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Hardening off and sun-burned leaves
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Posted: Jun/06/2008 1:20 PM PST
Hi, I have been hardening off my table full of seed-starts for a few days now, but early on they were exposed to some pretty direct, strong sunlight for a too long. It caused some of the leaves on some of the plants to fry and bleach out. Some of these leaves have since wilted, and some have retained some of their green and stayed alive. My question is this; will sun-fried leaves recover naturally, or will the plants remain crippled until they produce new, thicker leaves? Anything I can do to help them out? |
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Posted: Jun/06/2008 5:26 PM PST
I am guessing that they will need to put out new leaves for the overall plant to regain strength. Keep them in filtered light until they recover, and not too much water until new leaves have sprouted. Keep fingers crossed! |
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Posted: Jun/07/2008 6:31 AM PST
Well, I am continuing to harden them off then, and hopefully put them in the ground with some newspaper shelters on monday afternoon. They need real dirt with nutrients instead of the sterile potting medium they've been in if they're ever going to recover and produce. Peppers and Tomatoes we're talking about here, by the way. |
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Posted: Jun/07/2008 9:41 AM PST
That's one of the dangers with hardening off. That old sun will move on you. When you think they are in filtered light, the next thing you know, they are baking in full sun. I hope that they will recover. |
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Posted: Jun/07/2008 9:44 AM PST
What kar said. Additionally, you may like to know that tomato plant tissue has what are known as "adventitious" properties. What that means is that stem, leaf, root, and fruit are all capable of producing new tissue of every other kind. So, for instance, if you plant a healthy piece of stem in a good growing medium, before you know it a new plant will emerge. You have a nice healthy seedling with injured leaves? Cut off the leaves with a razor blade and plant the stem. Before long, a bunch of new seedlings will emerge. Peppers are not so resilient though. |
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