I planted lisianthus plugs back on May 19th. We then went into a mini heat wave for 3 days with unseasonably warm temps and crazy humidity in our area for this time of year. My poor lisies were just baking. Another concern was that the ground became like concrete around the plants because the conditions were so hot and dry so fast. The other thing that contributed to our hard ground was the time between when we tilled and when we planted. Almost 6 weeks passed since we tilled and all that fluffy soil we prepared was definitely dried and recompacted by the time we planted. As a result of all that, even though the plugs were so healthy; we lost some plants over the next few weeks. I really think it was because some of them had such a rough start. We also had very little rain at the end of May and although I was using the drip tape, these poor plants just seem to struggle. I estimate we’ve lost about 20 plants so far in that mess.

Since then, we’ve had decent amounts of rainfall and the weather and humidity have been beautiful. I’ve been foliage feeding with Neptune’s Harvest, trying to keep up with the weeds which has helped to break up the rock hard soil, and hoping that we don’t lose any more plants. Finally, some of the babies are starting to thrive and grow. I’m so excited to see them start to shoot up and take off. Bring me the blooms! or at least, bring me the buds! First things, first!