Beautiful Swiss (Rainbow) Chard Wilted Overnight!

[lori]

Hi all,

I'm brand new to the board and I'm hoping I have this in the right area.

I have a 9 pod Bounty and I made my first mistake by planting green peppers, tomato's and swiss chard at the same time. The swiss chard grew the fastest  - I really want the chard more than the tomatoes and peppers so I don't mind sacrificing them if I have to...  the tomatoes and green peppers are only a few inches tall at this point and have nothing to do with this issue

Back to the swiss chard - it's a foot tall and as of yesterday, it was picture perfect.  Very crisp leaves.

This morning (Day 39) several outer leaves have wilted badly.  Even the newest inside stems although still good, lost much of their crispness.  I have NO idea what happened, do you?

*Tank is checked daily and always full
*Fertilizer is added every two weeks
*Tank has been cleaned
*Lights are set for tomatoes - on 15 hours/day
*Pump is set for 60 mins on/30 mins off (Not sure what this setting should be)

When they first sprouted, I got several sprouts per pod.  I emailed Aerogarden customer service (no phone service and it's taken a week to get an email back each time and then, I get wrong information!) to ask how many plants per pod.

They told me that Swiss Chard is a lettuce (No it's not!!) and that I could keep all the plants.  I'm now wondering if they are wilting due to overcrowding?

Any other thoughts?  

I was really loving the Aerogarden until today, I'm hoping for a fix.

Thanks.

Lori

[Sher]

lori, first of all, welcome!

I have no idea what happened to your chard, but will try to help you figure it out.

Others may differ, but I would only keep one plant per pod. The plant will continue to add new leaves from the center, which I think could seriously crowd the narrow Aerogarden pod and strangle ithe chard if it held more than one plant.

For lettuce and greens, I run my pump 5 minutes on and 25 minutes off.

Are your roots white and clean smelling, or is there a funky odor to them?

If you could upload a picture, it would help so much to help identfy your problem.

If you need help posting a picture, this thread should help.

[lori]

Jan 11, 2021 23:48:16 GMT -5 Sher said:

lori , first of all, welcome!

I have no idea what happened to your chard, but will try to help you figure it out.

Others may differ, but I would only keep one plant per pod. The plant will continue to add new leaves from the center, which I think could seriously crowd the narrow Aerogarden pod and strangle ithe chard if it held more than one plant.

For lettuce and greens, I run my pump 5 minutes on and 25 minutes off.

Are your roots white and clean smelling, or is there a funky odor to them?

If you could upload a picture, it would help so much to help identfy your problem.

If you need help posting a picture, this thread should help.

Thank you Sher!  The roots look great - nothing odd, no smell.  I couldn't stand looking at the leaves so minutes ago, I harvested my wimpy greens and thinned down to 2 plants per pod, down from 3.  

I assumed this was the problem BUT, I just noticed that my peppers (don't care about them) are also now wilted!!! And they only have one plant per pot.  Now, I'm completely baffled!

Attachments:

[lori]

Whoops - that was the before pic.

Here is what I now have.  What an ugly garden!

Attachments:

[Sher]

I still am not sure. It could be bacteria or fungi in the water or the fertilizer could be off. 

As an emergency stop gap treatment, I would dump the tank and rinse it well, rinse the roots with fresh water, add a weaker fertilizer amount, and add 1 teaspoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide to the tank. If it a bacterial or fungal problem, that will help nip it in the bud. If it is not, the extra oxygen in the peroxide will still benefit the roots.

The plants may look worse for a few days, but they may bounce back better than ever.

I hope someone else will see this post and be more helpful. What puzzles me is the sudden collapse.

[Shawn]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I have never grown Swiss chard but being is considered a green, what is the temperature of the water? Greens like cold water. You can just stick your finger in the tank and if it feels warm or hot add ice cubes. Greens tend to wilt when the water is too warm.

Also it can be that the tomatoes and or peppers are taking nutrients from the greens. Well our garden stage you can grow everything together me personally does not like growing greens and peppers and or tomatoes together. Peppers and tomatoes take a stronger nutrients level than greens.

Sher gave a good suggestion on doing an r&r which is actually a dump and refill. Let us know how they make out.

[lori]

Thanks Shawn and Sher.

Well, it had to be the pump.  Recall that the water was already new, with new fertilizer - lighting never changed.

Woke up this morning to perfect plants, perky as can be!  Before bed, I switched the pump to 60/0 so the pump is running 24/7.

I wanted to upload another pic but got a message that the file was too big.  Tried reducing quality and downsizing but it still didn't work... anyway, the pic was of happy plants.

So, next question... what should the pump time settings be? 

I have searched far and wide, and can't find anything.  Unfortunately, I didn't take note of the setting when I planted the garden and I believe it may have been changed at some point.

Thanks!!

Lori

[Shawn]

lori, Please review the Photo Repository regarding how to insert a photo. 

[clumsythumbs]

Hi, lori ...

Sorry you are having troubles!  Shawn and Sher gave good advice. I will add a few thoughts.

I echo the thought about water temperature. Also, the photos I am seeing do not look that wilted to me. I do see the one pepper plant with a wonky leaf. Your first photo with the chard grown looks good to me, just with a few leaves that needed to be harvested. One of the larger leaves does look like it is paling, leading me to believe maybe it is not getting as much nutrients as it needs/wants. A lot of plants, especially when young kind of sag at night-- are you seeing this all day or at a certain time? You mentioned this morning they were perky. Although you did say "overnight" indicating you were waking up to it. I also agree with Sher that may the pepper and tomato were stealing some nutrients. 

My other thought was the pump-- maybe it got knocked loose or something? I always do the preset pump cycles and have not had many issues, but do occasionally do get temporarily wilted plants. As Shawn mentioned, the water temperature could be an issue. If it feels less than cool/cold to the touch dropping  a few ice cubes can perk things up. CHow warm is the area where it is located (like if it is in the kitchen heat from cooking plus natural sag at night could appear wilted?).  Chard prefers cooler temperatures (like lettuce), but can tolerate warmer temps. 

If you are getting 12" chard in 40 days you are doing something right!  I LOVE chard and have mixed success. I never thin out my chard, but if you do you are likely to get 1 more robust plant with plenty of room to grow. I find that chard looks healthier when harvest small amounts more often (once it gets going). Keep an eye on it; hopefully things take a turn for the better!

[Sher]

lori, I bet it is the pump!

I got a bad case of root rot on one of my pepper projects because the water stayed too warm. I discovered that the pump running all the time was also heating the water.

So I changed my pump setting to 5 minutes on, and 25 minues off.

That cured the problem and my water does not overheat now.

BTW, 5 on and 25 off is the only setting on the basic Harvests and I successfully grow everything from lettuce to tomatoes on that setting.

[dianne]

I would definitely check out the pump and do a rinse and refill with fresh water. 

Don't know if this matters, but I've grown several crops of Swiss chard, and I always harvest the leaves when they get that big. That is, I harvest the big leaves and let the little ones keep growing. Maybe the leaves were past their prime?

My other thought is this. I had a lot of success growing baby bok choi next to a fairytale eggplant plant -- UNTIL the eggplant reached a certain size. Then its presence stunted the growth of the bok choi. Maybe the growing pepper and tomato plants have inhibited the previously healthy Swiss chard?

I hope you figure it out!

[clumsythumbs]

Jan 12, 2021 14:08:42 GMT -5 dianne said:

I would definitely check out the pump and do a rinse and refill with fresh water. 

Don't know if this matters, but I've grown several crops of Swiss chard, and I always harvest the leaves when they get that big. That is, I harvest the big leaves and let the little ones keep growing. Maybe the leaves were past their prime?

My other thought is this. I had a lot of success growing baby bok choi next to a fairytale eggplant plant -- UNTIL the eggplant reached a certain size. Then its presence stunted the growth of the bok choi. Maybe the growing pepper and tomato plants have inhibited the previously healthy Swiss chard?

I hope you figure it out!

I think you are right about the leaf size, dianne . My experience is that greens never get as large as they would grow outside, and when they get to a certain size they look less than stellar. I am a fan of harvest often so that all the leaves have a chance to shine and get their chance. 

Sher that is a good point about the heat from the pump going all the time. I feel like during one summer my gardens were running hot and changing the pump cycle helped things cool down a bit.