Leaves turning yellow for no apparent reason? Your plants could be suffer from ‘Cold Shock’

Hardening off (31 January 2024)

We are currently experiencing a lift in the temperatures, we can take advantage of this and start hardening off some of our Autumn Jump Starter plants.

For hardening off you much choose a sheltered spot (not a frost pocket) and don’t choose a very cold day or period to do this otherwise plants may experience Cold Shock.

Once plants have had a few weeks in a sheltered spot you will notice the leaves will change, and their foliage will be come much tougher and less like salad leaves.

This gentle thickening of the leaves will help the plant hold on to water better, especially when it’s windy. Plants not hardened off properly can wilt.

They will also be able to stand up better to physical weather damage such as wind, rain and snow once moved to their final flowering positions.

In very cold weather coming, don’t water!

When the water in the compost freezes it is unable to flow freely through the plant cells and cause plants to droop.

So don’t worry tomorrow morning if your plants look a bit flat and sad, as soon as they thaw out the water will get moving again filling the cells and they will stand back up, even if it takes a couple of days.