[ex-cavator]

I have tomatoes, chillies, and aubergines in my greenhouse. All were planted on at the same time into the same size pots using the same compost (B&Q General Purpose), and are fed and watered in exactly the same way.

The tomatoes and the chillies are healthy and producing fruit - but neither are as sturdy, productive, or as advanced as those in my son's greenhouse, where, though treated exactly the same, they have been hotter, as my greenhouse has a couple of panes missing.

But why has the compost in the tomato pots remained fresh looking and crumbly on the surface, whereas that in the chilli & aubergine pots gone black / green & compact - looks generally a bit 'sour' or 'rancid' - don't quite know how to describe it better?

And why have my aubergines failed to grow - they keep hanging on, but haven't really got much bigger, but just keep losing leaves from the bottom up - they just wither & drop off?

I just need to understand where I'm going wrong - obviously the toms are happy though presumably could do with being a bit warmer, but what should I do differently with the others?  

[mumofstig]

Aubergines like heat even more than toms. So if you have panes missing they will be really struggling They also like humidity, so you could try leaving a bowl of water near them.

Perhaps the chillies didn't need as much water as they've been getting, so the pots have stayed a bit on the wet side ..............keep chillies a bit dryer than toms.