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Growing Tomatoes

Leaves on tomato seedlings dying

9 years ago

I've had several tomato seedlings going for about a month and things have been going well. I re-potted them from peat moss awhile ago and they really started to take off, but now the leaves are curling and dying. It started really suddenly, but since I haven't changed my watering habits or the amount of sun they receive, I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong.

Can anyone help?

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Comments (8)

jackleroy
Original Author
9 years ago
This is a younger seedling and you can see the leaves at the top of the picture doing the same thing.
missingtheobvious
9 years ago
What medium did you use to pot them?

Is the top seedling in its permanent pot? If so, how large is the pot and what variety is the seedling?
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livelovelaugh2010 - That "jiffy" mix you used to start your plants is terrible soil. I have used it in the past with very little success. The soil that you need should be dark rich and soft. Jiffy seed starting mix is way to light and has no nutrients in it. Also it looks like they need water... a lot more water. Personally when im growing my seedlings i keep them soaked. I actually have holes in the bottom of every plastic cup and fill my trays with water. I don't water from above, but just let them "suck" up the water from the tray. Other than the lack of water and nutrients the color of the plants looks good. The dark green of the topside leaves shows they like the grow lights (Maybe a bit to close to the plants. A few inches away is fine.) The purple on the bottom of the leaves is from the stress the plants are under, that will go away when that plants starts growing again. TO SUM IT UP: Crispy leaves = too much light/heat & not enough water Purple under leaves = stress or temp not right Small plants = No nutrients, bad soil conditions Dont give up. A few small changes will make all the difference in the world.
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Not sure about the top picture, in which I don't even see a first set of leaves on the plant, but in the bottom picture I see what I call "bowed head". Doesn't look like damping off. Damping off is rotting at the base of the stem, so the whole plant falls over. Also doesn't look like poor lighting, in which a leggy plant with big leaves would start to tilt. Looks more like over-watering stress. Once the plants come up, you want the roots to head south, and they won't do that if the top of the soil is always wet. The soil does really look moist in these later pictures. Although your plants don't look that leggy, they also are pretty young, so they may just not have had a chance to get leggy yet, with poor lighting. It's good you now have decent lights. Yes, be careful about heat. Do you know the soil temperature? It's best at 70-75F. Overheating would be a major stressor.
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I've been growing tomatoes in PB Co for 20 years now, and only two seasons produced a glut of tomatoes. (apparently I'm not an expert!). You can be certain that disease will hit - usually hard. I think the best thing to do is keep the leaves dry - a lot of that depends on the weather, because of the humidity and heavy dew. put the tomato plants where they will receive the most sunlight - ideally as early in the day as possible so they can dry off.Try not to crowd the plants. Consider trimming off dead leaves/branches a daily chore. What type of tomatoes are they? I've only grown heirlooms, but next year, I'm going to plant some disease resistant hybrids as well. I rarely have insect damage, so I can't dentify a pest .( my vegetable garden is overrun with lizards and cobwebs.) Those plants may not recover, but if you can find some transplants , you could give it a second try this season - there's about 2 months until the rains start, and the diseases set in.
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seysonn
9 years ago
I think they've got sunburn. I might be wrong.
jackleroy
Original Author
9 years ago
Neither plant is in its permanent pot. The top is a super beef and the bottom is a quarter century, both from Burpee. They are both in potting soil. I have others in the same medium that are doing really well.

Sunburn was my first reaction, but the past week have been overly cloudy, rainy and cold, so I haven't been putting them out at all. They've been staying inside on the windowsill to get as much light as possible. Today was the first day that I put them outside again and they seem to have gotten a little worse.
labradors_gw
9 years ago
It looks like sunburn/wind-burn to me.

Linda
digdirt2
9 years ago
Agree. Environmental damage (sun and Wind) due to lack of proper hardening off procedures. In and out and in and out doesn't work at all well.

Google 'how to harden off plants'.

Dave
jackleroy
Original Author
9 years ago
Okay, I'll stop putting them out for awhile. Is there anything else I can do to help them recover?
digdirt2
9 years ago
Okay, I'll stop putting them out for awhile. Is there anything else I can do to help them recover?

Sorry but I don't think you understand what we are saying. You cannot radically change the environment of a plant without damage. The damage is done now since they weren't hardened off first so you might as well leave them out. The damaged parts will die and fall off but the new growth will slowly replace it and should be ok . Taking them back inside only to move them back out side later on will only reverse the progress made and then cause more damage.

Plants need to be very gradually - over a period of 7-10 days - exposed to the the outside when they have been grown indoors. This is called Hardening Off and there are FAQs here as well as lots of internet info about it.. They never go from inside directly into the bright sun.

Rather they go in slow steps from inside out into the world. First to sheltered shade like a screen porch or under a deck, then into shade protected from wind and high temps, then into light sun for a few hours, and gradually over several days into more and more sun for longer periods.

And once they start out they don't go back indoors again except briefly in the case of severe storms or such.

Dave

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