One tomato good, One tomato bad.

15 years ago

a Sungold (good) and an Oxheart (not so good) in the same container. Both trench planted at the same time.

I just don't know why the Oxheart is drooping and the sungold seems fine. It did this once before and it was just lack of water. The container has been watered, the soil at the top of the container is not overly moist. I don't have a fertilizer strip, just Mel's mix. I didn't think it would need fertilizer this early in the game. I can always add something to either the soil or the water. Any ideas? I am concerned that maybe my drain hole is blocked .. too much water? Maybe I should dig my hand deeper in the soil to check moisture levels?

Is sungold just a naturally more robust variety than oxheart?

On a completely different note. I had posted earlier that I lost the top half of a tomato plant (it snapped off in the wind). Well, based on my browsings through this forum I tried "re-attaching" it to the plant. Didn't work. It just wilted. So I'm looking at this limp, wilted thing and decided to trench plant it (again, based on reading through this forum). My 2yr old daughter yanked it out of the ground (I shouldn't have reprimanded her. . .I mean, it looked dead)and it had 4 short white roots on it. So I thought, 'what the heck' and replanted it. A week later and I'm still in shock. ITS GROWING! I've really learned a lot here and I'm sending out a general THANK YOU out to the tomato forum, for my tomato education.

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Comments (8)

city_tomato
15 years ago
Other than being very leggy, I can't tell from that picture what is wrong. Are those things getting enough sun?
digdirt2
15 years ago
Agree - they are quite leggy. Otherwise it can be very unfair to compare different varieties as they have very different growing habits. ;) Cherry tomatoes are quite robust and fast growing so just be patient with the other one.

Only 1 drain hole? It needs several more. And feeding of course. Most definitely feeding. ;)

Dave
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Dave, Thank you. I know they are leggy :( unfortunately, it's one of the only spots where I can actually grow halfway decent tomatoes other than the wood bed in the side yard. As a result, I always plant the more productive cherry type tomatoes knowing I will get a decent harvest, albeit smaller than if they were full plants. I promise though that they actually look worse than normal because I have cut a ton of leaves off because of early blight. It was one of the only options to control it because up until about the last week or two it literally would rain every day or two making applying daconil nearly impossible and I honestly didn't feel comfortable applying it that often. We got over 3" in a week about 2 weeks ago... This bed actually has problems retaining moisture because it is full of wood/bark mulch as it was when I bought it. I know that is bad and I was going to change the soil this year, but an injury earlier in the year made that plan a bust. I will be putting in new soil next year. When I pulled the one plant up, and checked the soil, it was fairly dry, not bone dry, but not saturated either. today was actually the first day I watered my plants since planting (other than to feed) since I planted them. It has been almost a week at least since it rained, and with it this hot, I thought it was a water issue. The ones wilting from the heat though and very mild and barely noticeable with only the top leaves showing problems in the absolute midday sun. As for the mulch, I do not know anything about where it came from other than it is straw that was bought from a hardware/ feed store up the street. It has been on the plants for 2 months since the day I planted them. The ones in the wood box bed have the same mulch and no problems are seen. I'm just wondering if I should pull the plant up or let it be? Do you think it could be a result of the miracle gro? That was the only thing that changed before this happened. Also, if it was bacterial wilt, would the cutting have recovered like it did? I'm not sure what to do at this point... Dawn
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desertfarmerjohn
15 years ago
I'd try feeding them a bit and making sure that the water is draining adequately. Also, how large is your container?

Here is a link that might be useful: Container Gardening in the Desert
mr_potaohead
15 years ago
What I don't understand is that it looks like you have a monster sized yard. Why would you want to grow 2 plants in a container? I'd love to have a yard as big as yours.
mitanoff
Original Author
15 years ago
You mean you can't tell from the pictures which plant is which and what's wrong. . ? DUH. . my bad.. .open palmed smack just delivered to my forehead.
The plant on the left is sungold. The plant on the right is a pink oxheart. At the very top of the oxheart, the branches are visibly drooping. Actually, the lower branches are also droopy. Both plants were extremely leggy and are now branching out like crazy. I have no fear that if they survive they will be monsters. THe Sungold already has several trusses loaded with fruit. The oxheart has me worried. It drooped once before due to lack of water. This is not case now.
I will double check the drainage today and give it a dose of fertilizer.

Mr.Potatohead:
The long winter was driving me crazy and I needed to plant something. Hence the leggy plants in containers in my house until I could take 'em outside. Perhaps not good for the plants, but it kept me sane. My other maters are doing just fine (back beds). THis is my first summer in this house and I wasn't sure that the yard would be in a condition to plant. It was full of uprooted trees and rocks etc. My DH installed my raised beds as a Mother's day gift. . .ain't he sweet. .

The large yard you see in the original post (and to the left in the pic above) is my septic bed that we seeded with grass. Some quack must have swapped my grass seed for weeds. Because that sure as sugar ain't grass!
mr_potaohead
15 years ago
Now that is a GREAT looking garden. If the picture above is looking to the right of your original photo, then you really do have a monster size yard!
sprtsguy76
15 years ago
Another thing to take into consideration is that most heart tomato plants have wispy and droopy foilage.
mitanoff
Original Author
15 years ago
Really? OMG you have no idea how much better that makes me feel. I'll still add some fertilizer, but now I won't worry so much about it. I just couldn't understand how come the sungold looked like it was doing so much better! Thanks for the tip!

PS: Mr.PtatoH - my hubby appreciates your comments! Not enough people gets to see his hard work, :>

DFJohn: 18 Gallon, Josho container. THe hole is an overflow hole, not drainage. I have a stupice and purple calabash in another container (both have had about 2ft lopped off the top - one deer, one wind) that are doing fine.

One tomato good, One tomato bad.

Comments (8)

city_tomato

digdirt2

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One tomato good, One tomato bad.

Comments (8)

city_tomato

digdirt2

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