rbel wrote in message ...
On Wed, 4 Dec 2013 20:23:53 -0000, "Frank Booth"
wrote:


rbel wrote in message
...

I have not grown pansies before and this is what has happed to a
couple of the plants http://i.imgur.com/7RrjJNT.jpg

Located in south Devon we have not experienced any air frosts as yet,
just a couple of mild ground frosts which have not caused any problems
to the Bacopa snowflake hanging baskets or the Solanum rantonnetii
which are close to the planters with the pansies and which I would
think are far more tender.

Grateful for any suggestions.

Winter pansies should be fully hardy. This looks fairly similar to a
problem
I had with strawberries for a few years when they were grown in
containers
with the edges of the leaves first browning off and gradually spreading
inwards with the leaf eventually dying. The same variety I had in the
ground
did not develop these symptoms. So I reckon it's a soil problem, possibly
fungal. I had no joy trying to identify the exact cause and even a few
experienced strawberry growers I contacted could not identify the
symptoms
as they had never come across them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12074760@N03/11210938926/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12074760@N03/5648608113/


Frank, many thanks for the response.

In your images I can just discern a slightly darker brown inner
'border' to the dead areas which I cannot see on the pansies in
question.

The compost comes from the same batch of JI3 we have used for other
planting around the same date with no apparent ill effects which would
seem to preclude a soil problem. Is a fungal infection likely to
strike just three plants out of 20+ in the same two containers?

I don't know. The problem doesn't seem to be mentioned on the internet or
any book I've read on strawberry growing. I had the strawberry plants in 6
different containers 3 of them neighbouring using the same compost. Most of
the plants in those 3 succumbed . Even in some cases young undeveloped
growth from the crown in May (befioe the leaves had unfolded) showed
symptoms. But a few plants did escape the problem. In the other 3 cotainers,
about 6-7 ft feet away from the affected ones the plants don't seem to have
that problem I haven't changed the soil for any of the containers, but I
do recall using a new bag of compost for the affected containers 3 years ago
when the problem started the folling season..