Sick tomatoes: yellow/purple leaves?

Hello everyone,
my tomatos are starting to look a bit sickly: the leaves are going progressively more yellow, with purple patches (see pic). Does anyone have any idea what's causing it?



Thanks for any suggestions!

 

Is that the new leaves or the older ones?
Are the new ones green?

 

Old ones mainly I think. I guess the ones at the top are OK so far.

 

I would guess a deficiency of some trace element, but I wouldn't like to guess which, you could try the old epsom salts thing but thats just an idea.

 

Hmm OK thanks

 

This is annoying me, as I can't remember. But you used to be able to get small sachets of stuff to water your toms with when they looked like that. Worked a treat...but:confused:

 

Just looks like a bit too much sun to me.

 

Aha - I really hope you're right! I've just put up the net curtains in there as things have been really really sunny lately. I've been feeding I'd have thought plenty of Wilkinson's own brand Tomorite so a feeding deficiency would be upsetting.

I'll post back in a week or two to let anyone else in the same boat know if too much sun was the problem.

 

My best guess is - magnesium defficiency, Tomato mosaic disease or infection of red spider mite.

As already mentioned give the plants a spray over with an epsom salts solution. Dissolve a half ounce in a pint and a quarter of water and spray on several occasions, but not if the sun is directly on the plants; they should be lightly shaded anyway - say every third day.

Check under the leaves for extremely fine webbing and use a magnifying glass to look for red spider mites.

Tomato mosaic virus - I would look that one up on the WWW for more comprehensive information than I can give here.


http://www.raffia.plus.com

 

oooh can they have too much sun? Mine have been planted out a few day ago and have started looking sickly since - they have been watered plenty however they are on a south facing wall with constant sunshine the last few days. - might this be the problem?

 

Thoughts I'd already left this message, but apparently not! Here's an updated version then: Thanks very much for your advice Pete and Plantsman - I bought some Epsom salts yesterday and started spraying last night: I added 20g or so to a 1 litre sprayer (very roughly the concentration you suggested I think). If it's bacterial/viral then there's probably not a whole lot I can do, and can't see any mites. Anyway, I'll report back on progress.

There's no shortage of tomatoes so it's not yet the end of the world. To hopefully show I'm not a complete idiot with toms, here's a pic of my first ripe one this year, taken on May 11th:

 

Midwich what kind of tomatoes are you growing ? are they big boys ?
I am growing money maker and they look great , but also growing beefeaters and they are not at all nice plants ,but quite a good crop,I have started to deleaf them quite drastically,would just be interested to know ,Kathy

 

Thanks! No heat or insulation as such, except a frost-guard heater to stop them freezing their behinds off at night (it's been really cold up here this year, around freezing almost every night until quite recently).

I germinate in very early January using a warm water bath so they're up in a few days. They then go straight into 5" pots on a sunny windowsill, and the curtains stay drawn from then on. Even with snow on the ground outside, if it's sunny the windowsill will be in the 80's in Jan/Feb: like a greenhouse in fact!

They go out into the greenhouse as late as possible to avoid the worst weather, and so they can easily be 3 feet high or more, this year I think mid-April. Most already had tomatoes forming on the first truss, and were on their second/third trusses flowering. Nighttime temps were still around freezing annoyingly, so the frostguard heater kept them at around 6 degrees centigrade minimum at night. Days weren't a problem as even the mildest of suns is enough even in April to warm the greenhouse. The first tom ripened by 11th May, and things went into full swing perhaps 2-3 weeks after that.

I'd been basically happy with Sungolds, Gardener's Delight and Brandywines, except up North they all took too long to get into gear. Last year then I trialled 5 varieties all touted for being fast on the draw: Stupice, Glacier, Tumbler, Early Girl and Prairie Fire. Long story short: Stupice and Glacier were the earliest, beating out the much-ballyhooed Tumbler by a number of weeks. Early Girl was about as fast as Tumbler, but powered through the rest of the season with a huge crop of toms. Taste was a big surprise: Stupice, Glacier and Early Girl were all the most tasty tomatoes we've ever had! Tumbler's taste was so-so by comparison, and not that speedy to ripen.

To be so fast to ripen, AND so unbelievably tasty kind've defies Nature really, but there you are. I think the photo above is Stupice. This year I'm growing Supice, Glacier and Early Girl. I bought the seed from http://www.tomatogrowers.com/ - they're in the US, but as seeds don't cost much to post they're great value. They have a huge range of toms too.


PS I made cages for the toms from stockwire, so they support themselves as they grow: I also don't prune at all (had enough of that with the Brandywines), so they pretty much look after themselves.