Help needed - everything dead on allotment

[Lisasbolt]

you don't need frost to kill them, a couple of months back all my plants out in the poly, they were used to 30degrees, then went down to about 5 at night. killed the lot. especially when they are used to the warmth.
It can also take a couple of days for them to keel over, but the damage has been done
I am pretty sure it was the cold snap.
heartbreaking i know

[roitelet]

Seems strange, potatoes usually go black when they are frosted.

[Scarlet]

. I've thought about the weather but the two days they died it was nice and warm I working nights and there was no frost.

I live near Bath, for the past two weeks with the exception of last night the temperatures have been hovering around 2-4 for several hours during the early morning. You don't need to have a hard frost to make your potatoes look like that - they look frosted to me. Chillies and tomatoes need a minimum of 10, these plants are very tender and as a rule of thumb I wouldn't put chillies outside until June.

[Scarlet]

Seems strange, potatoes usually go black when they are frosted.

On the right hand side they are black.

[Nicos]

Oh dear...you must be heartbroken .

I'm wondering...
Did you water the plants before you gave them away? If you did, and they are fine, then it's not the water.
Could someone have borrowed your watering can and not cleaned it thoroughly enough?...but didn't mention it to you?....another plot would have weeds dying back if they had.
My gut feeling is also frost.
The spuds will come back....the rest you'll need to sow again or buy replacements.

Did you water in the evening and the soil and plants were sopping wet?

[Jungle Jane]

I would of thought it if it was frost then other plots would be affected.

Do you know if other plot holders have been covering their plants with a cloche at night & then removing them in the morning?

[mothhawk]

Oh, dear, that's heartbreaking, beti.

My thought was killed by cold too. It does kill fast. Especially if you'd just watered them. They chill down even faster if the soil is wet and the air around them damp. You've got algae or the beginnings of moss in some of your pots, which suggests you keep them very damp.

The ones you took home were probably kept a little warmer by being close to the house, as that provides shelter and radiant warmth from the bricks.

As KoA says, still time to re-sow and grow again.

I would, just to be sure, give the watering can a very thorough wash out, just in case some lazy soul borrowed it to do a bit of chemical weeding on their own plot.

[Greenleaves]

I cant add any thoughts to what has already been said. I lost a lot last year to a newbie on the next plot using weed killer on a windy day. As the weather is now a tad warmer things sown now will soon catch up, I have only sown my sweetcorn and courgettes today and runners will be sown tomorrow.

Spuds may recover but you still have time to plant new ones. Good luck with the re planting..

[Elfeda]

hmmm.. I could see my tender plants of only one tray (all my first auburgines and chillis and few toms, rest of toms in pots were fine.,)... felt they got cooked up due to watering on a very hot day weather and kept them in the green house. cold weather can only stress the plants first but not to kill with in 2 days?,

and for your info, the reminders of aubergine plants i planted in my strawberry plants and kept outside from then. there were very cold nights off late, even frosts.. still they are surviving. not feeling to move them into green house though i have enough space may be first shock of seeing the seedlings in that state.. though i donot have any other UK aub plants

[Guest]

. You've got algae or the beginnings of moss in some of your pots, which suggests you keep them very damp.

Just had another look. The bits in pots if you pull on the plant does it come away from the roots? If yes they are rotting off from damp possibly made worse by cold. Clear them out as soon as possible if that is the case as it will attract grey mould and little gnat maggots

[veggiechicken]

Everything looks very wet. There's a lot of condensation on the propagator lid.

[Vickilou]

How awful for you, still as others have said, it's not to late to re-sow. I live just south of you, middlesbrough, my toms, annuals and chillis are in an unheated gh and have been for 4 weeks. My pots are in bags outside the house(unprotected) they are all fine, ie no frost damage. We have had some very chilli nights up here though, oh works at gateshead and he has said how cold it's been early am and late pm. I still wonder about weed killer blowing in though, same happened to me some years ago. Good luck with the next batch.

[Sarico]

I've lost some plant from frost but they look like defrost veg like the courgette in another post yesterday and not dry brown. Somthing like that I've seen when use weed killer. Plus look like she's the only one have that problem. I'm not say if for some reason other plot holder did that to you but could be that they used your watering can and you did kill your plot by watering them.

[Bigmallly]

I have read all the replies & take on board the comments re frost but I'm leaning towards sabotage. Have you had any run ins with anyone a lately...............Sorry it's just my suspicious nature.

[Sarico]

I have read all the replies & take on board the comments re frost but I'm leaning towards sabotage. Have you had any run ins with anyone a lately...............Sorry it's just my suspicious nature.

Well I didn't want to say but that was my first thought. Some plot holder are vindictive.