Pale Tomato Plants

[jimbjimb1]

Hi tomato people. I'm a newbie. OK, this is my second year at tomato growing and my first ever venture into a forum of any kind (actually my second-I signed up yesterday on Helpful Gardener but got no responses to my problem)—so bear with me if I do something stupid. I'm in Houston, TX. Last year I had a few decent tomatoes but the birds and squirrels invariably beat me to them once they began to ripen, so over the Christmas holidays my son and I built a 16 X 16' raised garden (12 inches) and completely enclosed it with a sturdy frame and hardware cloth (1/2 inch wire mesh). We filled it with a mixture of 256 bags of various soils including rose soil, humus, topsoil and organic manure—all tilled as added. We then laid 9 lines of drip hose over the top and tied it into my lawn sprinkler system and are thus able to control watering cycle.

I transplanted 28 various tomato plants from local nurseries the last week in February and have been fortunate not to have experienced a frost since. The plants initially shot up like rockets to a height of 12" to 18 inches and are producing lots of blooms and some early fruit.

For the last week or so I have noticed that the growth rate seems to have slowed and the plants are taking on a pale color. I have dug down about ten inches and tried to determine moisture level. I can make a ball of soil that will hold together, but when pressed with my thumb will break apart. I am watering through the drip lines every other day for 30 minutes.

Temps here are in the 60's at night and low-to-mid 80's during the day.

Any ideas about the pale plants? I can post pictures if I can figure out how to do it. Maybe my wife can help (she's a photographer and photography forum addict).

The whole venture (including my cages) might be a little over the top but there are few things in the world that I enjoy more than a home-grown tomato.