Mine were turning a little yellow as well. They are in such little soil at first that they are starting to use up all the nitrogen I guess. When they are still really small I just repot them with good potting soil in a slightly larger pot and that seems to perk them up and be what they need. I usually don't do fertilizer until they are in the ground, or if I have a house plant in a pot permanently. It sounds like you still used too much fertilizer for their size and container volume. You might be able to salvage yours if you can run some regular water through and flush out some of the fertilizer that might still be in the soil. I would also put them in the dark after flushing them to let them recover a little.
Ive never thought fertilizing plants while still indoors was needed. I also avoided it to prevent what Nett had happen. So many things can go wrong why chance over fertilizing? Any leaf yellowing or curling indoors I attribute to the sub optimal replicated environment and have left it at that. It'll all be gone after being in the ground for a few weeks. My tomato plants look leggy and scrawny compared to the freakish potted ones you see at the front of stores each season but without fail turn into rainforest plants with about 10 lbs of tomatoes per plant by the end of season. I usually wait few weeks after they have been established in the ground before I start the tomato fertilizing regiment. Most people recommend diluting Fish ferts for indoor plants before they go outside, they arent as super concentrated as something like Miracle Grow is to begin with but Ive never done it.
Yeah, if they weren’t looking as yellow as they were, which everything pointed to nitrogen deficiency, I wouldn’t have considered it myself.
Their water soluble fertilizer is my go-to when they're outside in the planters... never had any issues that I noticed... everything tasted awesome, better than store-bought.
I haven't noticed anything with using fertilizers in general. I have read that it's best to not apply fertilizer right before a harvest and that it can affect the flavor. Never noticed a difference myself though.
Almost all the plants have sprouted now. Gonna build the raised beds next week. At what point should I start hardening them then plant them in the ground?
My signal to planting them is when the weather is going to be good enough, and whenever that is, harden them for a few days before planting them. Right now we're still hitting below zero and hail, so there's no way I can think about transplanting for at least a couple of weeks yet. I now have peas and cucumbers growing fruit in my incubator, and catnip, basil, and cilantro are all full on plants and I'm cooking with them. And my tomatoes are looking like they are going to die off, so I started all new trays last night to see if I can do a better job on a new batch.
I honestly think with the temps you are working with that they would do better outside than with artificial lights, especially if you can cover them tightly to retain soil moisture and ambient humidity. If they stay covered then they will be protected from pests, too. I wasn't in TX but I was in the coastal south with some similar creepy crawleys to you and was shocked at how fast the cutworms come out of the woodwork and destroy seedlings. They love soft stems like you have there. Slugs love seedlings, too. If you have trees with leaf litter anywhere nearby you have slugs and I swear they can smell the seedlings some kind of way. I had new seedlings in my enclosed sunroom and slugs crawled up the side of the building into window louvers to get the seedlings 5' in on top of furniture. If I weren't so pissed I'd be impressed.
Moved most of the jungle outside. None of these are suitable for the winters here and they became houseplants while we had sub 45Fish temps. It was actually nice to have lots of green around because from late fall to early spring it is so grey and gloomy. Towards the end I got pretty tired of dealing with them though and sort of neglected them. They're all alive though and will bounce back.
yeah I think I’m gonna move them to the raised beds as soon as I build them. Going to the lake tomorrow, will get back on Monday. Hopefully I’ll knock out the beds in a day or two, depending on how work goes. Wanna let the pollen and everything die down because like you said, bugs. Got some more seeds to plant as well, was just waiting for consistent warm weather to do so. Gonna do some okra for gumbo and fried.
I highly recommend okra. Beware.... pick it daily. It goes from hmm is this big enough? To a woody inedible pod in about a day. They get really tall and put on side support roots and make a decent trellis for cucumbers if you want to plant them together.
yeah I've used to grow them years and years ago. Those fuckers grew like crazy. Pickled okra is delicious though, as is fried. Don't always feel like it, but if I do it's there. What I don't eat I can give away or feed to the animals. Can't stand how they get all slimy though. Wish there was an easier way to eat it other than fried, pickled or occasionally in like a soup or gumbo. Gets disgusting when you cook it.
Precook okra for a few minutes in white vinegar and water and then strain, transfer to whatever dish it'll be in. It cuts down down on the sliminess substantially.
Tokinashi Turnips. Absolutely wonderful. It’s a Japanese variety that you can eat raw, stir fry, roast, or pickle. Pearl white, blemish-free root, and the greens may be even better than the root. If you are like me and are in a warmer climate and struggle to grow winter and early spring vegetables, give these a try. This harvest was actually from about a month ago. These will be the first things sown back in the ground here come October.
Just caught up on the thread, good work everyone! What gardens we will have this year! RotN, get them out hardening off as soon as you can, when they have a few leaves, but in TX you need to be planted asap. The heat will come fast and stall the tomatoes. Remember to avoid direct sunlight on the little plants the first few days. Smaller plants harden fast and easy in my experience. You have a great variety of things, nice work man! On okra, BAKE it. Slice it in half lengthwise, and lay it out on a sprayed baking sheet. A little olive oil, spice it however, bake it a bit. No slime. Slime happens when okra touches moisture. Also pickle and fry it, absolutely! Great recommendation binx, I will give those a try next cold season. I remember being a little kid following my favorite uncle around, he always had a knife and a salt shaker in his pocket at harvest time. We would pull a radish or turnip, he would zip zip zip clean it with his knife. Salt and munch. Good memories. Thanks! Oh, I forgot. On yellow plants. Yellow leaves usually just means over watered. Let them dry out a bit? GL all!
Getting ready to build the raised bed. Just going standard box design, likely two of them. Any advice on building, what kind of soil and/or planting is much appreciated. Thinking of getting some 2X8X10s to make it easy. Is that deep enough though? What about just using landscape timbers stacked like 3 high like a log cabin? And just fill it with soil in bags from lowes with some topsoil mixed in for the top few inches? Gonna line the bottom with cardboard to keep weeds out while it disintegrates but still allow worms in, or should I use a weed or pond liner? As far as planting, I'm gonna try doing that thing where the taller plants provide shade for the smaller ones, so gonna do okra > tomatoes > peppers > cucumbers. Got a lot of peppers though -- jalapeno, banana, ancho, anaheim, bell -- so gotta figure out how to order those.
RotN, I use the okra planted in among the pepper cages to give late summer shade. A little shade in the heat keeps the peppers looking less like I hit them with a blowtorch. Either of your raised bed ideas will work. Either would be tall enough. Just build what you want, my man! Much basic bed building info on YouTube as well.
See the mound between every 4 pepper cages? Okra mound. Not yet visually impressive, but you can see what I am saying. I ought say that I was pretty generous with the spacing....I have plenty of room, so I use it.