Be patient, if you search the forum here (bottom of page) you will find some discussions about Mr. Stripy They take a while. I have purchased them in the past and they often times took longer to produce than others.

Here is a link that might be useful: Discussion about Mr. Stripey

This post was edited by Moorlord on Sat, Jun 1, 13 at 8:02

They also look a little underfed and could a good dose of fertilizer. How much sun are they getting? Looking a little leggy.

I agree with ED.

They don't look very strong and are lanky and not full. Are they getting enough sun ? 5 + hours daily?

"They are planted in a location that provides sun from sunrise to about 2 pm"

@ edweather and syesonn, considering that sunrise in most location is now around 6 am (or earlier) those tomatoes are getting about 8 hours of sunlight.

I'll agree the foliage is sparse looking and the plants are lanky. It also looks like some of the lower leaves may be yellowing.

Tyrion, I notice there are bricks at the front of the bed the tomatoes are in, is that a raised bed? How's the drainage? Are you checking the soil moisture down about 6" before you water? And how much water are they getting?

Have you fertilized the plants at all? Tomatoes are pretty heavy feeders. If you have not fed them, I'd suggest an application of a balanced liquid fertilizer, followed in a couple of weeks by a balanced granular feeding (for a slow sustained release) unless the bed they are in is more like a container, in which case you probably need to repeat the liquid feeding at about half strength every week or so.

Betsy

My bad. Didn't read the whole post. Although sunrise to 2pm is probably only about 5-6 hrs of decent sun because it takes a few hours to rise to where it can really help. I've grown tomatoes with only 5 hours of sun, and they were very lanky.

I actually had just given them a dose of the bloodmeal fertilizer the day those pictures were taken. They are not in a raised bed and the drainage is pretty good. Under the soil is mostly sand. I am watering them about 1x a week with a soaker hose. How dry am I looking for the soil to be 6 inches down? What causes the yellowing towards the bottom?

Bloodmeal? Awfully high nitrogen for tomatoes. Excess nitrogen often leads to lots of leafy growth - although I sure don't see that here - and few blooms. What P and K have they been fed? Suggest a much more balanced fertilizer.

I realize you indicated the hours of sun but what about the intensity? Is it full sun or shaded, dappled sun. They are still very lanky plants with quite long internode lengths. That symptom is almost always a result of too little sun exposure.

What causes the yellowing towards the bottom?

Over-watering.

How dry am I looking for the soil to be 6 inches down?

Essentially dry.

Dave

Ok so rookie mistake getting a fertilizer with no P or K. I am guessing now I should try and find a fertilizer with 0 N to balance them out a bit. Is that correct? Can anyone reccomend one? Preferably organic.

It would be better to get a fertilizer with all three nutrients (NPK) and use it instead of the bllodmeal. There are no organic sources of P or K that release as rapidly as bloodmeal releases N. Tomatotone is a good quality balaced organic fertilizer that would be available fairly quickly. You would add that every two weeks.