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I think I killed them...

Gardening Reference » Gardening in 2005
by algerunc on April 21, 2005 05:57 PM
Oh no! I am a new gardener and have just put in a garden in the last couple of weeks. We had a freak snap of very cold weather here in NC last weekend and there was a frost warning, so I covered by tomato plants with old plastic mulch bags. We did not end up getting frost that night. I took them off the next morning and the leaves were a little wrinkley, but not too bad. By that evening, however, the leaves on my three tomato plants and my green pepper plant had all shriveled up! Did I kill them? Was it the plastic bags or could it be something else? Will they come back? Should I remove all the brown droopy leaves? Help! Poor plants... [tears]
by phoenix on April 21, 2005 06:09 PM
algerunc [wayey] welcome!!
the old mulch bags, were there holes in them when you covered your plants? and was there any bits of mulch left in the bags? i'm not 100% sure but if there was mulch left in there maybe that could have damaged the leafs if it came into contact with them. and if there were no holes in the plastic, too much moisture could have built up. like i said i'm not 100% sure but i would let the brown droopy leaves fall on thier own.
hope i was able to help [grin]
phoenix

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"If you want to talk bollocks and discuss the meaning of life,you're better off downing a bottle of whiskey.That way you're drunk by the time you start to take yourself seriously"
by weezie13 on April 21, 2005 09:37 PM
Algerunc,
Here's what I got from some info someone told me one time...
If you cover your plants, and the actual covering
*of what ever* touches your plants, than the frosts also touches your plant...
If you have a cover over your plants, and there is a stake or cage or something to hold the covering away from the leaves, your plants are protected...
Because nothing actually touched the leaves, only
an air pocket around the plant between the covering...
Does that make sense...?????...

If the plant was healthy and the roots were healthy and basically untouched from the cold
weather, I'd say, leave them for a bit and see...
the plant may send out new leaves!!!!
Worth a try!

As for the leaves..... if they are brown,
I'd pinch them, and try to get the plant to make new leaves... sometimes in the plants life,
the plant may try to heal the leave and take away it's enegry from making a new leaves....
So, pinch them all, if one or two have a bit of green, leave those for now, some photosnythesis can still happen with bits of green.

And if you have a couple of plants in the same
predicament, do an experiment, pinch leaves on one plant and not the other... and observe which plant did what after which plant was pinched and which one wasn't...
I am a great believer of experimenting [teacher] [critic] , the only way you learn to be a good gardener is to see how plants react to things....

Weezie

P.S. Welcome to The Garden Helper's Forum by the way, it's very good to have you here!!!! [thumb]

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Weezie

Don't forget to be kind to strangers. For some who have
done this have entertained angels without realizing it.
- Bible - Hebrews 13:2

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by tkhooper on April 21, 2005 10:59 PM
Thank you Weezie. That's the information I needed for my new Purple Velvet Passion Plant. I had one whole "vine" that was completely brown and wasn't sure what to do. So now the completely brown "vine" and the leaves that were in the same shape are gone. I feel better and I hope the plant does too.

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