Please help save these plants

[Tomate]

I am not sure if this is the correct forum for this but I need some help before they all die.

I planted 3 days ago. Since then it has probably rained 3-5 inches. I thought that they are probably dying from too much water and not being able to breath. I dug down 15" next to one of then and it fills with about 4 inches of water. The bottom of the plant itself is 8" below grade.

Since planting it has been between 70-85 with high humidity.


They are in a new raised bed that I think now I have made into a bathtub. I was trying to give them the best depth of good soil rather than clay. I dug out and tilled down about a foot and filled it back in with a good mix that I have in my other bed.

I don't know if what you see in the photos is transplant shock or a result of all the rain. I also do not know if I should leave the situation as it is or put in something like a french drain along one side of the bed so that the water has some where to drain as more rain is expected..

Please help me save these plant and fix this problem. Any information of advice is appreciated.

Or am I just over reacting to both how the plants look and the water situation?

Thank You

[Redbaron]

To be honest I don't know if they will snap out of that or not. Pretty big plants. If they are planted so deep their roots are saturated it could be the issue. If that's it, best thing is to get a long iron stake and well away from the plants pound holes for drainage straight through the hard pan deep as you can.

Did you harden them a week before transplant?

[jack03111969]

I had some do that to me when I first planted out to wet. I pruned them up and sprayed them with a copper fungicide and they look really good now .....................

[Tomate]

Glad to hear your made it through jack, gives me hope.

Red,

The roots are saturated only due to the excessive amount of rain we got. The pooling of the water is 4-5" below their bottom.

Yes, they were hardened for more than a week. Which is why it is odd to me that one of the leaves on one of the plants is dry to a crisp.

I will see if I have something long enough to pound in and see what comes of that.

As you can see in the photo part of it is above ground. The natural grade slopes down from right to left and back to front slightly. The left side is 1.5" above the bed on left and about three lower than the one on the right.


My idea was to dig down across the front lower than the depth I went originally and have the water migrate there hopefully. Do you think that would solve the problem?

[Tomate]

After the next rain there was 9 inches of water in the hole which is just and inch below their bases. I decided to bite the bullet and pull all of them out and dig it out to the clay base. I sure hope they make it through.

Even though I have read that putting clay back in will not make it like the clay that I dug out that is the my best option. I just don't like the idea of drainage system when if I would have not dug so far and just set the bed on top after I took off the sod like I did with my other two then things would have been fine.


This is my plan, please tell me what you think. I am going to get some clay that is of similar compactabiliy as that which I dug out. Then put it in the hole and match it to the grade on the four corners so that it is essentially just like it would have been after I took off the sod. Compact that as I go to make it as firm as I can. Then as the water drains through the garden soil it will hit the clay and as I read move lateral, thus in the same path as the other beds and as it should have been before I messed it up. Raise the sides so that it is actually a raised bed.

Also as I see now with all this rain (another 1.5" yesterday) my garden soil seem too compact(granted it was essentially sitting in a pool of water). It has essentially no aggregate of any size in it. I was thinking when I put it back in to add something like agricultural sand and pea gravel. I know I have read sand is a bad idea but it does not appear to be as fine as mason sand.

Again any thoughts are appreciated thanks.

[Rockporter]

You have some real nice raised beds there, if it were me, I would cut the bottom off a 5 gallon bucket and fill it with some nice potting mix and replant the plants into the bucket with it sitting on top of your raised beds. This would raise them up out of the water and allow for the roots to reach further down into the soil later when it dries up some.

[tlintx]

Don't add sand to clay! At least not without doing a lot of research first.


Tl

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by Tomate

This is my plan, please tell me what you think. I am going to get some clay that is of similar compactabiliy as that which I dug out. Then put it in the hole and match it to the grade on the four corners so that it is essentially just like it would have been after I took off the sod. Compact that as I go to make it as firm as I can. Then as the water drains through the garden soil it will hit the clay and as I read move lateral, thus in the same path as the other beds and as it should have been before I messed it up. Raise the sides so that it is actually a raised bed.
.

I feel your pain. We have had non-stop rain for weeks now it seems and everything is a giant sponge. Another 3" this weekend.

I've done clay plus sand. Don't do it. You will regret it forever.

What is your forecast looking like? Is a dry out on the way or is more rain predicted?

[kevn357]

All I see is transplant shock...

I don't think the rain has anything to do with it. You said they were hardened for more than a week. It takes more than a week to harden them off before even thinking about transplanting. The leaves drying are because the roots didn't do their job, either from shock or you ripped too many during your transplant.

[Tomate]

I don't mean sand as in mason or beach sand but something on the order of 1/8"-1/4" rocks/gravel something to provide a little better aeration and drainage, and not much maybe only 1/2 a yard. Most of the garden soil is clay/topsoil with compost, peat, mushroom mulch, vermiculite, so really nothing to allow water to drain if or when it gets too wet it just soaks and stick in a mass suffocating the plants.

It might be a combo of transplant shock and too much water. I have never had transplant shock look like that. I did not rip off roots and planted as I always do. I said more than a week because I do not know the exact time but it was as long as I have always done and they were perfectly happy all day in the sun in their little pots.
Thus, I am going with too much water as I messed up and made a bathtub. Just saying.

I might have 3 days without rain, we'll see. Going to proceed with the plan and add a small drain to be safe.

[dice]

Look at Neoguy's pictures in post #29 in this thread:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ghlight=hipped
(It seems like a good solution for your problem of seeming to be
"growing in a bathtub".)

[Tomate]

dice, it looks like a good idea but I am already too far down to dig more around it would be much too far and not easy digging either.

[dice]

I remember someone with soil like that mulching with roll roofing
so that most of the rain would run off into his yard instead of turning
his long beds into canals when it rained.

French drains:
http://www.houselogic.com/home-advic...you-need-them/
http://www.houselogic.com/home-advic...-french-drain/

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by Rockporter

You have some real nice raised beds there, if it were me, I would cut the bottom off a 5 gallon bucket and fill it with some nice potting mix and replant the plants into the bucket with it sitting on top of your raised beds. This would raise them up out of the water and allow for the roots to reach further down into the soil later when it dries up some.

This sounds like a viable enhancement to me and something that could be done quickly...

[dice]

Right, Neoguy's mounds allow some soil around the roots that is not
waterlogged, even after heavy rain. The buckets would accomplish
the same thing. (It does not have to be actual buckets. One could use
nursery pots for trees and shrubs about the same size as a 5-gallon
bucket with the bottoms removed. I have some for getting plants in
one bed up above the shade from a nearby raspberry patch
and a neighbor's garage into the sunlight. Smallish dollar store
laundry baskets with the bottoms removed and lined with a plastic
bag with the bottom cut out or a strip of burlap around the inside
would work, too.)