Alaina’s Square Foot Gardening Plan Update
- Location: Northern Louisiana
- Gardening Year: 2013
- Planting By Color group: Red, Navy
Okay I have gotten it all completed! My husband was so nice to help me mix all my soil. I have yet to fill in the cinder-blocks because I want to make sure this all works out first.
I have provided pictures of everything that is starting to grow. I see promise in all plants except my tomatoes. It seems to be taking them a while to sprout new growth…and the bottom leaves are starting to yellow (picture below). I have researched and found this to be due to a lot of different factors…so I just don’t know which to pin it on yet. Any advice? I water this garden every day that it does not rain, and it gets partial sun from 9-10:30, full sun from 10:30-3:00, then partial again from 3:30-around 4 or 5:00 pm.
I also had the same problem with my tomatoes. When you transplanted the them how far did you bury the plant. Tomatoes like to be buried all the way up to the bottom of their first set of leaves. In the picture it looked like you had a lot of stem exposed. Hope this helps and thanks for the tip about the epsom salt. I’m trying that this afternoon!
I am going to try the Epsom salts tomorrow. My tomatoes, beans and cukes have perked up, and are about ready for a trellis. I imagine they will start growing much better once I get it installed. I only water every three days now. I was so impressed to see baby strawberries growing. However, just as they get red a critter comes through and nabs it! Whatever it is seems to love the Squash blooms too. I haven’t had the satisfaction of seeing a nibbled jalapeno pepper…they steer clear of them. Which are already producing. Im concerned that my tomatoes and beans are not growing as well as they should….but hopefully the Epsom salts and a trellis will help that.
I’m in southern Louisiana and I just made my first SFG a few months ago and had the same problem as you. I don’t think overwatering is your issue since I find that my beds drain very well. ( And since it rains here just about every day there isnt much you can do about overwatering anyway). I think my issue ended up being a nutrient deficiency of some type. After about 8 weeks of watching my seedlings languish I finally broke down and applied some miracle grow and everything greened up within days. My beans didn’t do we’ll until I purchased some inoculant. I searched all of the garden centers and didn’t find any untiI spied a seed display at Walgreens, of all places. If you aren’t afraid of inorganic fertilizer I’d suggest some miracle grow at half strength every two weeks until your plants are established. I plan on going back to organic next summer after beneficial microbes have had a chance to colonize the beds but right now everything looks lush and healthy. I have about a dozen and a half tomatos on one Roma bush alone with more buds opening.
Where are your grids?
Also, I’ve been reading a lot on using Epson salts when planting your tomatoes, peppers and roses. I finally did this and my tomatoes have never looked better – I have 5 different varieties. According to the articles, tomatoes are heavy feeders on magnesium. You can also dissolve some in water. I did put a good tablespoon in the hole and mixed it with the soil. I am located in SW MO.
My tomatoes are doing the same thing as yours, I’m a little north of Atlanta. Everyone has told me mine are overwatered like they are telling you. I’m not doing the over watering myself, it has rained A LOT the last three weeks and has been cooler than normal. I’m hoping when the rain slows down that things get better.
Good day! …as others have said it sounds like you are watering to much. …and that the tomatoes don’t like to get their “hair” wet 🙂 When I plant my ‘maters I put a little well, an indentation around the plant so all the water doesn’t just run off. They like to be watered prolly only once a week but watered very deeply, watered very well, and that’s where the little well around the plant works well 🙂 I hope this has helped a bit. Happy gardening!
You’re watering too often. They don’t need water every day.
Also, use drip. Tomatoes do not like getting their “hair” wet. I.E. like roses, they like water on their roots, not on their foliage.
I have about 4 dozen eggshells saved up waiting to be composted with other things. I skipped watering for two days and it has gotten in the lower 90s down here already. they seem to have hit a bit of a growth spurt with that, and are more green, with more blooms. SO relieved. I think that late, almost freezing, wind that blew through a week after I got them in the ground here confused them.
The Tomatoes are getting too much water.
Too much water on the Tomatoes.
I found that in new Square Foot Gardens, because we are using mostly storebought composts, we have a calcium deficiency in our soils. This is remedied later when we make our own composts supplemented with lots of crushed eggshells. No, you cannot sprinkle eggshells around your plants. They take a while to decompose and won’t benefit your plants now. My suggestion is to go to your local hardware/garden store and get a bag of bone meal and blood meal. Gently scratch into the soil about a Tablespoon of each supplement sprinkled around the plant. Water well. You should see them green up in a few days. Do this for your squash and cucumbers as well. You may also have to do this again halfway through the summer if you see yellow leaves again. You also may be watering too much at this point. Your guys are tiny. Stick your finger into the soil and see if it is still moist. If so, you can probably skip watering that day. As the days heat up in our humid South and the plants get larger, daily watering will be necessary.