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Heartbroken...please help!

Hi

I wondered if anyone may be able to put my mind at rest and maybe give their opinion as to what they think went wrong.

Yesterday morning I looked at all my plants and they looked fabulous, glossy green leaves, healthy flowers bursting with fruit. I had 200 in pots and about 200 in the field. The field is at the rear of the house the pots at the front.
Here is a picture of the healthy field:
field.jpg





Then at 1pm i went to work. I got home at 6pm and this is what I found:
deadplant2.jpg

Basically most of my plants were dead when I got home. All my 300 plus seedlings that had been very healthy that morning were dead to and looked like this
deadseedlings.jpg



I have been driving myself insane thinking of all the possibilities
It had been a very hot day although this is nothing unusual, last year my chillies thrived in the heat so I don't think the heat killed them.

The plants had all been sprayed with neem in recent weeks and luckily had no bugs or diseases that I knew of, they were healthy, watered and well looked after.

The plants were all watered the day before using the local campo water supply which we pay for and are allowed so many minutes a fortnight. This water runs down past neighbourhood fields and gardens, it runs down open pipes which people have access to if they wish.

Now my gut feeling is that salt ended up in the water. I had been doing really well with my chillies and had just started to sell them at an English ex-pat supermarket in the next village, only a couple of euros here and there but it was interesting for me and helped pay towards my costs of growing (which this year including seeds, neem oil, soil, etc etc have been about 300 euros. Some people had been a bit jealous of my chillies. Now I expect foul play along the line. My seeldings in the plastic cups have a visible line of dreid white powder along the rim which looks to me like dried salt.
WHAT COULD HAVE KILLED MY BABIES IN 6 HOURS? That is why I think salt. The plants were all wilted the ones in the field at the back of the house and the pots in the front of the house.

I can't stop crying and am gutted! (I know it sounds daft but I have spent since 1st March 4 hours every morning and a couple every night weeding, repotting nuturing them.
I feel so disheartened I never want to go through that again.

If anyone has any opinions as to what they think it may set my mind at rest.


Kind regards and thanks for reading my posts
tori
 
Are you sure they're dead? Mine look like that on a hot day, but recover as soon as the sun goes down and they get some water. They roll in their leaves so the surface accessed to direct sunlight is smaller, so that less water may evaporate.
I hope they will recover, it sucks to lose that many plants and see all the efforts and money put into it go down the drain...
 
Chiliac said:
Are you sure they're dead? Mine look like that on a hot day, but recover as soon as the sun goes down and they get some water. They roll in their leaves so the surface accessed to direct sunlight is smaller, so that less water may evaporate.
I hope they will recover, it sucks to lose that many plants and see all the efforts and money put into it go down the drain...

Hi Chiliac,
Yes I think they are dead now, here is a pic of my Lemon Drop, all my dead plants in pots look like this now
deadchilli11.jpg
 
rainbowberry said:
I agree the bigger ones just look like they need a good drink.

Hi Rainbowberry

The big plants have cripsy leaves now which fall off when you touch them and the plants had a good watering that morning.
tori
 
Okay, this looks much worse than on the pics above. I don't think any nasty pest can do that within a few days, so it might very well have been sth in the water. Do you have any of it remaining from "the" watering? You could have it tested to be sure.
 
Chiliac said:
Okay, this looks much worse than on the pics above. I don't think any nasty pest can do that within a few days, so it might very well have been sth in the water. Do you have any of it remaining from "the" watering? You could have it tested to be sure.


Thats a good idea, where might I go to get it tested?
 
Not sure who's in charge of that where you live, but I guess you can inquire at your town's administration, they should know. This may be dangerous not only to plants but also to people, so there should be some interest not only from your side in finding out.
If you have a university nearby that has an institute for biology, they might also be able to do that.
 
Tori, do they do any aerial pesticide spraying where you are?...could be spray that was caught by the wind...just a guess...

most of my plants look like the second picture every day now at about 1PM...temps have been 40C for the past 10 days...but then the picture with the plants losing the leaves definitely looks like it is not well and that is why I thought about the overspray...I have a lawn service that treats my yard...I told them to stay out of my back yard...they didn't and I lost 9 plants to their over spray...that was two times ago when they came...they came last week and stayed out of the back yard, but the plants next to the front yard fence got overspray through the cracks in the fence...I am going to drop this lawn service Monday (tomorrow)...
 
Hi AJ

Good point. I thought about pesticides but I don;t think anything harmful is being used at the moment as our fields back onto the fruit companys fig fields and at the moment figs are being harvested by the fig pickers and I haven't seen them use anything. Last year we grew tomatoes and peppers in the field and they were fine.
Incidentally I forgot to mention all our 80 tomato plants and most of our bell pepper plants were wiped out the same afternoon.
Do you think salt could have killed in that way and that amount of time?
Also i was wondering if the ground had had salt on it before say years ago and hasn't been used for crops could that salt have risen to the surface with all my watering (that's saying salt was present in the ground alreadY? A long shot but I don't know, going in circles trying to think what happened.
 
Tori, you might just ask the fig field owner if they sprayed with anything...I would hate to think your plants were sabotaged....

as far as the salt goes...I don't know...if it is salt, it certainly would be bad for the plants...but why all of a sudden would the problem just now exist...seems the plants would have been effected earlier than just now...with the problem so wide spread, I just have to think it is something airborne...
 
My guess is also herbicide overspray from a nearby farmer. Salts take longer to kill the plants.

Overspray could have come from a long way away.
 
I know the feelings I hope your plants recover what ever got left.I struggle this year too.Maybe some plants you have in the pots can recover if you change the soil & give the plant lot of water.
 
Tori,

I'm with the others who suggest some kind of a herbicide - and a fairly strong one at that. I've used weed killer before and unless it was Roundup, it generally took a few days to see the results you got in a few hours.

Mike
 
The odd thing is that in the second picture (these were my treasured Sizzlers) and there were six dead in a row then the 7th was ok then the next 3 were dead and the next one ok and so on, so although not everything was wiped out, most was but why did the plants survive that did? and there is no real pattern that I can see to it. With regards to my pots, i have pulled myself together a bit and have started trying to flush them out using cold tap water (not ideal) but hopefully it may help some of the ill plants I have left.
Anyone advise me on whether its worth cutting the plants down a bit (some plants in pots are dead at the top and still alive at the bottom) or if i cut them down a bit will it make them worse?
 
I'm not an expert or experienced with this so take that for what it is worth.

I would cut off any dead or dying leaves, stems, etc., just in case there is some residual week killer in them.

Mike
 
I'm hoping that not all is lost. I know it's of no help at the moment Tori but if you ever need any seeds please don't hesitate to PM me.
 
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