tomatoes, lettuce,musculin wilting a few days after planting them

[Nate]

Hello again,

I have another question. It has been a fewdays since my fiancee' and I picked up the bulk of our plants at a local garden nursery and it got colder than expected the night before last. It kind of crept up on everyone. It was in the lower 40s. Now a couple days later some of the tomato plants and the lettuce and musculin look very wilted. The peepper plants look ok. When we planted everything we watered them well. And we have watered the plants each evening. I don't know exactly when we should slow down on watering the tomatoes. I know they don't want alot of water. I have not given any Miracle Grow yet.

I had read lasy year (awhile after we had already planted the tomatoes) that if you cover the plants at least 50% up with the soil that you will get bushier plants. I have always gotten tall gangly tomato plants. So if the tops look bad can I take them off and uncover some of what we buried? Is that a good idea after a few days?

I am conserned about the lettuce and musculin too.

Thanks for your time again.

[Bill Rose]

Well, that didn't take long.

Lose the MiracleGrow and get some fish emulsion on everything when the soil is just a little humid.

Always? I thought this was your second year? It sounds as if your tomatoes aren't getting enough Sun. Hang around. Another opinion will be along any moment.

I don't think wacking on a plant when it is already stressed is a good idea. You can screw it up later.

Lower forties shouldn't be a problem. Dry out (humid, not bone dry) and fish emulsion.

It's OK. I prefer your problems to mine.

- Bill Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (and away)

[Alexander Miller]

|....it got |colder than expected the night before last. It kind of crept up on |everyone. It was in the lower 40s. Now a couple days later some of the |tomato plants and the lettuce and musculin look very wilted. The |peepper plants look ok.

|I had read lasy year (awhile after we had already planted the |tomatoes) that if you cover the plants at least 50% up with the soil |that you will get bushier plants. I have always gotten tall gangly |tomato plants. So if the tops look bad can I take them off and uncover |some of what we buried? Is that a good idea after a few days? | |I am conserned about the lettuce and musculin too.

Sounds as if the plants just got shocked by transplanting, possibly coming from a too-soft nursery environment into the real world. Probably they needed hardening off before planting.

I'd have expected tomatoes to handle the cold better than peppers. My book says peppers quit growing at night temps below 50, so I don't put them out till it's warmer. But my tomatoes are already surviving near freezing at night. Mesclun & lettuce shouldn't be troubled at all - unless they came from a soft environment & weren't hardened.

I'd suggest just leave everything alone for a few days and give the plants a chance to recover. There may not be much more you can do at this stage. If the soil is damp an inch or two below the surface, you don't have to water at all.

Planting tomatoes deep lets them make extra roots, which makes for sturdier plants. But don't excavate them after planting. If you prune the tops you will stimulate growth of side shoots, therefor bushiness. There are "bush" varieties but otherwise most tomatoes get tall & lanky despite all.

Alexander

[Nate]

Oh.. Well with tomatoes I actually have been growing those for several years. When I lived in an apartment but had a deck I raised four plants in big pots. Then last year I had 13 tomato plants (along with sweet and hot peppers and assoted herbs). We had a watermellon and squash plant but a rabbit kept eating thes quash. We got one mellon. They were not in the actual garden plot.

[Dave]

Am not big on transplants, am from seed guy. From what I've seen, 'maters don't do squat unless its appreciable warm. Leaf lettuce just lays there for awhile, then takes off in a few weeks.

You lost me on musculin.