How is your soil mix? Is it a light airy mix? -cass

Anthony,

"Zinnia> OK well I've started all of my Zinnia indoors under lights and then moved them out to the greenhouse around mid-March. The Greenhouse is heated but all my plants are starting to die. The leaves are all starting to turn brown and some of the flowers just wilt and die before opening."

Can you provide some details on the growing medium you are using and the nutrients you have provided to your zinnias? Have you watered them enough to keep their growing medium moist? Have you seen any sign of pests like, for instance, thrips? Also, pictures might help. You mentioned a greenhouse. Are you attempting to grow plants for sale?

ZM

Ok well for starters the soil im using is Pro-Mix BX but it dries out very fast. I have yet to use any fertilizer of any type. Yes i'm planing on selling at a farmers market stand.

Anthony,

"...the soil im using is Pro-Mix BX but it dries out very fast."

Premier's Pro-Mix BX is good stuff and I would be using it myself if I could find it here in this area of Kansas. I used a lot of it when we lived in Maine. It retains water better than the bark-based stuff I am using here. However, BX has a very limited amount of nutrients, and is designed to nourish seedlings for only a few weeks.

I am treating my fast-draining medium as if it were a hydroponic substrate and watering it with a dilute solution containing a complete hydroponic diet. Since my operation is quite small compared to yours, I can afford to use premium quality urea-free nutrients like Better-Gro's Orchid Plus and Better-Gro's Orchid Bloom Booster, but that stuff costs about $7 a pound, so for greenhouse quantities you would probably be looking for a cheaper source of nutrients. My hand-pollinated zinnias love the orchid food. There are a lot of commercial-sized hydroponic operations, so there are hydroponic nutrients that cost much less per pound.

Most "complete" nutrient formulas, like Miracle-Gro and Better-Gro, don't have calcium, because if they did it would precipitate with the phosphates and sulfates in the solution. Both calcium phosphate and calcium sulfate are relatively insoluble in water. I discovered the need for calcium nutrition the hard way a few years ago, after my indoor zinnia plants developed severe calcium deficiency symptoms growing in Pro-Mix BX, even though BX does have enough calcium for a few weeks.

I ordered a pound of calcium nitrate from EveryBody's Garden Center and, by feeding calcium nitrate solution separately, I solved the calcium deficiency problem. With the added calcium nitrate, my zinnias became quite healthy and went on to produce big blooms indoors under my fluorescent lights. Since I dilute the calcium nitrate to one-half teaspoon per gallon, a pound of it goes a long way. Plants use a lot of calcium, and it is classified as a macronutrient instead of as a micronutrient.

I later learned that if you predilute the calcium nitrate and predilute the other nutrients, that you can combine the solutions without precipitation. But it is OK to apply them separately, too.

ZM

What's the average day time temperature in your greenhouse? And do you even need to heat your greenhouse at night? What kind of containers are you growing these plants in (size, substance).

I'm betting that excessive temps have something to do with your problems. Along with the fact that you've been growing them for quite a long time. Bedding plants, in my experience, need to be timed so that they are out the door as soon as possible.

I have been growing most everything from seed since the last week of January. The inside temp of the Greenhouse at night with the heat on was about 50+ degrees and that was starting at the end of March. Did my flowers live out thier life span already? Some of my Marigolds are doing ok while some are turning a dark red leaves and stems, then they kinda dry up and die. I will say this, I've had them in 4.5 to 6 Inch pots using Pro-Mix BX but since I potted them which was around February I probably have never Fertilized them.

My Impatience were doing great but now thier leaves seem to fall off and turn white and also some of the stems seem to just rot and fall off. No clue here.

Anthony,

"I have been growing most everything from seed since the last week of January...Did my flowers live out their life span already?"

I'm afraid so. Zinnia plants should be ready for sale in four to six weeks from the time they are planted. Probably the same is true for Marigolds. I don't have any experience with Impatiens.

I planted zinnias in December and January because I am a zinnia hobbyist doing amateur plant breeding with them, and I intended for them to complete their life cycle indoors. Those plants would have been salable in March, but that would have been much to early to market them. Only other indoor gardeners could use tender plants in March in this area.

Those December-January zinnias have since bloomed, been re-crossed, and the plants from those crosses are coming into bloom now. I am now crossing those flowers to produce the seeds that will become my third generation of zinnias since the middle of December.

You should have fertilized your plants, but I think that rhizo was absolutely right in saying that, "Bedding plants, in my experience, need to be timed so that they are out the door as soon as possible." You also need to time it so that it is safe for the people who buy your plants to set them out into their gardens or flower beds without losses from frost.

ZM