get from the store, start much earlier?

Pick what you can, I guess. Might not be worth it. ? iceburg can be a nice treat, but its like eating water:-)

Yes, you have to start it very early. Depending on where you live, you might not be able to grow it. IT needs a fairly long (50 to 60 days i think) of cool weather after the frost date. In many areas of the US, that can be hard to come by.

ETA: I see you live in PA. Missed that. I'm not familiar with the weather for that region, normally. Did you have any extremely warm days this year? Usually, they say you need to start iceburg inside before the frost date, so as to squeeze the most time out of those 7 or 8 cool weeks after the last frost. May 15 seems to late, even for that part of The N. East.

2 post

I'm in Central Illinois and tomatoes, butternut squash, cucumbers, hot peppers, watermelon, canataloupe, and green beans are doing great. Got a secret fertilizer that I'm trying for the first time and the results are amazing. Not a real secret, if ya wanna know, I'll post it.

Our plants this year are doing great...way better than any other year.

I was just thinking the other day that it is odd that our plants are doing so good...cause we usually kill them.

I used to have a green thumb, but this year I cannot get kudzu to grow! I am serious! Everything is either dead or dying. The conditions here have changed on me so rapidly. Lack of any precipitation during the winter, a cold snap of 3 degrees lasting over four days throughout (not the dips and lows, but continuous). When Spring did arrive we were thrust into the higher temps too fast with our Spring winds carrying on late until June 21 (I know the exact day the winds finally stopped). Still we have had two rains which lasted all of 20 minutes but so far apart in months that it did not help.

The wild animals have been my worst nightmare; rats ate the roses to the ground! Seriously! Through the night every crawling, walking, and slithering creature took advantage of every plant they could get. One plant did survive and is doing well Society Garlic! Go figure!

Anything in pots has been decimated by the Sun and even in solid shade the pots dry out in a day, 30 gallon and 60 gallons of soil dried to the bone in one days time!

I finally turned off the sprinkler systems because the grass (bermuda) will not grow! Can you believe it?

I put all my seeds away. I got the message! No garden this year, no flowers, and what trees and grape vines I did have growing are now gone! So sad! It hurt, it really hurt emotionally, but I am finally coming around now. No more tears over all the seedlings, no more tears over even the hardiest of them dying, I invite it all to die because it is time to stop. These are the things holding me and I cannot be held when I have to leave (for what ever the reason), the seeds will keep and when the time is right I will start over.

I even lost all of my morning glories! Now that is a message!

As I walk into the wild desert areas even the cactus out there is gone, skeletons of barrels and cholla, even the prickly pear is shriveled up! The only survivors here are the invasive Salt bush and Salt Cedar, the plants that kill other plants by poisoning the ground with salt! I am over it!

Don't get me wrong, I am slowly learning how to be cheerful again! This year is an exercise of Spirit and I will survive this! I do have some things that are living in pots but barely!

I am glad to hear there are others that are not having such a nightmare! Perhaps I should blame HAARP, since I am in the "Fire Zones" and something is setting us off, and it isn't the "illegals" Thank you John McCain!