Scorched Creeping Thyme! Help!

[KKosy87]

I've been hardening off my creeping thyme seedlings for the last 10 days. Well today I left my tray in full Sun. I went out around 2 when it was getting pretty hot out and almost ALL of them were scorched. Lost my lavender and most of my daisies too. I might be able to salvage some of the thyme. I took the tray inside and gave it room temp water. Some started to perk up but most is just scorched. Will a mild fertilizer like dilluted fish emulsion help? Ugh. I almost cried. Some of them were about to flower too.

 

[KKosy87]

Here is what I'm working with

 

[Beth_B]

Oh no!

Off the top of my head I would say no fertilizer right now. I see some bright green leaves especially on the thyme, so hopefully some will come back.

 

[KKosy87]

I am so hoping! I thought they were almost ready for the ground. They have been thriving since i moved them outside and out of the basement. Just sucks one day ruins a month and a half of work. Fought off mold, fungus gnats and 1 stupid mistake kills them. I could cry. All i can say is i will know better next year.

 

[marlingardener]

KKosy, hold off on the tears (salt water is bad for plants!). I looked at your photos, and although the thyme has suffered a bit of a set back, it looks as if it will recover.
No fertilizer right now--wait a week or 10 days before feeding your thyme.
I don't have creeping thyme, but we do have culinary thyme and I've found that it does well with partial shade, preferably afternoon shade.
Good luck, and we all have set backs in gardening.

 

[Beth_B]

I know, they are so fragile at that stage. I had a Scotch Bonnet plant for years, it produced tons of hot peppers every summer and was an attractive house plant over winter. I killed it by leaving it out overnight when frost hit. I felt so bad.

 

[roadrunner]

I normally start my plants early in the year when the sun is still relatively low in the sky; however, I just started some tomatoes and cucumbers and I did it in a sunny location (just as the instructions say) but nothing ever germinated, so I sowed some more seeds, again nothing

I realized that the sun was warming up that soil quite a bit, so I thought may be the sun was baking the seeds, so what I did was cut down limbs of my Live Oak tree and place them over a plot of ground so that it would provide dappled sunlight to the area and then I sowed more seeds. They all germinated within a week. Now as the leaves are falling off the limbs I cut, it's providing more sun (slowly allowing the plants to acclimate) and mulch for the area...Kind of cool.


The sun is a killer. When I plant my tomatoes or other veggies the instruction says to plant in full sun conditions...WRONG!!!

 

[Beverly]

I ended up with some broiled seeds this year too, and they were under mesh 90% sun screen, not in the soil but in small starter pots. There was sun from oblique angles, but i really think the heat did them in. They popped their little heads up, said "no way", and shriveled up and died.

For people closer to the Equator full sun may mean between 4-6 hours of morning sun max depending on what you are growing. In Jamaica if you want tomatoes, you have to plant them in the shade.

 

[roadrunner]

I ended up with some broiled seeds this year too, and they were under mesh 90% sun screen, not in the soil but in small starter pots. There was sun from oblique angles, but i really think the heat did them in. They popped their little heads up, said "no way", and shriveled up and died.

For people closer to the Equator full sun may mean between 4-6 hours of morning sun max depending on what you are growing. In Jamaica if you want tomatoes, you have to plant them in the shade.

But, but, but....all the instructions on the seed packs say to plant in full-sun condition and this says at least 8-hours of direct sun per day http://homeguides.sfgate.com/tomato-plants-prefer-morning-afternoon-sun-57922.html








Don't pay any attention to me, I'm with you Beverly

P.S. Just to be clear, all this talk about tomatoes is not thread drift. This is about taking instructions on how to grow plants with a grain of salt and use the instructions as more of general guidelines, very general guidelines in some cases; regardless if they are tomatoes, thyme or anything...It's one of my early lessons learned in gardening.

 

[Beverly]

@roadrunner okay consider the source. The sfgate is located in San Francisco where it is freezing in the summer months and frequently foggy. They need all the sun they can get. sfgate has never been to my house or your house evidently. I understand these instructions are not meant for me so i ignore them, well not entirely. I've come to the point of translating into "Tropical" ... 8 hours in the sun here translates into "toast" and that goes for the plants and me too...toast everywhere. This is why i am making a mini-forest in my garden to provide shade for the other plants and also are resistant to sunburn (like Neem and Papaya for example)

@KKosy87 do we know where you live in the US? or what your climate is like? Epsom Salts (Magnesium sulphate) is said to protect plants from sunburn. I have some but i keep forgetting to use it. It is something you might try, i don't believe it will harm your thyme and it actually might help.

 

[Beverly]

@KKosy87 i would recommend you get rid of your peat pots. What happens is you water your seedlings and the peat pot soaks up all the water and leaves the seedlings dry. I tried them once and tossed all of them. These peat pots may be a big contributor to your problem. Ask anyone on the forums, i've never talked to a gardener who thought peat pots, not to be confused with peat pellets, were a good idea.

 

[Beth_B]

@roadrunner okay consider the source. The sfgate is located in San Francisco where it is freezing in the summer months and frequently foggy. They need all the sun they can get. sfgate has never been to my house or your house evidently. I understand these instructions are not meant for me so i ignore them, well not entirely. I've come to the point of translating into "Tropical" ... 8 hours in the sun here translates into "toast" and that goes for the plants and me too...toast everywhere. This is why i am making a mini-forest in my garden to provide shade for the other plants and also are resistant to sunburn (like Neem and Papaya for example)

@KKosy87 do we know where you live in the US? or what your climate is like? Epsom Salts (Magnesium sulphate) is said to protect plants from sunburn. I have some but i keep forgetting to use it. It is something you might try, i don't believe it will harm your thyme and it actually might help.

Sfgate is owned by Leaf Gate, formerly Demand Media, based out of Southern California. They also own Livestrong, Garden Guides, eHow, Daily Puppy and dozens of other clickbait online content sites. They hire writers and editors (I use this term loosely) from all over the world, without regard for their expertise in any subject.

I know because I wrote for them for about four years. I've written well over two thousand articles for this company. Their quality control is, basically, ****. I don't know why so many otherwise smart people use content sites as cites. It is not reliable information; they require their content writers to adhere to a strict formula and judicious use of keywords and SEO, that's all they care about. Not reliable information.

Anyway, when looking for reliable online sources, I think going to any .edu or .gov site relevant to your state or region is the way to go. Avoid any of the generic content sites, they are mostly crap.

 

[KKosy87]

I agree about the Pete pots. Definitely not using them next year! And I'm in Maryland zone 7!

 

[Beverly]

I hope you were able to save some thyme

 

[Aldin]

KKosy, hold off on the tears (salt water is bad for plants!). I looked at your photos, and although the thyme has suffered a bit of a set back, it looks as if it will recover.
No fertilizer right now--wait a week or 10 days before feeding your thyme.
I don't have creeping thyme, but we do have culinary thyme and I've found that it does well with partial shade, preferably afternoon shade.
Good luck, and we all have set backs in gardening.

Which is culinary thyme? I know off fine leaves thyme and Spanish thyme. Please tell me more