What's wrong with my ground cherries?

hiker_ · May 6, 2015

(I hope this is the right place to post this...)

Here's how my ground cherries reacted to being separated and potted up. Separated them on Friday, photos from Monday:
GroundCherriesMonday1.jpg
GroundCherriesMonday2.jpg
GroundCherriesMonday3.jpg

My adviser told me to water the heck out of them so the potting mix would settle around their roots. Complete with a long lecture about how I'd been underwatering and even a picture:
Picture.jpg

(The line above the roots was to illustrate how my "underwatering" was only going down that far and no water was getting to the roots.)

So I watered the heck out of them.

The mix they are in tends toward the soggy. (I had trouble with sogginess before, that's why I was "underwatering.") (It also has a little Bio-Tone in it--half the amount the bag recommends for mixes.)

So when I noticed the above I thought it was malnutrition caused by being too wet/anaerobic conditions. I put them on a heat mat hoping that would help them dry out faster.

Today:
GroundCherriesWed1.jpg
GroundCherriesWed2.jpg

Sort of looks like the photos I've seen of zinc (or manganese or iron) deficiency? Could be some of them were just left without enough roots after being separated...or could be the extreme watering...

Any thoughts on what I should do? Just wait and hope? Try a foliar feed of some kind? Try to water from the bottom with extremely diluted fertilizer water? Repot into a different mix or even into the ground (it's probably warm enough now)? Or what?

May 6, 2015	#1
hiker_ Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: RI Posts: 42	What's wrong with my ground cherries? (I hope this is the right place to post this...) Here's how my ground cherries reacted to being separated and potted up. Separated them on Friday, photos from Monday: GroundCherriesMonday1.jpg GroundCherriesMonday2.jpg GroundCherriesMonday3.jpg My adviser told me to water the heck out of them so the potting mix would settle around their roots. Complete with a long lecture about how I'd been underwatering and even a picture: Picture.jpg (The line above the roots was to illustrate how my "underwatering" was only going down that far and no water was getting to the roots.) So I watered the heck out of them. The mix they are in tends toward the soggy. (I had trouble with sogginess before, that's why I was "underwatering.") (It also has a little Bio-Tone in it--half the amount the bag recommends for mixes.) So when I noticed the above I thought it was malnutrition caused by being too wet/anaerobic conditions. I put them on a heat mat hoping that would help them dry out faster. Today: GroundCherriesWed1.jpg GroundCherriesWed2.jpg Sort of looks like the photos I've seen of zinc (or manganese or iron) deficiency? Could be some of them were just left without enough roots after being separated...or could be the extreme watering... Any thoughts on what I should do? Just wait and hope? Try a foliar feed of some kind? Try to water from the bottom with extremely diluted fertilizer water? Repot into a different mix or even into the ground (it's probably warm enough now)? Or what?