Help needed - everything dead on allotment

[Beti2480]

Hi
I was wondering if someone good help me. Int he space of two days everything on my allotment has died. both inside and out the poly tunnel. Tomatoes, peppers, chillis, flowers, sweet corn, potatoes, beans, peas.
I watered them all, no contamination from the cans. The same day I have some plants away to friends which are fine. Mine died in two days from water, the outside potatoes have taken the longest to die just under a week.
Does it sound like they have been poisoned or is there a common disease for all these plants that I'm Missing.
Thanks for your help

[veggiechicken]

Hello Beti and welcome!
Sorry about your plants. Whereabouts are you? In the UK? Just wondered if you've had any frost recently.

[Beti2480]

Hi, I'm newcastle, North east. There hasn't been any frost. They have all died this week. The weather hasn't been as hot but it hasn't been frosty. The plants in the polytunnel died within two days of water. The ones outside took about a week but showed signs of the same thing at the same time.

[Jungle Jane]

Hi,I'm wondering about the watering can,did you buy it or could it have ever been used for weedkiller? It seems strange everything has gone brown & shrivelled up like that? Has anyone else on the allotment had problems?

[veggiechicken]

Where do you take the water from? Is it your own water butt or a communal supply?

[Guest]

What do other plotholders plants look like? Sorry to ask again, but are you sure you haven't had frosts? This last week I thought we hadn't, but hubby has scrapped ice off his windscreen several times and there is only 30mins difference in him leaving and me getting up. The only other thing I can think off is have you used muck or reused compost in your pots and plot - any chance it could be contaminated? The plants look more soggy and frosted to me rather than poorly tho

[Scarlet]

Tomatoes, peppers, chillis, flowers, sweet corn, potatoes, beans, peas..

These are all tender plants except the spuds, though even potatoes need to be protected from the cold.
I'm in the South West and made a mistake last week and left my courgettes in my green house. There wasn't anything left of those after an evening of cold.
I think they have been hit by the weather.

[veggiechicken]

Snadger's in Newcastle too. I'm sure he lost plants to frost recently?

[Scarlet]

Yes, he did. Those plastic green houses don't give any protection. The potato looks like only half frosted. What does the new growth look like on some of the smaller potatoes?

[veggiechicken]

I knew I'd seen it - Snadger lost squashes etc on 28/29 April.
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1342041

[Knight of Albion]

A very warm welcome to the forum, dear Beti.

Two possible explanations:
Hard frost or sabotage.

[Knight of Albion]

PS: The damage looks to me like the after-effects of a weed killer. That being said, even though I live down south, I definitely remember the weather forecast giving a hard frost for northern England last week, as I recall feeling sympathy for the northern gardeners here. A hard frost is going to finish any tender plants.

Still time to sow anew and get a good harvest by the end of the season.

[Beti2480]

It's a communal water source, there is no chance my watering cans are contaminated.
The only common denominator between all of them is the water and weather. They all have different soils etc. I've thought about the weather but the two days they died it was nice and warm I working nights and there was no frost.
I have other stuff that I have been growing in the tunnel which I removed home the same day I watered. These had been outside and are thriving. All the other plots the potatos look fine etc. There is only one other person I know who was watering from the same source that day but they haven't got anything visibly growing yet to see if they have been affected. I would of thought it if it was frost then other plots would be affected.
I have literally never had anything die so quick. They went from alive to brown and dead within two days, the potatoes took a few days longer.

[Beti2480]

Scarlett- there is no growth since they appeared to be growing brown. They have all just completely rotten back.

[WendyC]

Does look like frost to me. Have a wander around your site, anyone else got the same problem?