People are going to want a picture of the plant if possible to help with your issue. So many different things can be at work that it would be very difficult to answer without seeing the plant.

What are they growing in (as in what soil mix is in the pots)? What color are the pots? Are they sitting on concrete?

Hi Chaoticdreams-welcome to the world of gardening. I'm a newbie. I started last year much the same way you did but I started with two little potted citrus trees. Now I have gone crazy with a container garden.

Last year I planted 6 tomato plants. 2 in pots and 4 in the ground. They were all doing great until a point where one was looking spindly and though it had nice looking green fruit, the leaves looked weird and there weren't many. I searched on google for tomato problems and found a few possible answers. One was to look at the base of the plant and see if there is little black pellets in a loose pile. If there is, you have to look super good all over your tomato plant and see if there is a green worm on there. They are called horn worms. They camouflage so perfectly in with your plant and it will be hard to see. They are the same green as the tomato plant and have thin white stripes. If that's what's going on, you have to remove it and kill it. If there's one, keep looking, there's more. They eat the leaves first then they go for the tomatoes and then they move on to the next plant. They can get as big as your fingers. I don't know how to add a link here but if you google tomato horn worm you'll get lots of info. I lost all my tomato plants last year to them and then they moved on to my peppers and then I found two in my front yard on a potted plant. I don't know if I had a moth lay eggs or if they came in on a baby tomato plant. This year I started all my tomatoes from seed. More fun and I figure if I get hornworms again, I'll know I have a moth.

If you don't have a horn worm, Mamboman is right. The people here are brilliant but they can't make a proper diagnosis without some pictures :)

As far as pollinators go, I don't know your yard situation but if you plant things that attract butterflies, bees and hummingbirds, you'll find that next year you will have more of them come. Last year I had a couple of bees at best. Even with a huge flowering hedge I have. I then planted lavender, borage, bee balm, and a few other things. I also put up hummingbird feeders. This year I have bees and hover flies and hummingbirds and yesterday I practically swooned when I saw a carpenter bee on my strawberry plants :)

I also don't spray pesticides. Since I am growing fruits and vegetables as a hobby gardener so I can eat healthier, I can go through my container garden plant by plant and keep an eagle eye out for pest bugs and keep things pretty well under control. Plus I have regular bird feeders up with seed and I see the little birds rummaging around eating bugs from my pots. I don't want to kill the birds or the beneficial insects.

Best of luck to you. I hope the group can help you with your tomato plant!

What part of FL are you on? I used to live in Miami.

Take care-Jude

Welcome to the world of gardening!

You may change your opinion on tomatoes once you have tasted a homegrown one. They are lightyears above the taste of the store bought, bred to withstand shipping and ethelene gas ripened baseballs that pass for tomatoes!

And now to the issue at hand: The most common cause of yellowing leaves is overwatering. I think your smaller pots need the amount you are giving them, but the larger pot is probably not evaporating as fast as the other three. Have you checked the moisture level 4-6" under the surface?

GardenWebber sprouts_honor (Jennifer from Cleveland) had a wonderful suggestion on how to tell whether or not you need to water your tomatoes, and I quote here: "Get a wooden dowel rod (or two) and sink it in the ground near a plant or two and leave it. Pull it out when you think you need to water. If the top is dry and the bottom is a little damp, it's time to water. If it looks dark and feels saturated, wait to water. I use this technique with potted plants that don't like being over watered and it's helpful with in ground plants too."

I've used the dowel method in the garden and in some large pots and I can tell you that it works and makes it much easier to monitor moisture levels.

As for feeding your tomatoes, people who grow them in containers usually feed them every week to 10 days with a half strength solution of a balanced liquid fertilizer. Every time you water, nutrients are washed out of the growing medium. Plus Jobs spike probably are not very effective in a pot because you don't have the micro-herd that soil has to help make the spike's nutrients available for the plant to use.

I hope that helps.

Betsy

Here is a link that might be useful: Container Gardening Forum

The plant that's weird looking.

The plant that's doing well.

On the weird plant, which is way more yellow than the camera on my phone will have you believe, I haven't noticed anything munching on it like one of the others, which was some kind of weird flat bug that turned green when on the leaf. This plant is just yellow and skinny. I'm not using the fert. spikes as I researched them and found they weren't good for containers as you said Betsy. This was just granular fertilizer which of course I found out after the fact isn't good for containers either. Meh, i'll learn one day :)

I'm heading to home depot tonight so I'll see what I can find there that's liquid. Thanks for the advice :)

As for potting medium, yeah..... I'm new. I used miracle grow potting soil. I really wanted to get the super duper expensive stuff like Foxfarm, but my husband looked at my puppy dog eyes, laughed, and said no. He then proceeded to get MG and Sta Green as it was more in our price range. House payment or fresh veggies.... I hate hard decisions.

Sadly, i think it's too late to start over as they are kinda huge. My poor tomato cages can barely be seen. I don't think my soil choice has hurt though. Next year of course, I'll be living in the house I'm paying for and its previous owner had a really nice garden that I plan on revitalizing.

I live up near Panama City, pretty close to the Gulf. That's why I used containers as beach sand just doesn't grow anything well save sea oats :P New location is farther inland and so far my only problem will be lack of sun from too many shade trees. But that's an issue for next season.

I've seen a few bees and I have roses in bloom, a hibiscus, some petunias, and will be planting lavender and a butterfly bush tomorrow. So far not a single hummingbird has thought my feeder or my petunias look inviting, but that will take time. The bees are nothing like they were last year off the wildflowers and tree that's in bloom now, but I have seen a few. Something finally pollinated my squash as they are just about ready to be picked so I'm guessing my bees are just out when I'm not.

Yes that second plant looks a mess, but hindsight is always awesome and we realized way too late that we put the mater plants in a bad location. Aside from my cage that you can barely see, the chain link fence is doing a great support job LOL. Stakes are on my get list for tomorrow too as the cage just isn't cutting it all by its lonesome. Or maybe I should prune..... that just seems counterproductive :( I swear these plants just mutated overnight. One day they were small and growing into the cage and the next is the above!!

Thanks for the replies so far. Maybe I am over watering TBH. That's the only tan bag I have and it's the biggest. They were all a gift from a friend. It might be holding onto more water than the smaller black ones.

Cas