Kitchen Garden Forum

I started to grow some aubergines from seed all was fine
until i transfered them in to bigger pots then they all
just died did i do anything wrong
ash

Great, thanks, just spent ages potting things on, including aubergines which I haven't grown before. Am now very worried

Aubergines are a bit temperamental, mainly with getting them to set fruit, but if they have died after potting them on the soil could have been too wet and made the roots rot. They also like to be warm, so perhaps it has been a bit on the cold side. It is most likely to be a root problem though.

Are you using an ordinary multi-purpose compost?

ah well will try again next year, i had them in a propagator from seed
then put them in larger pots in multi purpose compost they had never
been outdoors before then the first time i put them outdoors by
morning they all had withered i.e (dead)
ash

"they had never been outdoors before then the first time i put them outdoors by morning they all had withered" plus "Newtyle is a village in the west of Angus, Scotland" - there you have it!
I was thinking about potting on with a lot of root disturbance, they don't like it, but outside overnight in Scotland in May is I'm afraid the answer. I confess I don't have much success with Aubergines (my wife says things I don't like much mysteriously don't grow well) but they never see the outside world.

Ah well, at least I'm reassured, mine have been inside all the time so should be ok. I do know they like heat and high humidity so they may go out into unheated greenhouse (actually plastic walk-in thingy) if ever weather gets it's act together, but probably daytime only unless we get some global warming

Dear Jude, i'm sure the warm weather will soon be with you....

If you aren't sure how to grow a plant that is new to you, it is quite a good idea to find out where in the world they come from originally, then you will have an idea of what temperature and climate suits them.

Things like aubergines, peppers, tomatoes and all the tender bedding plants come from countries that never experience frost, or even temperatures less than 10C - 50F, so it isn't surprising that your aubergines have turned their toes up.

Here in South Yorkshire, at the foot of the Pennines, we can have frost up to the beginning of June, so rarely put anything tender out until the end of May, after hardening it off for a week or two first by putting it in a cold- frame, or putting it outside in the day and bringing it in at night.

I've been covering the strawberries with fleece every night to keep the frost off the flowers and the fleece was frozen solid on Tuesday morning after the rain the night before followed by a very keen frost. I've also covered the potatoes with cardboard sheets, newspaper and fleece - in various combinations - as they are too high to earth up any more. The frost has blackened the tips of some of them, but they look Ok.

It's a good idea to jot down in a gardening diary things like when the first and last frosts are where you are so you know when it is likely to be safe to put tender plants out, or you could ask other gardeners in your area who've been gardening for longer what they think.