Topic: Greenhouse plants very slow growing??

[George the Pigman]

The tomato, pepper and aubergine plants in my unheated  greenhouse seem to have grown very slowly over May. Anyone else had the same problem? Is it the weather? I live in Birmingham.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've had a similar experience with my sweet corn; it's been growing very slowly, and no bad thing either since I'm badly behind with everything. I think it's down to the chilly nights we've been having. I'm in Birmingham as well.

[Unwashed]

Yes, my sweetcorn is doing miserably in the greenhouse too.

[davyw1]

If they have been in pots/cups for some time they may have run out of feed

[green lily]

 Agreed about the temperatures having a negative effect.
 And if Sundays weather forecast is correct and we [near the N.Sea] get 5c Sunday night then further inland someone will get frost.. ::) O the joys of June..
PS Its my birthday tomorrow and my nearly 100 yr. old Mum still tells people about the time[near London] when it snowed on my birthday and she tried to hold a party for me..... ::) So nothing new there then.......

[George the Pigman]

I may have found an answer! The tomato seed leaves have gone blue and shrivelled up. Apparently this is typical of a phosphate deficiency caused mainly by low soil temperatures. Tomato plants are apparently very prone to this.
See http://www.springerlink.com/content/v6l452l837858721

I gave them a feed with a general liquid fertiliser and they have already perked up - but I can't do anything about the lousy weather!!

[chriscross1966]

phosphate?.... wow.... carrot fertilizer ahoy then.....

[antsinmipants]

Yeah,here in manchester its the same,everything is slow to grow and I agree the extremes in temperatures are very strange. In mid-April my polytunnel was reading as high as 108f during parts of the day and down as low as 38f in the mornings. Tomatoes are not happy with those extremes,nor are my Aubergines and pepers.

[brownowl23]

now thats funny I thought everything was a bit slow this year, but I put it down to impatience and with all thats going on this year a bit of not knowing what day of the week and month it is, if you know what I mean.

Will fertiliser help or is patience just required?

Are other peoples potatoes very slow too?

[Larkshall]

I've found the same problem, I usually take cuttings from my main (two) tomato plants and they usually catch up with the original plants by mid-June. They are way behind this year (I had thought it was the rubbish compost which seems to be being sold this year).