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Growing Tomatoes

What's wrong with my tomato plants?

13 years ago

I'm wondering if anyone can provide some help as to what might be going on with my tomatoes. These are "Organic Heirlooms" purchased from the grocery store and were transplanted at the end of May.

The one on the left is Cherokee Purple and seems to be growing well, but only has one green tomato and for some reason isn't producing flowers or fruit, only leaves and small buds.

The other is German Striped, and this one was about even with the other plant until a couple of weeks after transplanting when it started to lag behind. Then the leaves started yellowing from the bottom up, and this hasn't really stopped ever since.

I'm using Al's 5:1:1 mix with Flower-Tone fertilizer and dolomitic lime mixed in. I have also been feeding with fish emulsion and Flower-Tone in water. After the yellowing started appearing on the second plant, I tried aerated steer manure tea as a foliar feed and soil drench which seemed to really help initially, but the yellowing eventually continued. I have watered with 1-2 teaspoons of epsom salts a couple of times, and usually pH the water to about 6.3 using white vinegar or a white vinegar and powdered egg shell mixture.

Here are some pictures:

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Any ideas?

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Comments (6)

helenh
13 years ago
My tomato leaves are curling in 100 degree heat. Is it warm there?
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User
Original Author
13 years ago
The curling may indeed be from the heat, but is also said to be caused from other stressing factors from what I understand. I may have noticed more severe curling during hotter weeks this season, but I'm not sure what to do about it.
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This is a Cherokee Purple and it's growing in a pot. The tomatoes got blossom rot so I just gave it calcium yesterday but what's wrong with the leaves? Seems to just be on the bottom half of the plant. Do I need to remove the leaves? Any help/advice would be much appreciated!
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jean is right, that is *not* glyphosate damage, that looks like 2-4D damage. My first year of gardening I listened to my grandpa and he said "aw hell just spray roundup around the plants to keep the weeds down. Well, my tomatoes looked like this afterwards: 2-4D causes plants to basically grow themselves to death, it causes the plant to grow in all kinds of weird directions and shapes, it makes them curl. If it is herbicide damage, then My vote goes into the 2-4D type of chemicals. Are there any farm fields next to you that might have gotten sprayed? Another thing no one has mentioned yet is disease, I was scolded and scared by my dad and grandpa when getting advice "you never never never plant tomatoes in the same dirt year over year" they said. Eggplant, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco are all in the nightshade family. They will be vulnerable to the same sets of diseases. Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden
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It is phosphorous deficiency and both of the fertilizers you are using are low phos so some additional supplement is needed. Soft rock phosphate is the quickest acting organic, a dose of MG the fasted synthetic solution.. You can Google pics of 'phosphorous deficiency in tomato plants' for pics to compare if you wish. As Linda said, it is difficult to grow organically in containers. There is no soil food web to feed the plants so you have to provide all the nutrients on a regular basis and during periods of heavy rain that often means weekly. Dave.
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Comments (2)
Unfortunately I think you're right, everything I've searched for so far points to herbicide damage. It's completely my own fault too I think. I thought I was careful and and was avoiding drift. Thanks for the sites though they're really helpful. I still can't figure out if my plants are salvageable or if I should tear them out and plant new. I don't want to keep growing them if they've been permanently damaged or unsafe to consume.
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taz6122
13 years ago
Keep the soil moist and put some shade cloth up or something to shade them from the noon sun. That's about all that can be done.
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suddensam
13 years ago
The answer is clear to me. The pots are too small, I dont think its possible to supply food and water to a plant thats that size, in the heat that there enduring on concrete thats being reflected around them constantly. If you have to grow there next time use bigger containers, get them off the concrete, with a milk crate block or anything. A good straw mulch at least 4-6" thick. Im not looking for a fight with other growers, its just I dont think its possible to raise indeterminate tomatos in less then 18 gal pots, especially in a situation like you have there on concrete, I think there cooking. If they did produce the fruit would be poor quality. It takes a lot of work to raise tomatos as you know, use a bigger container, you and the tomatos will be happier.
Plant em if you got em.
Sam
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taz6122
13 years ago
Sam is right about the concrete. My indeterminate plants are doing fine in 5 gallon buckets on grass. I water every day and water with 1/4 strength 10-10-10 fert. every week plus fish emulsion foliar spray.
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User
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the replies. I was concerned about using organic matter-based fertilizers in containers, but you may very well be right about the container sizes and being on concrete. These are 11 gallon containers if I remember correctly, and I painted them to help keep them cool but didn't think to insulate them from the ground. It does get up over 100 degrees F here during the summer.
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