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Growing Tomatoes

Trouble in paradise. Some sick tomato plants

13 years ago

I have some problems with some of the tomato plants

Problem 1: the one on the left is Lemon Boy. This plant literally made me feel like a looser when I bought it from Home Depot. It had ticker body and very dark green leaves compare to my seedlings. My plants looked like joke compare to this because they were tiny. 5 weeks after sharing the same garden bed, the rest took of but this one is getting yellow leaves and becoming more and more light color. I can see very a few new coming leaves and one very unhealthy looking blossom

This is also another one in the next garden bed. This seems ok but it has curling and weak leaves. Plant is behind compare to rest of them in the same garden bed.

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Comments (6)

plantslayer
13 years ago
I have only been growing tomatoes for 5 years or so, but the yellowed plant reminds me of some plants I had that were put in overly damp soil... they look generally sick, but no clear signs of one plant disease or another (i.e. oddly shaped splotches, mold or similar markings). From my limited experience and what I have read here and elsewhere online, this kind of thing (general yellowing, greyish purple veins, etc) seems to be due to environmental issues such as low temps or damp soil. Is it possible that more water is draining into that corner of the bed?

Also some varieties handle tough conditions better than others, so that alone might account for the difference between plants. Maybe someone with more experience can find signs of other problems.
amberroses
13 years ago
Are you in Florida? This is happening to my plants too and I suspect thrips and a virus.
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I answered this elsewhere. -- The first several images show shortage of water at some time. -- The containers are a tad small for the large plants, especially the watermelon. -- Plus they are getting reflected heat from the concrete. That plus sun directly onto the containers kills roots on the sunny side. -- Also look like need nitrogen. Are you fertilizing?
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I've had a similar issue for years (fusarium wilt) and this year have started grafting my heirloom seedlings onto Maxifort and Collosus rootstock. I have a friend who only uses grafted tomato plants and is quite successful. I'm counting on the same success! I wish you well. If you are planting heirlooms, you may want to look into grafting.
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jean001a
13 years ago
Any composted manure in your growing mix?

If so, review this info about residual agricultural pesticides --
http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/soilmgmt/Clopyralid.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: contaminated organic matter
taz6122
13 years ago
The soil looks way too wet. IME the larger the fruit the plant produces, the more moisture the plant can handle. In other words a slicer can handle more moisture than a cherry even when not producing. This is an observation I've just noticed this year and may not be true for all varieties. When in the same flat the water needs for larger fruited plants has turned the cherries leaves yellow. I won't be putting them in the same flats next time around.
Ebru74
Original Author
13 years ago
I am in Houston. The second picture more like the virus or herbicide damage looking one.
The first one (lemon boy next to Creole) has crisp looking(and feels that way too) leaves. If I didn't have four tomato plants in the same bed with exactly same soil mix I would have suspect something about the soil but the rest of them doing just fine (I have Sprite and Dona on the other side). I used Black Kow manure from Lowes for all my garden beds.
I took the picture right after I watered them. Houston is already reaching 90F during the day so I water those plants every other day early in the morning. I water just a little bit so they don't need to be stressed for the water or being overwatered.
terrybull
13 years ago
a high ph can make them look like that. do you have ph meter/tester?

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