Plant are drowning in stinky water, put drainage holes in dem pots

How many drainage holes do I need? I have six 5/8 inch holes, and nothing is blocking the holes.

If your container is of a dark color the roots may be getting cooked a bit. Try shading the pot but not the plant if that's the case. Hope this is it, easy to correct.

jbann23 might have a point - is the pot dark-colored and exposed to full sunlight? Dark pots can get very hot in the sun...try wrapping it with a white trash bag or shading it somehow.

The pot is a plastic, clay-colored pot. I don't think of it as dark, but maybe it is.

Cheryl

Too many times, the symptoms of too-little-water and too-much-water are very similar....

I'm wondering if perhaps you haven't given it enough water: the top few inches are okay, but the lower part of the pot isn't. Some soil-less mixes contain a lot of peat. Peat can hold a lot of water -- but when already dry, peat hates to absorb moisture.

If the yellowing began before the rain stopped, it might be that the first yellowing was caused by too much moisture, and the later yellowing was from too little moisture. Or perhaps the peat wasn't thoroughly damp when you potted it, and even the rainfall didn't remedy that situation.

So I'd advise giving the plant the opportunity to absorb as much water as possible. The question is how best to accomplish that, because if you keep watering, the water may just run through empty spaces in the pot (where the dry peat has shrunken away from the pot), and do very little to moisten the mix.

If it weren't a heavy pot, you could put it in a larger container (or even a large plastic bag) and wait until plenty of water was absorbed.

Maybe someone else can suggest a better method to try.

If you don't already have mulch, add some at the top of the pot to cut down on soil moisture evaporation.

And water more and more often.

One possible disadvantage of trying this is that you may lose some fruit to splitting.

Magnesium?

We are all just guessing and that's really all we can do. A picture would help greatly here, but still may not be enough.

Adding an organic fertilizer isn't saying much. Most of them are near useless in containers because they aren't immediately available to plants, but must undergo conversion by soil organisms before the plants can use them. This process isn't particularly reliable in a container with soil less growing media.

What I can tell from your post is that you are only watering when the top 2-3 inches are dry, you are using a soil-less media of some kind and your container has at least one drainage hole (1 is all that is needed as long as it isn't clogged).

All of this is very good.

That you are getting yellowing foliage and you are using organic fertilizers (you don't say if they are being used regularly or not) seems most likely, to me, to be a lack of nutrients.

I can't *know* that from what you posted, but the fact you are using an organic rather than synthetic (immediately plant available) fertilizer in containers and seeing yellowing suggests it.

A single dose of full (or even half) strength Miracle Grow 24-8-16 followed by a week of waiting will definitively reveal if the problem is nutrient related.

Your watering practices and choice of a non soil based media in containers are both spot on.

Ditto what justaguy said regarding fertilizer. Sounds like nitrogen deficiency to me. You might add a tablespoon of Epsom salt per gallon of water along with the recommended amount of Miracle-Gro. If you're anti-Monsanto, use Schultz tomato food. It's even better because it doesn't cause as much salts buildup.

And I think a full size plant in a 5-gallon container is gonna require more frequent watering than once every 4 days. I wouldn't go more than a day or two without a good 10-count out the end of a garden hose. If your mix is porous enough, any excess water will drain off and leave the medium sufficiently moist.

Thanks, all, for your help. I can move the pot (maybe that is an indication right there that it is too dry!). If the root ball is dry, do you think sitting it in a kiddie pool for a couple of hours would be an adequate length of time?

Thanks for the recommendations on fertilizing. Your probably right about the fertilizer I used not being rapidly available. The container says its a professional mix for in-ground and container plants, but your guess is as good as mine as to what that really means--made by a professional for suckers like me to buy? ;-)

Cheryl

OP wrote "do you think sitting it in a kiddie pool for a couple of hours would be an adequate length of time?"

Way too long. It would drown. Roots would die.

Never, ever, soak longer than 20 minutes.

Beyond that, you haven't told us the size of the pot and the size of the plant. Perhaps the pot is on the small size?

A 5+ gallon pot sitting in a kiddie pool with maybe 3 or 4 inches of water in it should not be a problem. A couple of hours might be what is needed for the potting medium to wick moisture to the top of the pot.

OTH, if the kiddie pool has 18" of water, then a much shorter time would be in order. Watch it and when the surface shows signs of being nicely moist, outta tha' pool!

I am a proponent of moisture meters, you can get a pretty good one for less than $10, with them you can check the moisture level of your potting medium much deeper in the pot with little disruption of the root system.

Bets

Some yellowing is normal. It is an indication that fruit is beginning to set. See if the yellowing is happening at that time.

Tom