Plants Dying

So I started my container garden in 50 gallon barrels cut in half and made as close as I could to Mel's mix with the following components; I mixed one and a half five gallon pails of peat moss, one five gallon pail of top soil and one five gallon pail mixture of mushroom compost, another compost mixture of leaves and small branches and horse manure. I added a five gallon pail of my compost I made myself and a half bag of vermiculite.

I planted 10 Roma tomato plants Sunday and a bell pepper plant on Tuesday. I noticed yesterday the leaves on a couple plants turning brown and when I came home from work today four tomatoes are dead and one pepper plant.


I planted onions a week ago in the same mix and they are doing fine and I have no idea why my tomatoes died.

Cold snap-tomatoes and peppers don't like it below 45.
Jo

Transplant shock is the first thing that comes to mind. If the plants don't bounce back in a week, topdress the garden soil that you made with a blend of different composts (1"-2"). Next season swap out your current mix with a true Mel's mix, which had no dirt in it (I don't know, but my guess is the top soil is dirt).

Are they planted outside, and if so, are your night time temps above 50 degrees? If outside were they covered for protection at night? Those are my first thoughts. So sorry.

They are planted outside and we had a cold night last night with a low of 36*. I guess I should have covered them.

Awe, what a bummer.

Bombnuke wrote:They are planted outside and we had a cold night last night with a low of 36*. I guess I should have covered them.

I was once told , " Gardening experience is an expensive but well remembered thing , the more you have the better your gardening ."

Somewhere on the internet or in one of the books I've read over the years is a chart showing how the temperatures affect tomatoes . It shows how long or short period a sudden drop in temp can be overcome by the plants .

I think at something like 40 o F cell damage starts to take effect and the longer it occurs the worse it will get .
If I remember corrrectly it mentioned a 1 hr period of 40 oF as being surviveable but a two hour one as causing restricted growth in your plants . At five hours of 40 o F ( usually overnight temps ) it can be terminal to the plants.

How are your wee plants doing today?

5 dead 5 alive...same as yesterday

I guess it was the cold with my plants and the next two nights we are supposed to have temps in the 30's again so I made sure to cover all my plants except my onions. This is one of the craziest springs we have endured in a long time here in South Georgia. I just hope we don't jump right into hot temps right away after this recent cold spell.