Disease or deficiency?

[clkingtx]

Hello,

I have been having some yellowing leaves on my tomato plants. I am not sure what the problem is. I have been pulling them off as I find them, and many plants don't have any more yellowing leaves, but new plants are still getting some. Is it some sort of deficiency or something else. The closest picture I can find is of salt burn in leaves, but I don't know if that is what it is. Here are a few pictures...

[RayR]

Maybe you can help answering your own question. Yellowing leaves and crispy margins can be from water issues (too much or too little), root bound plants (container too small for the root mass), heat stress, nutrient issues (too much or too little), applying too much chemical salt fertilizers can burn leaves and roots.

[Paradajz]

it would be good to know what fertilizers ( nutrients ) you used on those, and if the same was done with all the plants from your photos. also, was there any kind of chemicals used?

[clkingtx]

RayR: It could be moisture issues, I try to only water when needed, but I am afraid to let them wilt. It gets really hot here, and if I let them get too dry, it might be to late. I have lost some younger seedlings that way this year. They are not root bound. One of the plants was just up potted a week or so ago, and the others are sharing a large pot, and haven't filled it up with roots yet. It could be heat, it has been in the high 90's here lately. I think it passed 100 yesterday. They are where they get shade in the hottest part of the day, at least.

Paradajz- As far as fertilizing, I think I used regular miracle grow, at half strength for indoor plants(which is pretty weak) once, a week or two ago. I also put one jobe plant fertilizer stick in most of the pots a month ago or so. Last week I put a sprinkle of Epsom salts in everything(maybe 1/2tsp per 6 inch pot) I just added Epsom salts thinking that the yellowing was lack of magnesium. Other than that, I just water them from the hose. All of my potted tomatoes get the same kind of treatment, but only these seem to be bothered by it. I have probably 70 assorted plants growing in pots, most of the rest started from seed. The ones having a problem are purchased plants. Megabite is one variety, and the other I was told was early girl. I know it isn't, because the plants are stocky, thick stemmed, very short plants that don't appear to want to get any taller. They came from different stores, each had been potted up recently.

It is a mystery. I guess I am relieved that nobody recognized it right away as a disease.

Maybe I should pull off the worst leaves and let it regrow. I hate to do that to a stressed plant, though. Do leaves in that condition still benefit the plant?

Thanks again!

[tlintx]

It could be Bush Early Girl. Or funky genetics. I had a Better Bush that never got more than about 12", even though they're supposed to be several feet tall!

I had some leaves that looked like the second and third pictures, but they went away on their own. In my case, it was too much rainwater and poor drainage.

Some of my seedlings looked a bit like your first picture. I fed with dilute fish emulsion and it got better.

I noticed the worst browning, crisping, etc., on a couple of big plants that were supposed to be container plants - big, with fruit, in a pot with a cage. My gut feeling is that mine were rushed to be as big as quickly as possible, and just, well, crapped out.


Tl

[clkingtx]

tlintx- It could be funky genetics, these plants are only about 8" tall(I buried them deep when transplanting, so maybe were 12" tall when I got them). They were unmarked at the feed store, and I asked a guy on the way out what they were, but I think he misunderstood which one I was asking about(we did get an actual early girl from there that day, and it looked totally different from these). I got them mainly because they looked like they were dwarf. I guess I will try lightly fertilizing them, and being extra careful to only water when they are near dry.

[RayR]

It does look like drought stress. High heat can cause strange yellowing and necrotic leaf symptoms on tomato plants.

[Paradajz]

clkingtx,

i would still add a certain amount of potassium ( mild drench solution ) which you most probably dis- balanced with the use of a magnesium fert to those plants, in mixture with anything with humic acid and auxins. it should help with both potassium deficiency which they show and heat stress.

br,
ivan

[clkingtx]

What would be the best/easiest/cheapest way to get potassium to them?

Thanks

[Paradajz]

i unfortunately don't know the cheapest way ( living across an ocean can do it ), but i know that it's best to drench it with a mild solution of potassium fert ( don't do a foliar there by any chance ).
also, the fert needs to be free of magnesium, calcium and ammonium form of nitro.

[clkingtx]

Thanks, Paradajz, I will try to find something suitable.

[Paradajz]

sorry,

i might be short with my English sometimes and possibly write unclear stuff... when i say potassium fert i mean any kind of complex fertilizer with a large percentage of pottasium. e.g., ''emergency heat- fert'' which i usually recommend is NPK 13-0-46 ( emergency because adding potassium to a heat- ( over )stressed plant is like giving a CPR to someone )

br,
ivan

[Paradajz]

also, i would recommend to absolutely avoid fertilizing seedlings or very young plants with a particular nutrient element, secondary macro ( like magnesium ) and micro elements especially, because there is an extremely large probability that a mineral dis- balance will be created that way, and the consequences of it are usually impossible to correct.
the correct choice in a situation when a seedling shows signs of nutrient deficiency is just about any complex fertilizer which shouldn't cause any damage and usually resolves the situation.

what happened to your plants is that the stress from replanting was significantly upgraded by heat stress and they have shown potassium troubles ( which doesn't mean there wasn't sufficient potassium amount in the soil, but the plants simply couldn't use it because of the heat stress- which is a common thing ). when you added a potassium antagonist like magnesium to it, it was like poring gasoline to put the fire down.
so, eventually, the symptoms were originally caused by heat stress, but the pointer to sort it out if it's drought- burns of potassium deficiency ( which can be two incredibly similar things with almost identical visual appearance ) is in the pattern of those necrosis ( burns ): drought burns have random appearance and no regular pattern, while on the other hand potassium deficiency predominantly causes fire- like necrosis at leaf tops, and in a bit more developed stages it will go to leaf margins.