My Vegetable Seedlings Are Not Happy Chappies!!

Is there a chance you have a dog that may be cocking its leg up on the bags.

 

You know what, I thought of that, only with cats. I live in a street of tenement flats and the back gardens are all open to one another, they've got lots of wild life in them, cats (lots of them) a big fox dude that comes and goes night by night, lots of squirrels. The only dog I know of though is next door and the lady is very careful where the dog goes, its only allowed in its back garden with her or its dad. Could it be the cats? Or the fox maybe/ It was the first thing i thought of but kind of dismissed it immediately due to the fact that I couldn't smell any spray. Any way, the carrots are still in the same state as last night, the one with browninsh leaves arn't any more brown or wilted and no more seem to have disapeared. I'll be keeping a close eye on them. i'm going to plant out my potatoes today, I hope they do ok! Thinking positive potatoey thoughts!!!!

It maybe was just over wattering, see because when the top of the soil was feeling a bit dry in the sun I was watering them every day (no need for the last few days, the clouds have taken over that job for me) but I guess just because the top of the compost was a bit dry the underneath may still have been very wet. Am I right in thinking that letting the top be a bit dry would encourage the roots to go a bit deeper to get water? See I obviously know that but it must have slipped my mind whan I was worrying they might be thirsty (unless ity's wrong what I've just said! )

 

By the way, you guys are all so helpful, this place is great, I'm going to be sticking around here I think, I've got so much to learn, and this forum is going to be a massive MASSIVE help, I can tell. I just hope that one day I've got the experience to help others in this way. THANK YOU THANK YOU, A MILLION TIMES THANK YOU.

 

I was just going to take some pictures when I realised that I left my camera at my friends house! bum.

 

I've just put out the potatoes, in the same brand (only a smaller and different colour bag) of b&q compost, peat free stuff. Now when I opened this bag I was delighted to find that it was loose, crumbly and fine. This is a contrast to the compost that went into the lettuce, rocket and carrots. That stuff had massive bits of wood in it, stones (which i tried to remove all of) and was very NOT crubly and fine, however, not knowing any different I used it any way. This is why I was so delighted when I found this new bag of compost that I opened today was so lovely in comparison.

While I was planting the potatoes, and comparing these composts I wondered if the sheer bulky-ness of the other one might be preventing it from draining adequatly, so, seeing as there are no more plants to disturb, I grabbed a handful off the old stuff and gave it q squeeze, water was running oput of it like nobodies business.

Now I know that there are no more plants in it to sook up the water but surely compost shoudln't (desirably) retain so much water that it dribbles out when you squeeze it? I think we're getting to the bottom of this, does anyone have some comments on all the things I've added today?

 

PHEW!!!!!! Well, I think ill be at least attempting to move the carrots tomorrow, theres still a few that look so healthy! It's just good to have come to a conclusion, and i think ill stick to this one, it makes the mose sence considering its happeing to the carrots as well. do you think it would be ok to compost the compost (:hehe. Man its not cool when you have to rely on suppliers other than yourself to help your garden grow, can't wait till next year when iv got my own compost, YAY! I think ill also do an experiment if i can find a helping pair of hands, they can hold up one of the grow bags and i can pour water into it to see what come out the bottom me thinks. Thanks for all the help, I'll be back soon enough with more questions no doubt, peace and blessings one and all