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.

[tam91]

Maybe some pictures would help.

That sounds very small to me to be producing flowers and fruit.

Have you been using any fertilizer?

[jimbjimb1]

No, no fertilizer. I did spray them once with a liquid seaweed and molasses mixture at 1 TBsp per gallon. Will try to get pictures if I can get my wife's attention for a few minutes.

[jimbjimb1]

(1). My garden house



(2) Note pale leaves



(3) More pale leaves



(4)


(5)



(6) They look sickly to me.

[travis]

Nitrogen and lime.

[puttgirl]

They look a bit stunted with fruit. I think they may need nitrogen and manganese. Try some dried manure, and a good organic fertilizer.

[bcday]

Are the bits of wood on the soil surface just mulch, or is there shredded wood mixed all through the entire 12" depth of the bed?

If too much woody material is mixed into the soil, nitrogen that the plants need will be used by organisms in the soil to break down the wood instead and cause nitrogen deficiency in the plants.

I would try a foliar feed at half strength for a while. Don't overdo the fertilizer; too much is worse than too little.

[MikeInCypress]

I think you may have used a soil mix with a lot of unrotted organic matter. I would start a weekly program of fertilizing each plant with half strength Miracle Gro or a organic heavy in the nitrogen. Also how much sunlight do the plants receive daily? I notice your Grow Hut has a ceiling. The blossoms and fruit are not unusual. I have a few spare plants still in my little greenhouse in 4" pots and today I brought one out to replace a plant damaged by birds and it had fruit and was only 12" tall.

Where did you get you plants? One of the Big Box stores?

MikeInCypress

[b54red]

Looks to me like they are not getting enough nitrogen and possibly other nutrients. I would go ahead and work some cottonseed meal in around the plants for long term feeding and use Miracle grow at the recommended strength the first time to compensate for the nitrogen loss. Wait a few days to a week and see if there is any improvement and if not you might want to check your soil ph. If it is too low then add some lime or even better some lime and a little basic slag. If your ph is way too high then you will need to lower it which is more difficult than raising it. You can lower it gradually by adding things like manure and cottonseed meal which are usually fairly acidic or you can do it chemically. Using a chelated iron product will usually green up the plants some but if they are lacking in nitrogen it will not solve your problem.

[tam91]

I don't have anything to add re. the fertilizers - but just had to say - wow, that's some tomato house.

[jimbjimb1]

Dang, now I'm in information overload. Obviously came to the right place. Nitrogen and soil came up a lot so I will explore that more.

MikeInCypress, we might be almost neighbors--I'm in Jersey Village and I do accept house calls LOL.

Am I supposed to reply to everyone individually? Really new to this and I hunt and peck.

[mdvpc]

Welcome to the Forum! Nice tomato patch.

You can reply how you want.

The posters seem right on to me. Some of us use organic, some dont, some do both. I use both, mainly organic. If I was in your position with these plants, I would get out my Saltwater Farms 3-2-2 fish and seaweed product called liquid seaweed fish fertilizer and foliar at 1/2 strength every week for 2-3 weeks to see how your plants like it.

I dont use miracle grow, but the 15-30-15 formulation would be an option.

[barefootgardener]

Yes..Welcome to the forum!..You got some good advice..I hope your plants green up soon for you. I like your garden house! Keep us updated please.

[dice]

A liquid houseplant fertilizer, sprayed onto the foliage early
in the morning or in the evening, will take effect fast, so you
can spray one plant and then check it in a couple of days and
see if it greened up. If it does, lack of nitrogen is likely the
problem.

If you add nitrogen to the soil (cottonseed meal, fish meal,
bloodmeal, etc), you do not want to overdo it. "A handful
of sulfate of ammonia per plant", for example, would be
an error; a handful of one of the organic products per
plant would probably be ok. Excess nitrogen is a bad thing,
too, in your climate. That would put the plants' energy into
producing stems and leaves rather than fruit, increasing the
chance of getting blossom end rot on the fruit by increasing
the demand for calcium from the rest of the plant, delaying
fruit development and ripening. Once the weather gets too hot
and humid for fruit set, you want to have your harvest in before
then, so anything that delays fruit set and ripening is not an
improvement, even if the plants look wonderful.