How frequently are you watering the plants? And how hot is it? Are you certain it is drying from sun exposure or just turning yellow/brown and falling off, which could be overwatering?

Besides compost, is there anything else is in your soil mix?

Besides compose, i used a little dry molasses. but not a lot. I watered once a day.

We don't have enough information to advise you. Raised bed, containers, or amended native soil? Are you attempting to grow in pure compost? What's your location?

Live in Dallas TX area. I have raised bed 28' high (bottom open). 1/3 Organic compost mixed, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite. And a little dry molasses.

Dallas area hasn't had extremely hot temperatures yet so I don't think it's from the veggie leaves being burned or dry. What is your watering routine like? How are you determining when you need to water and how much water do you give?

What are the vegetables in question that are experiencing this? Is it all your veggies, some of them, or the ones in a certain bed, etc?

Pictures may also help since so far, the ready answer or the a-ha! answer hasn't been provided yet.

Your compost needs to settle for at least two to four weeks before you plant into it.

Peat moss usually has very little goodness in it. You have to mix it through the compost. It can also be quite acidic in the soil. That would suit, say, potatoes. Cabbages and lettuces aren't going to like it much.

Did you add your amendments such as powdered lime, rock dust, alfalfa meal when you built your bed - and fork, hoe, or rake them through the top few inches so the rain would wash them in?

Organic compost - what was the source? Did you make it at home from grass clippings, leaves, kitchen waste and some manure from horses, steers, rabbits or poultry? Or did you buy it in? Is it lumpy? Or soil-like?

When you put your bare fingers into it - about two inches down, is it pleasantly damp? Real soggy? Dry as?

Are there any weeds growing in it? Anything green at all?

Your transplants: were they root-bound (means that when you take them out of the cell or flat there's this mass of tightly-compacted roots - maybe even escaping out the holes at the bottom)? Did you open up the root balls by either snipping off the bottom quarter inch or putting a couple of slashes with a sharp knife from top to bottom of each root ball before you put them into the hole and watered them in to settle them?

Did you plunge the seedlings into a bucket of water to thoroughly wet them before you planted? Takes about five minutes - until the bubbles stop rising.

When you water - do you waft the hose overhead and damp the soil? Or get a big cup and give each little plant a full cup's worth of sun-warmed water each day? Leave your water in a bucket to warm and let any chemicals such as chlorine evaporate.

If the seedlings came in a peat moss mix they may have dried out internally and be very hard to re-wet. Add one to two small drops of dishwash detergent to your two-quart watering can, stir it around as you add the water, then water your seedlings/transplants. The detergent helps to break down the 'skin' on the soil that makes it very slow to take up water.

Did you gently firm up the bed before you planted? You can do this by laying a plank or big-enough piece of plywood over the surface and then -horror! walk on it! That helps remove big air pockets without crushing the soil flat. Most plants prefer a somewhat firm soil around them - yet open enough to let air and water and nutrients through.

If you've had fierce winds lately: make a temporary windbreak for your garden and plants. Trellis. Netting. Old net curtains over a frame of some kind, held on with clothes pins.

If all else fails, be sure to transplant a few replacements into 4" pots so you can fill up the gaps in the planting pattern, should any of the seedlings fade.

>> Your compost needs to settle for at least two to four weeks before you plant into it.
>> Did you gently firm up the bed before you planted?

Riiiiiiiiiight....

>> Live in Dallas TX area. I have raised bed 28' high (bottom open). 1/3 Organic
>> compost mixed, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite. And a little dry molasses.

OK, it's square foot/Mel's type of approach. Some pictures would really help because a pic or two can give a ton of information. "Watering" can mean pretty much anything, so how much? Any fertilizer other than the sugar? Some people would say the molasses is a waste of time and money, yet others will swear by it. When in this cycle did you add it and why?

The point of all this questioning is simply that ANYTHING could be happening and for someone on the other side of the world to give suggestions they'll need a pretty comprehensive and carefully linear narrative and description. Otherwise it's just pi**ing into the wind with wild guesses.

So, what plants. How big. What leaves were there and what's left. What exposure. And so on. The answer is there somewhere, but we're not on site.

Dupe: deleted

This post was edited by cold_weather_is_evil on Thu, May 1, 14 at 4:28

You know, I never thought to add that amendment? In addition to the molasses (with trace elements and a touch of sugar for the local microbes) I could have added p***ing - though not in the wind:-).

Thanks for that kindly suggestion.

And my suggestions stand - because not everyone can upload pictures.

All of my veggies are browning and falling off. I had been watering every day. soaking the soil. last week i bought a watering gauge to determine when soil is ready for watering cause I suspected I had been watering too much. just started using it. Don't know how to post pics on this site.

When you describe it as "every day" and "soaking", even though we still don't really know what amount that is, but that could be a cause of the plants' struggles. Too much water :-(

I use my phone to take photos, then grab the image from the phone on the PC that I use (otherwise you can use digital camera, if you have one). Then when making a post, I just click on "Choose file" above the text boxes and navigate to the photo. You can do it another way where you can get more pictures per post but the method I mentioned is the quick and easier way for 1 photo.