Question

[tomatoaddict]

This is my first year growing tomatoes from seed. I have some big healthy plants about 3 weeks old. I noticed the stalk is turning a purple color. Is this normal?

[dcarch]

What's the variety?

dcarch

[tomatoaddict]

Okay, I have Ugly Ripe, A Beefsteak, Bucks County(hybrid).
They all seem very sturdy and healthy.

[dcarch]

I think some stems can be purple; however, the bottom of the leaves should not be.

dcarch

[landarc]

I would look at temperatures, if too low, that can cause pruple to show up in seedlings. Just an idea.

[tomatoaddict]

I have fertilized them once. I do have a fan running on them that is cooling things down quite a bit. The leaves all look quite healthy. So it sounds like I might just have it a bit too cool?

[carolyn137]

Purple looking stems and leaves is usually due to too cool conditions and a lack of P uptake. Ph that's off can also do it as well as lack of some other minerals, but that would be rare.

As soon as you plant them outside they should do fine.

If the purple color bothers you you can spray with dilute fish or seaweed prep which has P as well as many other micronutrients that then can be absorbed thru the leaves rather than the roots.

If it's convenient for you to raise the temps b/c the purple color bothers you, then fine, but I wouldn't b'c the best seedlings are those that are grown on the cool side so they grow slowly.

[tomatoaddict]

Thanks Dr. Carolyn. I am going to get the fish spray. I feel better now. I was just worried that something was wrong.
Thanks for all the answers from everyone.
Terry

[dice]

Could be a mineral deficiency, although
I would not jump to that conclusion without
any other symptoms if I had not grown that
variety before.

Photos of more mature plants with deficiency
diseases can be found here:

http://www.luminet.net/~wenonah/min-def/tomatoes.htm

You could pull one aside, spray it with a *very*
dilute solution of liquified kelp or fish emulsion
(or better yet, a mixture of the two) and see
if the purple disappears. Those organic products
typically need to be broken down by bacteria
before nutrients become available to the plant,
so do not expect instant results (I would check
for differences after two weeks).

[michael johnson]

Young tomato plants that turn blue or purple in the stem, is nearly always due to them getting a bit of a chill in cold or reduced temperatures , the cure is simple- bring them into a warmer environment of about 72 degrees F, and give them a mineral and trace element supplement straight away-( with no added fertilizer in it) they will return to the normal pale green stem within 24 hrs,

The cold causes a calcium lock up in the stem and other minerals, so the dose of trace element minerals free's it up again.

Dont let anyone tell you that the purple stem state, doesnt do any damage if allowed to continue, and that plants eventualy recover from it,- they sometimes do- but they never quite make the healthy plants they should have done and end up being only half the plant they should have been with thin woody stems, instead of the thick light green stems of normal plants,- it sets them back weeks in terms of growth and recovery time and definitely stunts the plants,with reduced yields, thats why its always best to keep on hand a supply of trace element powder, or a very strong plain seaweed extract-which is a bit slower in acting,

Over here in the Uk if any experianced grower gets a bad dose of the blue stalk on a tray of seedlings and doesnt have any trace elements to hand, he usualy ditches the whole tray and starts over, because its quicker to re-germinate a fresh set of seeds and only sets him back about six days or so.

If the stalks have only just turned blue overnight- very often all that is needed is a quick warming up in about 72 degrees F for a few days and they will return to normal again without any further treatment, but if the blue or purple state is allowed to continue for say- a week to ten days before action is taken, then more drastic treatment is called for in order to save the seedlings.

I personaly always make sure I have a stock of treatment available beforehand to be prepared for any eventuality .

[carolyn137]

The cold causes a calcium lock up in the stem and other minerals, so the dose of trace element minerals free's it up again.

*****

It's P, not Ca++ that's the primary cause of stems and leaves turning purple. And it's not lock up in the stem, it's lack of absorption thru the roots when they are too cold.

And as I suggested above, spraying with dilute fish or seaweed does reverse it b'c the P and other minerals that can also cause it, altho more rarely, are absorbed thru the leaves, not thru the roots, which is where normal absorption comes from.

Michael, haven't you ever put out perfectly normal plants and then had a cold snap that turned them purplish yellow?

I have, many times, and they come out of it just fine and are healthy, productive plants as soon as the weather warms when the discoloration disappears, with no intervention needed at all.

[Ruth_10]

Dont let anyone tell you that the purple stem state, doesnt do any damage if allowed to continue, and that plants eventualy recover from it,- they sometimes do- but they never quite make the healthy plants they should have done and end up being only half the plant they should have been with thin woody stems, instead of the thick light green stems of normal plants,- it sets them back weeks in terms of growth and recovery time and definitely stunts the plants,with reduced yields,

Michael, I've had any number of tomato seedlings with "the purple" and they have turned into large, healthy, productive plants. Or this: every year I have volunteers come up. They get hit with some cold, cold weather but they shake it off and go on to become good specimens (if I let them .

[michael johnson]

Nah'- I have seen the damage it does too many times over the years to brush it off just like that, the only way to compare them is get a bunch of identical seedlings and let one lot go outside for a while to get nice and blue or purple, then just bring up the others with the nice green stems- to the planting out stage, you will notice straight away that the ones with the green stems are bigger and healthier and perhaps several inches taller- simply because they haven't been checked or knocked back, plant them side by side and then wait until the end of the season and see which gives the better results and productivity. it will be so obvious.

Whatever the actual element is in the stem that locks up because of the cold and turns them blue- the addition or trace element minerals certainly cures it almost overnight-especialy if a bit of heat is applied, It may be P but I could have sworn it was Calcium, perhaps I am confusing it with BER, however trace elements will cure it-seaweed extract is ok and does work, but its not nearly as strong and quick acting as the pure trace element powder if you can get it.

Half a teaspoonfull in a 2 litre watering can- works absolute wonders over night.

Additional information- if you can get hold of some seaweed meal in granular form, and incorperate it into all you compost mixes from the start seed thro to potting and a handfull in the planting hole at the time of planting out- it offers some form of frost and cold protection,they did a lot of experimenting in that seed savers organisation up in the high mountain area of the USA, and they found that the seaweed meal protected all the ones planted out from two or three degrees of frost and they survived and lived -whilst those without it perished totaly , it was somewhere in the High seirra region, I just forget the name of the organisation, they brough back a lot of siberian seeds from a trip once including Shasha's Alti pride, and Aurora, and things like that, real good stuff this seaweed meal- got a bag of it kicking about the place somewhere.

I am wondering what or how difficult it is going to be diagnosing that new rare tomato (The Blue One) they are talking about on the forum -which appears to have a blue or purple stem to start with,

I cant really understand how some of you state that blued or purple stems caused by the cold- recover ok later on, I dont know if its any different over there where it may be slightly warmer generaly, but over here in the Uk which is normaly a cold climate for most of the year save for about four months in the spring and summer, if we have a box of seedlings that have been blued, and are planted out (if they live) they just sit there as stunted plants for about a month or more- losing valuable time, and do absolutly nothing barely moving at all, whilst on the other hand their green stemmed brothers and sisters are racing away from the start and are usualy a good foot to eighteen inches taller, before the blued ones start to take off -to me there is no sense in bothering with them-and normaly just chuck them out onto the compost heap, but thats probably a thing of the past for us now as we normaly take very good precautions not to let it happen in the first place.

[dice]

"however trace elements will cure it-seaweed extract
is ok and does work, but its not nearly as strong and
quick acting as the pure trace element powder if you
can get it.

Half a teaspoonfull in a 2 litre watering can -
works absolute wonders over night."

So this would be some kind of chelated minerals that
are entirely water soluble?

(Fritted trace elements are bound up with some
kind of glass to make them slow release. If you
mix them up with water, they don't dissolve,
so that type of trace element soil amendment
is probably not what you are referring to here.)

Edit: Fritted trace elements seem to be
popular in hydroponics, so they probably
do dissolve in water, but very slowly,
due to the fritting. I still would not put
them in a sprayer (might clog it up), but
whatever dissolves initially on mixing
with water may be enough to treat seedlings
if the trace elements are watered in to
the planting mix rather than sprayed on
the foliage.

[Worth1]

I always have purple plants, the bottom of the leaves stems and all.
As soon as the weather warms up to night time temps of around 65 or 70 F the color goes to green, ‘due to what Carolyn said.

I have planted as well as my folks, tomatoes with temps that dip into the 30s at night.
If there was a threat of frost we would put coffee cans over the plants to protect them.
Then in the morning after the frost cleared off we would remove them.

Bringing the plants in and out of the house for days on end that I hear folks talk about just amazes me, ‘at least for here in Texas.
This constant babying of plants does nothing but confuse the plant.

As I said before in another post I started my plants from seed in a room under lights that got down to 55 and 60 F at night.

I planted seeds in mid February turned the lights on to 14 hours and left for Alaska.
I am now planting the plants out doors with temps that go into the 40s and 50s at night.
With day time temps in the 60s and 70s.
As soon as I got home I put the plants out side in the sun with none of the so called hardening off tray dance.
The sun is week this time of the year so you can get away with this, don’t try it a month from now.

I always get complaments from folks that say how healthy my plants look and how fast they grow when the weather warms up.

Heres what I came home to after I got back from Alaska in two weeks.

That’s right, from putting seeds in the soil to putting out side 19 days total.
I bet they do better than the babied ones.

To each his or her own,





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