Can Anyone help with my Veg Plants?

[wax]

A terrible week here for my toms and veg plants. I woke up to find all my spinach infested with leaf miners and my tomato, courgette and gherkins not doing too good either.
The toms were doing great, shooting up, looking healthy until a few days ago when they've started getting droopy, floppy, faded branches mostly towards the bottom of the plant and newer leaves as well as flopping have a slightly yellowing almost spotty complexion.
One new set of leaves has completely wilted too.
Everything is still inside on window sills. I thought i might have slightly over watered but im not that sure about that.
My courgettes are not looking good either. I have just removed a lot of the leaves. I asked here some weeks ago about a few leaves looking bad and everyone thought it was sun scorch so I left it. Now there are a lot more leaves like this.
Anyway, here are some photos. If anyone recognises any of the problems and has a cure I would be eternally grateful.
This is my first year growing and everything that was doing well has took a turn for the worse.
Tomato leaves.

[wax]

Courgette leaves




Gherkin leaf

[wax]

Ive also noticed a very small amount of the tiniest flies near the gherkins. Only 3 or 4 of them though and no evidence of anything eating away at the leaves.

[Penellype]

It looks like you have your plants above a radiator, so my guess would be that they are getting too hot, depending on how long the radiator is on for. In that position they would be in the firing line for hot dry air, which could easily cause the leaves to wilt and dry out.

I realize it is difficult to find light places indoors and you may well have no choice. I keep my plants on windowsills above radiators, but the heating is never on for more than an hour at a time, often less, and only 3 times a day maximum - it is off completely now.

[Penellype]

Ive also noticed a very small amount of the tiniest flies near the gherkins. Only 3 or 4 of them though and no evidence of anything eating away at the leaves.

Compost often contains the eggs of fungus gnats, which are very small black flies. I get them all the time, and they don't cause any trouble.

[wax]

I have 4 windowsills full of plants and two of them do have radiators underneath. Theyre not on much these days, probably about as often as yours. The thing is, I have courgettes and tomatoes on each. Some courgettes on a sill with a radiator and some without, same with the tomatoes, and the problems are with all of the plants regardless of whether there is a radiator near by.

Also, I have two different types of tomato plant, tumbling tom and roma. I started the tumbling toms off first and they are the ones with the problems. I have some of them next to the roma and the roma have none of the problems Im having with the others.

[Jungle Jane]

Are you putting them outside or are they growing indoors permanently? The floppiness is from the suns heat then,I have to put some plants in the shade on very sunny days,my tomato plants have been wilting in direct sun,put them in the shade & water to let them get over it. They can be going in their final positions outside if they’re hardened up a bit,if they’ve never been outside before they are very tender to all weather.

Edit - the white patches are sunburn,they should hopefully all be alright....

[veggiechicken]

When are you going to plant these outside? Do you have a greenhouse? Where do you live?

I think they're struggling indoors - the courgette leaves are very long and spindly.

[Jungle Jane]

Do you think the tomato leaves look like they might have the beginnings of magnesium deficiency but potting them on into new compost would probably sort them out,if not Epsom salt mixed with water helps I don’t remember the dilution rate it’s something like two teaspoons in 100ml of water but I just made that up,google magnesium deficiency & Epsom salt

There’s advice about dilution in this thread -
https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...lot_84281.html

[wax]

No, no greenhouse but Im about to start hardening everything off this week. Im in Birmingham.

I hope it is just the heat / sun although they seemed fine while its been sunny and hot, and then over the last few days as the weather took a turn for the worst and the sun went it they started showing these signs. The tomatoes and gherkins that is.
The courgettes have been showing those signs for ages but got worse now. As soon as they grew any kind of larger leaves they were like that.

I will also try the Epsom salt thing.

Thanks!!!

[Scarlet]

Have you tipped up the pots and looked at the roots?? I've had serious problems this year with loads of maggots eating the roots from the young plants....fungus gnat larvae

You may need a magnifying glass to see them,

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=804

When did you last pot on, how big are the pots? Are any roots showing out of the bottom?
Have you got any photos of the roots?

[jackarmy]

Bigger pots and fresh compost should sort them out, Gourds in general dont half grow quick, pot them on and on ubtill their ready to go out,
this year so far is another strange one, keep them warm and plant them out as soon as it warms up a bit more.
loads on my lottie have their beans in, mine are getting pretty big now but they won go out till next week at least, trudt nature not the books and your own judgement will serve you best

[ameno]

Have you tipped up the pots and looked at the roots?? I've had serious problems this year with loads of maggots eating the roots from the young plants....fungus gnat larvae
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You may need a magnifying glass to see them,

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=804

When did you last pot on, how big are the pots? Are any roots showing out of the bottom?
Have you got any photos of the roots?

Yeah, my first sowings of cucumbers and peas were killed off by those nasty things.

[mcdood]

I'd also advise checking for fungus gnat grubs given you say small flies buzzing around. They can do a lot of damage to young plants. Take a couple of plants out of pots and you may find you don't have a lot of root left. If that's the case then wash off all the compost from the roots to get rid of the grubs and then pot them into fresh compost. A covering of grit on top of each pot will stop the fly laying eggs on the compost surface. Good luck

[wax]

The pots are 15cm diameter. I last potted on about 3 weeks ago.
Ive just had a few plants out of the pots for a look at the roots. As a beginner I'm not exactly sure how much root they should have but to be honest, I expected a bit more. I've just spent 10 minutes squinting through a magnifying glass and I couldnt find anything moving or resembling a creature there.
Heres a few pics of the roots.




I think it could be a magnesium deficiency as mentioned by Jungle Jane. The pictures of the leaves seem to match up anyway. Ive ordered some Epsom Salts so I will give them a go.
Not happy about losing all my spinach this week, I hope I can save the tomatoes.