leaves shrivelling

This year, I've decided to grow my own bedding plants from seeds. I chose winter pansies and spring bellis.... according to Google any idiot could grow these! I was well made up when 160 seeds germinated and they started thriving when I potted them on and moved them to the cold frame. In the last week I noticed some leaves looking shrivelled.... and then today I spotted white specks on some leaves and a lot of flies flew up when I lifted the lids. Has anyone any idea what the problem could be and is there a treatment and can I save my babies. PS. the lids on the cold frames are on vent and not up because I'm in Northern Ireland and while the mainland has been basking in 30 degrees plus, we have barely reached 19 degrees with high winds and torrential rain!

 

I'm not sure why you are growing winter pansies and bellis now, they would love the 19c high winds and torrential rain.
Normally grown to overwinter and flower from next spring into early summer.

So you are a few months early, but get them outside.

 

Hi,

A bit difficult to say whats happened, though think the flies may be a bit misleading and not actual the cause of the problem ?

They look a good size now, so wonder if being in the cold frame is the heart of the problem ?

Have you examined the damaged leaves very closely, including the underside , can you see any Aphids or other little bugs ?

Sometimes with a lot of young plants and an enlclosed space you can get virus and fungus running wild as well.

What we would do is cut off the sick looking leaves as the leaves in the center of the plants look ok, and place them in a sheltered spot out of the frame, they are hardy plants.

Plenty of time to sow some more to hedge your bets

 

Are the flies white, triangular, about 2mm? That'll be white fly. No chemical control..use yellow sticky traps hung over the plants.

 

At present conditions for growing pansy and bellis is not perfect, at the moment we have errected a polytunnel/military quick errect shelter (easier than a polytunnel), with a solar covering for shade, for ornamental kale, polyanthus, primroses, pansy and cool wave pansy, ajuga, sedum, creeping jenny etc, with our current weather patterns, these plants are best grown in shade, with as much air as possible, especially pansy, as they can suffer from pansy wilt which is similar to black spot in roses, do not over water, but dont let them wilt, the soil needs to be darkish brown, just holding moisture, when compressed just holding for a few seconds, then breaking up, when squeezed through the fingers, the soil should squeak, do not be tempted to feed to often, especially pansy or cyclamen, or they will stretch, become leggy, in fact after 4 weeks of transplanting give a 1/4 nitrogen strength feed, monthly untill they fill the pot, then move to a high potassium feed, growing in late summer, you need to check your plants a couple of times a day, so you can react imediately to conditions.
Our changing late summer/autumn temps are changing, so is the breeding, look for early, mid season and late season stock especially with polyanthus and primroses, this time of year look for polyanthus Stella and piano, and Crescendo for next year, this time of year look for primrose Bonnelli,, october look for Alaska, and next year look for Husky, novelties like Ariculas or primulas, should be planted fron seed June, once germinated grown cool under shade, over wintered, then planted up early next year.

 

Thanks for all the comments.

On the shrivelled leaves there is no evidence of creepy crawlies.

I've followed the instructions on the packet.... sow May to July under glass and plant out in Autumn.

It hasn't been hot here at all..... in fact it hasn't even been warm. The average temperature during July has been 15c in the daytime dropping to as low as 5c some nights. We literally haven't had one sunny day since I put them in the cold frame. The lids haven't been fully closed so I allowed for ventilation. I may have over watered them though ... but with rain water (of which I have an abundance) from the water butts.

They were potted on 4 weeks ago and I gave them a liquid feed for the first time this week. The feed was diluted to the correct amount according to the container.

 

Just wonder if you have picked up some problem from the water butt thats attracted the flies as well, perhaps aggravated by watering overhead.

They say you should not need to feed for six weeks if using fresh compost and for young plants we would then use half strength and avoid getting it on the leaves were possible.

With them not looking so good now , they may. or may not turn out to be good plants, so as said, plenty of time to start off a new batch, possibly we would be tempted to sow half outdoors into a seed bed /soil this time of year.

 

I set to today and cut off all shrivelled leaves. Here is a close up. Looks buggy to me.

 

Hi,

That looks like Aphids so there will be more lurking around right down in the center of the plants.

You can treat them the organic way, with soap or water spraying etc or using a commercial spray like Bug Clear Ultra or Resolva Bug Killer, both may kill White Fly, if thats what those bugs are.

Were they the ones that flew up when you lifted them up the other day or something bigger ?

Given some TLC they should recover, but best to keep them more in the open now,

 

Thanks ricky101. The flies were very small and I just assumed they'd come from the same place. I've spent a good few hours inspecting all plants and when you look carefully, they are deep down in the centre. Surprisingly, there were less affected plants than I initially thought. I've grown about 80 of each variety but I only found one of the pansies was infested.