What's wrong with my tomato plants?

Hi all

I've grown several varieties of tomato from seed this year and many of them seem to look a bit unhealthy. They're about 10 weeks old and 8-12" tall. Recently I planted them out to their final spot, into the soil in my (unheated) polytunnel, as I could see flower buds forming.

I can't help noticing though that the leaves look a bit odd on many plants - they are a pale green and have developed a purple edging. Some of the lower-down, older leaves are yellow with purple edging. In contrast, a few plants are a darker green with no purple edging and these look healthier to my eye - there's only one or two of them though!

I'm not sure whether this is just normal variation or whether it's a sign something's up with them. I've planted them into well-manured soil but could they still not be getting enough nutrients? Should I feed them? Some of them were looking a bit peaky before I planted them out, possibly due to being in a too-small pot - could this cause problems and if so, now they're in the soil, will they recover? I should've been more on top of it but I've bitten off way more than I can chew this year as regards the amount of different veg I'm growing :o

Any advice welcome as always

Paddy

 

Hi Paddy. Sometimes when plants look as you describe, it CAN be due to large swings in temperature. You say your polytunnel is unheated, were the plants kept somewhere heated before you planted them out ? If so, did you allow the plants to harden off before planting ? Cheers...freddy.

 

Thanks Freddy,

Yes, they were hardened off in the poly for quite a while before being planted out.

Paddy

 

"I should've been more on top of it but I've bitten off way more than I can chew this year as regards the amount of different veg I'm growing"

This is, sadly, my normal state every year :(

I think I have seen what you describe, and IME its been stress - either temperature, or struggling to drink in small pots, or somesuch - basically the plant stalling. If so they will grow out of it. A foliar feed might help hurry things up, but general advice is not to feed Toms until first truss has set. However, having said that, "normal" would be potting on up the pot sizes, and each time the plant would get fresh, blanaced, nutrients from the potting compost

Just don't feed them with anything high in Nitrogen, as that will encourage leaf and deter flower / fruit

 

Thanks for the responses! That's helpful and reassuring. Would a seaweed feed be appropriate at this stage, do you think?

 

No, as Kristen says you don't want to feed them yet. There are enough nutrients in the soil / compost for the plants, only add a feed rich in seaweed once the first truss sets. It's the fruits that need that feed.

 

I'm going to disagree! The no-early-feed thing is for folk who have done it right - repotted at the right time, given the plants nutrients through that extra bit of new compost, and I would hazard a guess that the people who promote the no-early-feed policy grow pretty much perfect, un-stressed, plants - lucky them!!

OTOH my view is that stressed plants will benefit from a tonic, hence my earlier suggestion of foliar feed. A seaweed-based feed (such as Maxi-crop) would probably be fine, but I'm not sure of Maxicrop's nutrient ratio.

Basically something that is not specifically high in Nitrogen (which will encourage leafy growth). Look at the NPK ratio and make sure that the 3 numbers are the same, or that the first (i.e. Nitrogen) number is no higher than the other two.

So a 1:1:1 is a general fertilzer. (2:2:2 is the same, as is 20:20:20, its just "stronger", but it has the same "balance")

0:10:10 has no Nitrogen at all, but equal amount of "P" Phosphorous and "K" Potassium

10:0:0 is all Nitrogen. and 10:5:5 is High nitrogen - twice as much N as P & K

For reference: normal tomato feed (i.e. for once fruit has formed) is around 5:5:10 or 4:4:8 - i.e. about half as much "N" Nitorogen & "P" Phosphorous as there is "K" Pottassium

 

Hi

Just an update - my tomatoes have started to recover (probably thanks to the recent hot weather!) and have started flowering. Some of the plants still look 'stressed' though, so today I gave all those with open flowers a feed (I know you're supposed to wait for the fruit, but I figured it wouldn't do them any harm). I used an organic tomato liquid feed NPK 4:2:6 and supplemented with seaweed which I also sprayed onto the foliage as well. I'll let you know what happens!

Btw - how do you ensure that plants will get pollinated in a polytunnel? Some bees have been in, I've seen them flying around, but I've not seen any on the tomato flowers themselves.

Paddy

 

Hello all,

I've just discovered some worrying black spots on the leaves of my tomatoes in the polytunnel. Here's a picture:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/IKpcZyTDtrKTTetWMWL1jQ?feat=directlink

Anyone have any idea what it could be?

Paddy

 

I put my tomatoes out last week after re potting. Very healthy plants I must say and i am feeling quite proud as I have never grown toms from seed. :yho: The leaves in some went white in places creating a variegated look. The ones that have grown since are fine. Was this caused by my grandchildren watering in strong sunlight?

 

Thanks for the response - that is interesting but sounds quite strange, as my recent testing of the soil pH said it was slightly alkali! And we definitely don't have sandy soil - quite the opposite. I gave the plants some tomato feed a few days ago, which is high in potash obviously, but they have only had the one feed so far this season! So I'm pretty sure that doesn't count as over-application. Could it be that the one application caused a deficiency?

Paddy