Worried about my tomatoes

brendang · June 21, 2010

Hello Tomatoville,
Can you all take a look at these pictures? The tomatoes i have in ground are not fruiting yet but the foliage is a deep green color. The tomatoes that are in containers have large fruit already but the thing thats worrying me is that the plants seem to be a lighter shade of green and a few of the container tomatoes have dark patches on a couple of the leaves. Ive attached a photo. Is this normal for plants that are putting a lot of energy into their fruit? I should mention that both in ground and container tomatoes are Brandywine and the week before last there was a lot of rain and little sun.
Would appreciate any help.
Brendan
http://img35.imageshack.us/f/dscn0200xv.jpg/
http://img72.imageshack.us/f/dscn0198f.jpg/
http://img710.imageshack.us/f/dscn0199t.jpg/

brendang · June 21, 2010

Please click on the little photos to enlarge them.

Tomatovator · June 21, 2010

Brendan, I'm in SW Pennsylvania and I have the exact situation with my plants that are in pots. I'm assuming it is too much water and the pots are not draining well. I'm just going to wait it out and see what happens. I even have the spots you have on some of my leaves. Could also be that the pots are too small for the plant I have in them??

dice · June 21, 2010

It looks like some mineral deficiency. I have leaf spotting like
that on one container plant. I have not figured out what exactly
it is missing yet. It did have some purpling on the bottoms of
leaves, too, a classic phosphorus deficiency symptom, but it
does not have the heavily dimpled leaves in the photos at the
website below, so I am not sure. I tried a tablespoon of high
phosphate guano mixed into the top of the soil and a foliar
feeding of 0-10-10 to see if that fixes it.

http://4e.plantphys.net/article.php?ch=5&id=289

An overall "not very green" appearance is usually "needs a
little more nitrogen", but not always. It has been fairly cool
and rainy here, too, since the first of May.

brendang · June 21, 2010

I transplanted them into 7 gallon pots about about a month ago. The soil had lots of loam and peat moss and manure. Is there any way that they could have depleted that already? Debating whether i should put some organic fertilizer on my girls.
Thanks again.

dustdevil · June 21, 2010

Another point...you have the toms by arborvitae...evergreen needles are acidic...maybe ph is off a bit.

dice · June 22, 2010

Quote:

The soil had lots of loam and peat moss and
manure.

Maybe the manure was low-nitrogen to begin with (like really
well composted)? Whatever you try, I would do it in moderation.
Put a little on, water it in (if it is not raining), check in two
weeks, add a little more if it seems necessary, until the plant
looks like you think it should look, given the weather.

brendang · June 23, 2010

Thank you much.
Have added some organic fertilizer.
Will update you all when/if things perk up.
Thanks again

brendang · June 23, 2010

http://www.perfectlynatural.com/lawn...lty-tomato.php

Thats the fertilizer i added. I hope it's ok.

dice · June 23, 2010

Quote:

Thats the fertilizer i added.

I have not used it, but it looks like fairly mild stuff
with that low nitrogen level, so it should be ok.

brendang · June 24, 2010

I guess it's not all that concentrated and im not sure that it's going to be all that available to the plants. I think its fairly slow acting. Was trying to avoid chemical fertilizers. Do you think thats a better option?

b54red · June 24, 2010

You might also have an iron deficiency which can be fixed with an iron supplement spray. I had that problem one cool spring when my soil had become too alkaline which slows the uptake of some minerals like iron. I sprayed everything in the garden twice with the iron foliage spray and in a few days everything was much greener.

dice · June 24, 2010

I do not think chemical fertilizers are better. Sometimes I use
them in an emergency. I usually try a foliar feed with those
(assuming that they are not time-release pellets or something
like that; usually a liquid fertilizer or the granular blue stuff
that dissolves completely). That gives me some idea whether
a lack of nutrients is really the problem.

Ammonia has been implicated as a contributing factor in
blossom end rot (BER), so one wants to use chemical fertilizers
that have their nitrogen in nitrate form for that sort of test.

June 21, 2010	#1
brendang Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: ontario, canada Posts: 10	Worried about my tomatoes Hello Tomatoville, Can you all take a look at these pictures? The tomatoes i have in ground are not fruiting yet but the foliage is a deep green color. The tomatoes that are in containers have large fruit already but the thing thats worrying me is that the plants seem to be a lighter shade of green and a few of the container tomatoes have dark patches on a couple of the leaves. Ive attached a photo. Is this normal for plants that are putting a lot of energy into their fruit? I should mention that both in ground and container tomatoes are Brandywine and the week before last there was a lot of rain and little sun. Would appreciate any help. Brendan http://img35.imageshack.us/f/dscn0200xv.jpg/ http://img72.imageshack.us/f/dscn0198f.jpg/ http://img710.imageshack.us/f/dscn0199t.jpg/

June 21, 2010	#4
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	It looks like some mineral deficiency. I have leaf spotting like that on one container plant. I have not figured out what exactly it is missing yet. It did have some purpling on the bottoms of leaves, too, a classic phosphorus deficiency symptom, but it does not have the heavily dimpled leaves in the photos at the website below, so I am not sure. I tried a tablespoon of high phosphate guano mixed into the top of the soil and a foliar feeding of 0-10-10 to see if that fixes it. http://4e.plantphys.net/article.php?ch=5&id=289 An overall "not very green" appearance is usually "needs a little more nitrogen", but not always. It has been fairly cool and rainy here, too, since the first of May. __________________ -- alias

June 24, 2010	#13
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	I do not think chemical fertilizers are better. Sometimes I use them in an emergency. I usually try a foliar feed with those (assuming that they are not time-release pellets or something like that; usually a liquid fertilizer or the granular blue stuff that dissolves completely). That gives me some idea whether a lack of nutrients is really the problem. Ammonia has been implicated as a contributing factor in blossom end rot (BER), so one wants to use chemical fertilizers that have their nitrogen in nitrate form for that sort of test. __________________ -- alias

June 21, 2010	#3
Tomatovator Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Zone 6 Posts: 461	Brendan, I'm in SW Pennsylvania and I have the exact situation with my plants that are in pots. I'm assuming it is too much water and the pots are not draining well. I'm just going to wait it out and see what happens. I even have the spots you have on some of my leaves. Could also be that the pots are too small for the plant I have in them??

June 21, 2010	#6
dustdevil Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: WI, USA Zone4 Posts: 1,887	Another point...you have the toms by arborvitae...evergreen needles are acidic...maybe ph is off a bit.

June 23, 2010	#8
brendang Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: ontario, canada Posts: 10	Thank you much. Have added some organic fertilizer. Will update you all when/if things perk up. Thanks again

June 24, 2010	#12
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	You might also have an iron deficiency which can be fixed with an iron supplement spray. I had that problem one cool spring when my soil had become too alkaline which slows the uptake of some minerals like iron. I sprayed everything in the garden twice with the iron foliage spray and in a few days everything was much greener.