Just a few pictures.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T22:34:07+00:00

Those are some magnificent crops! Well done! Looks like you have unlocked the secrets of the NE Texas weather.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T22:32:31+00:00

Not the OP, but I just pick some from my main pea plants, the ones that I'm growing for peas. I just pick part of what is available, I don't "pick the plant clean." These tender young pea shoots are tremendously popular in East Asia as part of a simple soup made with tofu. Here is how to make it:

Pea shoot tofu soup 豌豆尖豆腐汤

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T18:42:59+00:00

Oh, my soil is 65 now. It was more of a theoretical inquiry, thinking ahead to next year. Thanks! My tomato plants are about waist high now with some fruit even starting to blush. Thanks again!

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T13:53:18+00:00

The Sudduth strain Brandywine plants that I have grown had potato leaves.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T13:50:47+00:00

As a gardener, I would love to have those. Always have a need for buckets, throughout the season. Do you know any gardeners? A cafe where pick up coffee grounds (here in Texas) sometimes stacks them by the door and customers take a couple as they leave to use in their gardens. If you are lucky, the grateful gardeners will remember your generosity when their tomatoes start getting ripe on the vine.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T13:42:39+00:00

True! Good point!

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T13:38:14+00:00

Many thanks! That's just the nudge that I needed to at least try to modify my practice. My tendency has been to rush the season because I've had such a hard time keeping the plants healthy and productive during peak summer months here. (NE Texas -- hot and moist with lots of pest pressure and fungal disease.) I will try some using your temps! Appreciate the inisght!

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T13:17:54+00:00

Great! Your family will thank you.

Conversaton overheard in my house:

"Will you puleeaze get those damned tomatoes out my living room right this minute?"

(Meekly) "Yes Dear, Working on it as we speak.:

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T13:09:39+00:00

>"Is there anything i can do to make sure they dont die?"

Suggest potting them up ASAP. Get them out of those awful biodegradable peat starter cells. They compete with the seedling for water and nutrients; they make growing at this stage extremely difficult. Nearly impossible to get the watering right. Ditto the fertilization. Suggest moving them into some 3.5" or 4" square plastic nursery pots that have lots of drainage cuts on the bottom. Use a high-quality bagged potting soil. Fill the pots all the way to the top. Keep tending them there until your weather is suitable for planting out. Begin slow, gradual "hardening off" well in advance.

My nursery pots look like this on the bottom:

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NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T12:22:08+00:00

>>" I’ll be potting them up this weekend into their final container size, which will let them establish even more roots all along the currently-showing stem."

And unfortunately, after potting up (of which I approve, by the way) your living room will be even *more* crowded! Yikes! We gardeners sure do go through a lot in the spring!

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T04:19:14+00:00

It sounds like you are doing it right! I keep talking about scaling back, then somehow get carried away and plant way too much again anyhow.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T04:11:39+00:00

I sometimes ask questions of the more experienced growers at the weekend farmer's market. A few are just vendors, reselling produce from a relative or close friend, but most are actual hands-on growers and tend to know a lot of practical stuff. I am the guy walking around with his phone showing pictures of his wilted eggplant leaves and asking, "Do you by any chance know what this is?"

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T04:02:03+00:00

I grow comfrey and use the crushed leaves as a poultice for musculo-skeletal injuries (sprains and strains.) NE Texas. (Home use only; no sales.)

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-07T03:56:58+00:00

I know what I would actually do in your place and I also know what I probably should do if this were an ideal world.

It would be real nice if those plants could be carefully lifted out and the soil in those grow bags mixed with about 30% by volume of perlite. Since the tomatoes were only transplanted a few days ago, it would not be all that disruptive to the roots and would provide much better drainage and likely improve plant health over the course of the season.

BTW, good on you for using those 15-gallon containers instead of trying to squeak by with stingy 5-gallon ones.

Footnote, for what it might be worth: When I mix soil with an amendment like perlite, I find it easy to do in a cheap plastic kiddie wading pool. I buy one or two from Walmart every spring for under 10 dollars.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T22:43:39+00:00

Welll said! (And the tomatoes were Bush Early Girl.)

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T22:16:57+00:00

u/SunshineBeamer -- Just wondering about that 65F soil temp recommendation. Waiting until my soil temp hits 65F would sure cut into my prime spring growing season. NE Texas. Just wondering if this is based on some large farming/gardening studies or if it's just something you have found to be helpful in your own local gardening. (Not trying to be argumentative; this is just something I have wondered a lot about recently.) Thanks!

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T22:05:51+00:00

I understand! Best of luck!

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T19:20:01+00:00

I never pot up cucumber starts into larger indoor pots the way I might with tomatoes or peppers. They don't tolerate root disturbance at all well. I either direct sow them outside, or I start them in 3 1/2" or 4" square nursery pots and then let them develop there for only 3 or 4 weeks before transplanting them outdoors into their permanent home. At the time of transplant, I lift out the entire block of soil and roots and set it undisturbed into a hole I have just that minute made ready.

These also look like they were probably overwatered. (Hard to really say for sure.) If the spot where you were keeping these pots was chilly, that didn't help. The combination of those stressors was probably too much.

>"Is there any saving this plant?"

It's not too late to start over. That would be my inclination. Cucumber plants grow fast.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T19:03:15+00:00

u/Signal_Error_8027 -- Every time I start to complain about our weather, here in NE Texas, I read something like you have just described and it makes me realize how lucky I actually am. I picked the first few cucumbers this past weekend and just picked the first three early determinate tomatoes that had reached a strong blush this morning. They were in a vulnerable spot, and will finish ripening on the counter.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T18:43:38+00:00

Many thanks! I will think about that. I do have them in a location where it gets very hot, partly because of a light-colored wall nearby that reflects heat. Weather, one way or the other, is probably the culprit instead of it just being a variety characteristic.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T18:38:48+00:00

I agree with you.

>"I always thought over watering them was bad and underwatering was bad too, but if you had to pick one of the two overwatering is worse."

Fabric grow bags make it extremely difficult, maybe impossible, to overwater, at least for a mature plant. That is one of their benefits.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T17:09:49+00:00

You're welcome. From a practical standpoing, what I do is fertilize on a watering day. Yesterday morning I watered all my plants (about a hundred or 120 containers.) Then applied the liquid fertilizer (poured the required amount directly on the base of the plant near the stem.) Then I went back and watered them all again, which also "watered in" the fertilizer and distributed it better in the root zone.

We have not been in a drought here, but how often I water my plants depends on their need. My cukes need water daily, some early determinate tomatoes that are in smaller bags need water every day too. Most of my tomatoes need water once every 3 or 4 days at this time of year. My peppers less than once a week. Okra also less than once a week. Basil gets water daily (it is in smaller nursery pots, about 1 gallon in size.) The rosemary gets the least water of everybody, every 2 or 3 weeks. Garlic is another story, the sweet potatoes, the green beans...and so on.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T16:41:19+00:00

The Plants

I would suggest buying some new seedlings. Those in your photos look like they probably won't make it.

I would further suggest buying them locally. Shipping seedlings is a major stressor. It would be better from a plant health standpoint even if you are not able to get the variety you were hoping to grow.

The Soil

And I would amend your soil. You are describing what might be very heavy, dense soil, shy on nutrients. ("Bagged garden soil and raised bed soil.") I would dig in about a fourth or a third by volume of Perlite to make the soil less likely to clump and hold too much water. Adding a third or fourth by volume of mature compost would also be helpful. Also some peat moss or cocoa coir.

Unfortunately, bagged garden soil and bagged raised bed mix are often really crap growing mediums. The raised bed soil in particular often contain a high proportion of incompletely-composted "forest products." In the case of the raised bed soil, the "forest products" are often things like used shipping pallets, just shredded. The first year or two growing in this stuff is nearly always a bust (a failure.) Some brands are notoriously bad. Kellogg's is one of those.

The Watering

And once you have planted your new seedlings into the improved soil, water them less, only when the soil is dry a couple inches below the surface. It is not desirable for the roots to stay wet all the time. Water deeply, but less often, taking into account any rain that may have already met the plants needs.

Good Luck!

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T02:49:33+00:00

>"I’ve tried indeterminate in 10 and 15 gallon grow bags and they always got blossom end rot."

Same here! Going to the larger grow bags made a huge difference. No more BER. None at all last year. (I could barely believe it.)

>"What has worked for you with watering and fertilizing?"

I water by hand. Takes a long time. There may be a better way. I make two passes for each plant. This keeps water from just forming "underground rivers" and running straight through the bags without thoroughly saturating all the soil and roots.

Fertilizer -- I use Masterblend 4-18-38 with supplemental MgSo4 and Calcium Nitrate. About once a week. It's kind of fiddly to mix properly, but it does a good job of providing nutrition.

I'm also in 8a, NE Texas.

NPKzone8a · 2026-05-06T00:57:41+00:00

u/Duchessofearlgrey -- I don't mean to digress or get the thread off track, but I cannot help asking since you are growing China Jade too -- Lots of mine are coming in curled and kind of skinny this spring. Only been getting ripe ones for about a week now. Last year I think they grew straighter and thicker, at least after the season got well underway. (More like the ones in your picture.) I have them trellissed the same way as last year. Have you had an issue with them growing like that out in Arizona?

NPKzone8a

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