Qestion about hearts and purple veins

[louster]

I'm growing Prue, Brad's Black heart, Russian 117, Opalka, and Wes this year, along with a number of non-hearts. I've noticed that all the varieties with the wispy foliage also have purple veins. Otherwise, they are doing fine, producing well, and growing like gangbusters. Is the purple-vein thing just something I've never noticed before with these varieties? Or is there something I could be doing to improve things? I know purple veins are a sign of stress or nutrient deficiency, but they are interspersed with all my other tomatoes that show no signs of stress. I have fertilized with tomato tone and once a month with fish emulsion/seaweed fertilizer. Any help would be appreciated......maybe I should just relax and not worry about it?!!!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by louster

I'm growing Prue, Brad's Black heart, Russian 117, Opalka, and Wes this year, along with a number of non-hearts. I've noticed that all the varieties with the wispy foliage also have purple veins. Otherwise, they are doing fine, producing well, and growing like gangbusters. Is the purple-vein thing just something I've never noticed before with these varieties? Or is there something I could be doing to improve things? I know purple veins are a sign of stress or nutrient deficiency, but they are interspersed with all my other tomatoes that show no signs of stress. I have fertilized with tomato tone and once a month with fish emulsion/seaweed fertilizer. Any help would be appreciated......maybe I should just relax and not worry about it?!!!

Prue and Opalka are not heart varieties. And not all heart varieties have wispy droopy foliage and there are non-hearts that do have wispy droopy foliage, and Prue is one of them.

In my experience I never noticed that the heart varieties are any different from any others in showing purple veins. Purple leaves are usually due to cold weather and lack of P uptake and when the weather warms up that goes away.

If it bothers you why not spray with some fish or seaweed emulsion , both of which are rich in micronutriets and thus bypass root uptake.

As for me, where I live and garden I totally ignore purple leaves unless I see other symptoms, which I haven't to date.

[louster]

Thanks, Carolyn....I know Opalka and Prue are not hearts, I was just trying to make the title simple, since most of the varieties exhibiting symptoms were hearts. I guess I will just ignore it, since I have been spraying with fish emulsion, and the plants are healthy and productive.