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I'm a big old newbie and realized too late that even garden center seedlings need to be hardened off. As a result, I have a whole patch full of little seedlings that are now sunburned (I learned to detect this issue from the boards here!) Anyway, I was wondering if they'll survive at this point or if I should just chock it up to a lesson learned and buy more seedlings? Have any of you had success resuscitating sunburned plants- if so, what should i be doing?
Some are worse than others- most of them are not burned on the whole plant but have patchy tan/light spots consistent with sun damage on various leaves.
Well I'd take them back and get your money back first and suggest to them that they might want to harden off their plants before charging money for them. I don't think you were wrong to assume that a plant you buy at a nursery is *ready to plant*. The only time I've bought a tomato plant which was not ready to plant was one I bought which was actually sitting under fluorescent lights. I was advised that it needed to be fully hardened off and if I understood that. Of course now I will never be without Black Cherry tomatoes in my garden. ;)
I'm glad it's not my own lack of knowledge- I felt somewhat sheepish about the whole thing. To the extent that I can avoid returning them, I'd almost prefer to do so because there's a significant number of them and digging them up to bring them back would take a large amount of time (also I've disposed of their little pots, so would need to put them in something).
Have you had success with rehabilitating sunburned plants? I was thinking of applying a light application of a dilute 20-20-20 fertilizer mixed with Seaweed magic to see if that would boost their vitality.
Last year my tomatoes and peppers survived despite sun / windburn. I had grown them from seed myself, but didn't harden them off long enough! Are your plants putting on new growth that is healthy and green? If so, that is a good sign.
They are, actually- I went out to inspect them more carefully today and they do have some new growth so here's hoping. I appreciate the input from both of you! At this stage in the season, if they're on their way out we need to know so we can get new plants in the ground or we'll have a really really late harvest (makes it sound like we have acres and it's only a small patch, but I'm impatient for tomatoes so every day feels like a century).
I actually went to the nursery where I bought them and complained and they gave me some Garden-tone to put around the burned plants as a treatment to make them stronger, so I hope that it works.
Since you've already planted, I might bring a photo and your receipt and just say "look it's extremely bad form to sell plants which are not ready to be planted" and see if they will work something out.
If they're putting on new green growth, I believe they will survive. Keep them well watered (not saturated though) until they really get going good and I think they will be fine. You may lose a few but probably not all. I wouldn't overdo on nitrogen fertilizer though as that will turn most plants into a jungle of leaves with very little fruit.
