Marianne's Response

New potted plants damage?

I recently purchased two beginners garden kits with them both having three seeds each. Yesterday it was raining a lot and I think my pot that contained tomatoes, basil, and cosmos was soaked with rainwater even though I’d placed plastic wrap over them. They don’t have any holes in the bottom for water drainage and I tried to do what I could to pour water out and got the pool of water at the top but was concerned that doing too much would have taken too much nutrients out of the soil. Are my plants damaged? What should I do?

Posted by Lyric Houston on June 11, 2020

Marianne's Response

All plants even newly planted seeds need drainage holes in the container. You can recycle old plastic pots or pound holes in the bottom of tin cans but do not use containers without drainage holes. Do not worry about the plants not having enough nutrients. When young, the seedlings do not each much. Instead I would transplant the seeds into new pots with drainage holes and keep the soil moist but not wet. The news is that a good soak most likely did not damage the seeds and if placed in potting soil now they should sprout. Keep growing, Marianne Binetti

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