Gangbusters over here. Sorry to hear about your troubles! I'm using chicken gickem....tried that?

I'm sorry to hear about your poor growing season as well.

Everything I've put in pots is also growing like gangbusters as well.

Are your plants from nursery stock or did you start everything yourself from seed?
Could it be, if they are from nursery stock that you got unhealthy plants to start with and that is why they are doing so poorly?

I use only miracle grow potting mix in all of my containers and have never had a problem with poor growth or poor blooms either.

Do you have drainage holes in your window boxes? With all the rain we have gotten in July, it just may be that the boxes are not draining well enough and your plants are too water logged.

It has been a crazy growing season all around and that alone just may be the problem.

Another thought, maybe you should take out each individual plant and pot it up in it's own container for a bit to see if it will grow better that way and replace all of the soil in your window boxes with fresh soil. Then after a 2 weeks of the plants growing in their own pots put them back in the fresh soil in the window boxes.

Fran

Can't speak for everything...my stuff is growing like weeds with all the rain. But the sweet potato vine problem I had as well. I hit it with an organic insecticidal soap I got from Agway and now they are all fine. I cropped it back and hit the new growth after every rain (which is every day it seems....)and now my leaves are holeless.
I too have been using the Neptune product and it has been working. The only thing I can think is that eventhough it is raining a lot, we have had some incredibly hot days and my pots will look great in the morning and look like they are dying by the time i get home...are you misting them when we aren't getting the daily rain? Also, last year I didn't use good quality potting mix and my containers were less than impressive...I think Fran is on to something about replacing the soil...
Kathy

annedo....

Well, I did have problems with my containers to start off this season. They were very slow to get going. I was not being consistent with fertilizing and when I mentioned it in a post, I had suggestions to step up the fertilizer. So I started putting full strength Fish Emulsion/Sea weed liquid fertilizer into each watering can as I watered them and they took a few weeks to become noticeably better, but I am finally happier with them. Next year, I will do better right from the start with the fertilizer. I also think we are getting less sunny weather than previous years.

It does sound like you are also having trouble with insects, which may be a big part of your problem. I have not been having any of those in my containers, just slow growth. Of course, I sometimes find holes in the leaves, but minor amounts and I just trim them off and that seems to work fine for me. I would say a very thorough inspection of the foliage and under the leaves and around the base of the plant to try to find and destroy any insects, maybe help.

Good luck... :-)

Glad to hear that others use the sweetpotato vine. I put out 3 plants to see if they'd do anything up here. In Mobile, last year I put them in a new bed to help shade it, and they ran everywhere, tried to cross the street, went up the rose bushes, etc. In the winter after we went back south, I saw the vines all withered away. Pulling them out was enlightening--they all had HUGE PURPLE TUBERS. Those potatos survived and before we returned north in May, they were already growing again. My neighbor who looks after the house said she had to pull them out of the rose bushes again.

Up here, they are doing okay under the blueberry bushes which gets only a few hours of sunlight. I love the chartreuse color against the red mulch. We'll see if they make taters up here. No evidence of insects though.

I found licorice plants at Parlee's Nursery and got 3 little pots. I am amazed at the beauty and vigor of this plant, which is totally new to me. I'm very fond of gray leaves. I like to use gray leaves, variegated leaves, or white blooming plants, next to walkways to outline them in the twilight hours and make it easier to walk without artificial lighting. In shady areas late in the day, the whiteness allows me to appreciate another aspect of my garden too. Licorice is a plant I'll be trying down south, and maybe in a hanging basket.

Thanks, everyone.
I think I will try replacing the potting soil. I will try the miracle grow organic stuff.I sprayed the sweet potaoe vines w/a neem product several times, but it didn't seem to help.I think I will try good old insecticidal soap. Should I cut off all the leaves w/ holes and spray w/ the soap? I'm afraid it won't grow back.
I think I'm going to get rid of the Impatiens; they probably were never able to recover from the thrips.
Oh well, out to weed, and thanks again for the advice! Anne