I planted Florida Broad Leaf mustard greens in Feb in Shreveport, LA . PLanted in a pot, they haven't grown much at all in 2 months .

Welcome to ATP!

Is there a question?

Daisy

Those sure are unhappy! It doesn't look like insects or lack of sun (no holes and not leggy, tall, skinny and spindly).

Probably not lack of N-P-K because they look reasonably green - or would you say they are pale?

The fact that only one plant emerged from one pot, and it looks malformed, made me think some soil problem interfered with emergence in one pot, and stopped growth in the other pot. ("Soil problem" might mean that fertilizer or water caused some problem.)

Maybe some soil disease is a possibility, but that doesn't jump out at me from the photos. Some just look like they stopped growing right after they emerged. Is it possible the soil mix is SO coarse that they can't take up enough water because it runs out of the soil too fast?

It's hard to guess what the problem is, but after two months, I would start some new seeds in different soil, maybe with different fertilizer.

Have you grown other plants in that exact soil mix? It does look well-aerated from the coarseness.

If there IS a reason to distrust the soil or fertilizer or water (like pH or salt or an EXCESS of something), maybe flush those pots well with water you trust. But if they have been rained on a few timees, that's not the problem.

Just to see what happens, maybe start a few seeds in very small pots with better or different soil, just to see if that was the problem.

If they do OK at first in small pots and good soil, pot them up into bigger pots and see if they keep growing. Put one or two into the ground and see if they like that better than the mix in the pots. As "edible weeds" they should do better in plain soil than most cultivated plants.

I might offend people who like mustard, but I thought they all grew like weeds and were almost hard to kill.

(Bossier City is in Louisiana?)

Thanks , will try planting mustard seeds again in a different soil and pot
Yup, Bossier city is in LA

Good luck, rajat! We'd really appreciate it if you took another photo of the second batch growing well, or posted if you figure out what the problem was with the first batch. Then we'll all know something new to watch out for.

And also: welcome to ATP!

sure, will plant some more seeds and keep you updated

Thanks !

I spent my first five years in Bossier, Rajat. My mom taught school there. Way, way, way before you were born.

First off, if you are germinating seeds, you don't want fertilizer in the media. Fertilize (lightly) after the seedlings are well along.

Also, using a "seedling" media is advantageous. You can purchase that in small bags. You also want to keep the media moist at all times. Not soppy-wet, just moist. That's where seedling media helps. It is made to retain moisture yet is well-draining. Also, and this depends on the ambient temperature where the seeds are being started, bottom-heat can be advantageous.

I hope I haven't given you too much information, but the more things you do right from the start, the better results you'll have.

Hi Rick , Finally got the mustard growing - sending pic as promised . Thanks for your help :)

I put seeds out in the fall because they are a winter crop here in the South. Mine have been eaten and finally pulled 2 or 3 weeks ago. The ones that were not pulled, I kept for the blooms which are 3.5 feet tall.
Plant some seeds in the fall directly in the ground, also, as an experiment.
I also bought the same variety (as my seeds) in a six pack at Walmart in the fall. They matured a lot faster, of course, and were huge and the most unbelievable flavor I ever tasted, for a green.
Think I prefer the 6 pack better than seeds. 6 huge plants provided more greens than we needed. Plus the greens were eaten before the bugs showed up.

Picture of one when it was small.


You might wonder why this one is in one of the flower beds. I really was going after the blooms.

Thanks for the photo, Rajat! They do look pretty happy.

Did you figure out what was wrong with the first batch ... something with the old soil? Or weather?

Anyway, the second batch looks happy and healthy.

Hi Rick, just used a different set of seeds .Worked this time .

Ahhhhh.

Thanks.

any suggestions as to what I can get from home depot or walmart for potting soil as well as for beds ? Miracle gro or are there better alternatives. Can i just mix cow manure with regular soil to make it up ?

Would appreciate a response

thanks

If you're going to pay for Miracle-Gro, you might as well pay a little more for Pro-Mix or Black Cow or other "professional" mixes that usually come in bales of 3.8 cubic feet. Say $25-35 for ~ 4 cubic feet.

If your big-box stores don;'t carry the good professional mixes, look through the yellow pages for "indoor hydroponic shops". They always have the good potting mixes, even if many of their customers wear Grateful Dead tee shirts and have reddened eyes.

The very few times I bought MG potting mix, it was really junky, POWDERED peat dust, held WAY too much water, and never let any air in.

People who know how to avoid over-watering seedlings seem able to make it work, but I hate it! I've heard that the "MG mix" depends on whatever is cheapest in the region it is manufactured in, but I don't know that.

I go to Lowe's instead of Home Depot, because where I live, HD sells logyard trash for around the same price that Lowe's charges for good clean bark products. Like "fine bark nuggets" or "medium pine bark mulch". Say around $2.50 - $3 for two cubic feet, maybe three times cheaper than Pro-Mix.

You can make half-decent potting soil from pure bark, but it seems better to use around half "professional" potting mix plus half bark, to make the pro mix cost 1/2 as much. The good mixes use some sphagnum peat moss, which is hard to beat. MG uses (I think) the plain "peat" which is different from "sphagnum peat moss", if I have the names right. One is cheap, brown and dusty. The other has bigger fibers and is what they use in hanging baskets that need to stay hydrated.

But you have to screen the bark, discard the dusty fines, and chop up and re-screen the big chunks to get grit-sized bark fibers (smallest dimension around 1-2 mm). Pine, fir and balsam bark are best, followed by any evergreen with lots of suberin in the bark. Hardwood bark, not so good.

If your pro mix has no fines, and ALREADY drains plenty fast, you might want to add SOME smaller bark fibers, to hold more water. But usually pro mixes will hold more water than I want. (I tend to over-water, so I need faster-draining mix.)

Thanks for the input . Do local farmers sell compost usually

I agree that mustard greens are a fall crop, not normally planted at this time of year. Here is a calendar for Louisiana.

http://www.lsuagcenter.com/NR/...

Don't limit yourself to Walmart and/or HomeDepot. Look for a farm/feed store. There is a Tractor Supply near you but also there are some smaller independent farm/feed stores. In my experience the small local stores give good advice to local growers.

Use potting mix in pots. Don't mix garden soil and compost for pots. Too dense.

Mustard greens is a fall crop even up this far - if winter is mild and you have a warm microclimate bed. And the yellow flowers on dark purple (Red Giant for example) are really pretty for a while.

thanks again

I had purchased earthgro potting soil and it seems the soil quality is not too good as lacks enough organic material . Are there any vegetables I can use up that soil for ? What winter and fall vegetables will grow well in poor soil conditions ? Can I grow turnips as well ?