Been gardening for 3 months now

==>> i have been gardening for 30 years.. and have not heard of most of what you are doing ...

your links are bad ... you need to get the parentheticals off both ends.. and you could put one in the box below where you type.. and make it linkable..

whats the cinnamon all about???

why all the fertilizer???

it looks like you potting media is very high peat ... i know they thrive in my sand .. i am wondering about too much water ...

is h202 .. hydrogen peroxide?? .. why??

on some level.. i think you MIGHT be loving these things to death ...

of course.. i have never been nor gardened in z11 ... where are you in the US???

and .. why zinnia in z11???? that is its highest zone tolerance ... perhaps you are zone pushing to the max.. often.. that is very hard for one with 3 months experience .... so dont give up .. we all learned by failing.. many times ....

the link says .. FULL SUN ... prone to powdery mildew[the white stuff] .. among other things ...

have you tried some straight into mother earth??? sometimes she makes the hard.. very easy ..

good luck.. dont give up ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Your links:
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Ken....cinnamon is pretty well known as a natural anti -fungal. So is H202. I 've used the former in my germination flats. Using frequent, weak doses of soluble fertilizer is a standard practice in container culture. Of course, it does depend on the directions for the specific fertilizer as well as the type of mux.

Sammy, are you growing your zinnia from seed or transplanting them from the garden center?

I 'm concerned with the potting medium and perhaps your watering practices. Many soilless mixes are comprised of very fine-textured peat and very little of the kinds of ammendments that help peat function properly. Such a potting mix is almost impossible to water properly....it stays too wet for too long and when it does dry out, can become hydrophobic.

We need to be able to water our containers freely and thoroughly when they need it, and be confidant that the soil volume drains rapidly and dries evenly.

Many of us find that we have to add lots of amendments in order to end up with a potting mix that works. Bark fines, perlite, Turface, are examples...all designed to add porosity to the mucky peat.

The potting mix I use is mostly bark and is ready to use right out of the bag. It is extremely porous (lots of big particles) and creates an environment in which roots thrive.

I think that your problems probably begin with the potting soil. The second problem might be in the variety of zinnias you are using. Some are seriously prone to diseases while others are extremely resistant. Thirdly...just how "wet " is your climate?? Zinnias are great in hot, sunny places....not too sure about a steamy rainforest! Where do you live?

Purple, you are always so nice to post clickable links for people. It's a kindness.

Hi Sammy,

Neither of your pictures look like the zinnias are outdoors in full Sun. The long internodal length on the visible stems would indicate insufficient light. I, too, use hydrogen peroxide, but only on my indoor zinnias. Your use of pots and a soilless mix are a culture more like indoor growing. Zinnias can be grown successfully indoors (I do it during late Fall, Winter, and early Spring), but it is not easy. Outdoor growing is easy. Stick the seeds in the soil and let nature takes its course with rain and sun.

"Care: used bloom fertilizer 15-30-15, once a week , 1/2 dilutional strength from manufacturer's instructions."

There is a severe danger that the soluble nutrient concentration can build up too strong using that regimen. You need to add nutrients to the container at a rate to make up for what the plant has used since the last application. A zinnia doesn't grow a whole lot during a 24-hour period, and most of its new growth is water. So a very small amount of nutrients are consumed during that period. For that matter, a very small weight of nutrients are taken up and used during a week.

Unless you flood your containers and a lot of excess nutrient solution runs out the bottom of the container each time, your nutrients will accumulate approximately like: one half strength the first week, full strength the second week, 1.5 strength the third week, twice strength the fourth, and so on.

The key to successful container growing of zinnias in a soilless potting mix is to realize that what you are doing is actually a form of hydroponic culture, using the potting mix as the substrate to support the roots. If you recognized your operation as hydroponic, you might use a mix of peat moss/vermiculite/perlite, or pine bark/vermiculite/perlite, or peat moss/pine bark/perlite, or something like that as a substrate. The mix in your picture looks like it doesn't drain well, and it needs something that will increase drainage, like pine bark and/or perlite. Zinnia roots need water and air, or the oxygen in air.

Hydroponic growers monitor the electrical conductivity (EC) of their nutrient solution, usually with an EC meter. If the EC goes too high, they dilute it and if it goes too low they add more soluble nutrients. I'm not suggesting you buy an EC meter, but I am suggesting that you take steps to prevent the nutrient on the zinnia roots from becoming too concentrated. A white buildup (efflorescence) on the surface of your growing medium would be a sign of a seriously too high EC.

Hydroponics requires a complete set of nutrients in the water. Check the nutrient list of your 15-30-15 "bloom" fertilizer. In addition to the usual nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, does it also contain the macronutrients calcium, magnesium and sulfur and micronutrients like iron, manganese, magnesium, boron, molybdenum, zinc, copper, etc? Plants need quite a lot of calcium, which is absent in most commercial nutrients, so hydroponics growers supply that as calcium nitrate. Does your bloom fertilizer contain calcium? I include calcium nitrate in my nutrient solution for zinnias.

Incidentally, are you starting your zinnias from seed, or buying plants?

ZM

thanks for the input.
the zinnias in the pics were given as grown plants. i have tried growing them from seeds and managed to grow them to roughly 10 weeks and they also went downhill from there.

KenL: i think im killing them with too much care in a way
Rhizo: these were grown seedlings given to me then i transplanted to to my soilless potting medium (the first and only time i successfully transplanted plants).

the soilless medium had perlite and coco fibers as well or dust.

i thought my watering practices maybe at fault from past experiences. I was conscious to check the surface if its dry before watering, otherwise if its still wet, i forego watering.

what am i doing wrong still?

zone 11, florida.

zenman: the fertilizer had trace minerals including the ones you enumerated.

i suck at gardening. maybe im not meant to. arrrgh.

in some of my zinnias that i had transplanted successfully, i placed them in like coco fiber pots

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:20208}}

thank you purple for providing links to my pics

Sammy, don't give up on gardening! All of us have had failures. Some of the zinnias that I planted in my yard came up from seed, then died. Give them as much light as possible, they like full sun. Zone 11 isn't too far south for them, by any means.

Sammy,

"...the fertilizer had trace minerals including the ones you enumerated."

But my point is that even so-called "complete" soluble nutrient formulas don't supply calcium. Zinnias, and plants in general, need quite a lot of calcium. Calcium is a macronutrient, not a micronutrient. That is why hydroponics growers usually have some calcium nitrate on hand.

ZM

Zenman, I use Jobe's Organic Tomato and Vegetable Fertilizer on my ornamentals, including my Zinnias now, because it is so comprehensive (7-2-4 formula), and contains Calcium as well. Since I switched to this one this year, I have seen marked improvement in my container vegetables and ornamentals.

As you can see, I don't go by whether or not the fertilizer bag specifically denotes "for vegetables", "for tomatos", etc., I actually look at the ingredients to make a qualified decision on what might work best for more than one plant in the garden.

Susan

Hi Susan,

"...I don't go by whether or not the fertilizer bag specifically denotes "for vegetables", "for tomatoes", etc."

I don't go by those recommendations either. I foliar feed my zinnias with Miracle-Gro Tomato Food. It does not contain calcium, because water soluble formulas rarely do, so I use calcium nitrate as a soluble form of calcium for foliar feeding, or add gypsum or lawn lime to my soil as a solid form of calcium soil enrichment.

ZM