Hard to say what the problem is. Glad the cherry is doing well, it doesn't surprise me, they are beasts. 5 gal buckets is small for container tomatoes, but they shouldn't stop growing. 2 weeks between feedings is too long. Alot of us who grow in containers fertilize often, at almost every watering with a water soluble fertilizer because the nutrients will wash out with successive waterings. What mix are you using? Hopefully it's some sort of good draining container "mix" with NO soil in it. That could be the key.

No soil? That's what I'm using; Gardener & Bloom Potting Soil. And for fertilizer I trade off T for Tomato by Tomatomania and Tomato Maker 4-2-6 every other week.

Need pictures of the affected plants, please.

Photos would be nice. Containers should be filled with a soilless potting mix! Not sure what you mean by '..trade off T,' but 4-2-6 doesn't seem like much food unless you are using alot of it. Is it water soluble or is it a granular form?

Here is a link that might be useful: potting soil vs potting mix

I'll try to get photos tomorrow. By "trade off" I meant that I'll use the tea one week, then two weeks later the 4-2-6, and so on. The Tomatomania product is a compost tea, the 4-2-6 is granular.

And I should have mentioned also, that in the last few days some branches holding the bigger tomatoes have been having trouble staying up under the weight and have completely fallen over. I've had to tie them to their cages to keep them upright. FYI, all the plants are caged and staked.

Alot of us that grow in containers incorporate a CRF into the mix, and also use some sort of water soluble fertilizer at 1/4 strength with every watering. I'm sure that the T is washed out after a couple of waterings. There is alot of good info over on the containers forum.

Thanks for the replies so far. I was finally able to get pics of the plants. Hopefully, it'll help give a better idea of what's going on. The pics in question show my Black Sea Man. It's a determinate, so I wasn't expecting a large plant, but the tomatoes on top have not grown any larger for three weeks.

Pics also of my Black Krim, which stopped growing at 4'. It has huge tomatoes near the bottom and nothing blooms on top, plus you can see the leaf curl in the close-ups.

Also some pics of my Vorlon, which has grown huge, but has also stopped fruiting at the top and many of the branches are collapsing under the weight of the tomatoes. I had to toss two of them today because the branch holding them had bent in half and died at the bend point.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Pics

I water every other day, fertilize every two weeks, spray with Neem Oil for pests, spread poison pellets for slugs, and have sprayed the blossoms with setting spray. So what am I doing wrong, or is there a disease involved? Please help.

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I can tell that you are PERHAPS watering them TOO often !! unless the pots are TOO small. (5 gal. ? not big enough , I think. I hear from pot gardeners that 10gal in the norm)
And why do you keep spraying with NEEM oil, etc? Tomatoes are very chemical sensitive plants. I would not spray them unless there is an obvious problem.

Looking at the pictures, I can see nothing major wrong with your plants, other than pale green color and leaf rolling. As I understand, LR is due to temperature (too cold or too hot)

Pale green color tells me either nut enough nitrogen and/or too much water. Also, when you say that they stopped setting fruits and blooms.... that may be due to lacking nutrients or HOT weather. Some tomatoes shut down when it is too hot. It is not just the air but also what is in the pot(medium).

When tomatoes stop fruiting I generally blame it on two things: Too much fertilizer (though this often slows down fruit set rather than stopping it entirely), or wrong temperatures.

Tomatoes often don't set fruit if daytime temps are over 90 to 95 or if nightime temps are below about 45 or above about 74.

I remember many many years ago, when I noticed my tomatoes were not setting any fruit during the middle of one summer. This was a problem I noted across multiple plants in many different locations around my house and garden. I had only been growing tomatoes for a few years and I was concerned because I wasn't getting any new fruit. So I went to the local garden center and asked a guy who claimed to be a supposed expert, and he told me that it was because I was watering my tomatoes with sprinklers and washing the pollen off. WRONG! It was just the high temps that came early in the summer that year.

Other than the above, I think most tomato plants are pretty tough and if they are growing or doing reasonably well to appearances, they should be setting fruit.

I kind of agree with the recent posts. My first impression was that the plants looked ok. Second impression was that containers were too small. They must be getting enough water or they would wilt. Agree that they need a little more food and next time bigger containers.

Alikhat,

I see that you recently joined GardenWeb, welcome to the Tomato Forum. Everyone else that wants to read this post may want to grab a cuppa, it will probably be kinda long. 

What part of California are you in? There's a lot of growing zones in California, all the way from 4a near Yosemite to Santa Monica's 11a. What works in one zone, may have no relevance to another zone. If you'd like answers from other GW members that are useful to you, its a good idea to include your location and/or zone in your profile so it shows on your posts.

Now, on to the problems at hand.

Even though kellogggarden.com lists their GARDNER & BLOOME® POTTING SOIL Natural & Organic For All Indoor & Outdoor Potting as "Ideal for indoor & outdoor potting, container planting, raised bed applications & an excellent addition to existing garden soil.” I have to wonder if that isn’t part of the issue. It is described as ”Organic, long-lasting ingredients including chicken manure, peat moss, worm castings & kelp meal. Perfectly balanced with essential plant nutrients & special water-saving formula features for excellent growth.” Mixes with manure in them tend to compact and not drain well. Your leaves could be droopy and the plants stunted from not enough air and too much water at the roots because of their water-saving feature and compaction of the growing medium.

If you are in a zone like 5 or 6, and the weather has been cool, watering every other day may be fine. But, on the other hand if you are in zone 10 or 11, the plants may appear droopy because they aren’t getting enough water.

GardenWebber sprouts_honor (Jennifer from Cleveland) had a wonderful suggestion on how to tell whether or not you need to water your tomatoes, and I quote here: ”Get a wooden dowel rod (or two) and sink it in the ground near a plant or two and leave it. Pull it out when you think you need to water. If the top is dry and the bottom is a little damp, it’s time to water. If it looks dark and feels saturated, wait to water. I use this technique with potted plants that don’t like being over watered and it’s helpful with in ground plants too.”

If your moisture is right, it may likely be that your plants are starving. As edweather indicated, plants that are grown in any kind of container will need feeding more often than plants that are grown in the ground because each time they are watered, the water run off carries away vital nutrients. Many container growers will use a dilute solution of a liquid fertilizer every week or so depending on the condition of the plant. Additionally, they may not be able to utilize the nutrients in the “organic” mix you have them planted in because containers don’t usually have the “micro-herd” found in soil that helps plants use many types of micro-nutrients other than NPK.

Looking at the stems of your plants, I am surprised the stems are not sturdier. When my tomato plants are that tall, the main stems look almost like small trees, and are 2 - 3 inches (or more) in diameter, the fine stems are possibly another indicator of the need for feeding more often.

I don’t see any leaf roll, but I do see droopy leaves:

When you've checked the moisture level of the growing medium 3-5" below the surface, you may have an aswer to what is going on with your plants. If it is soggy, they are drowning (and the paleness of the leaves could be an indicator) if it is dry, they need more water, if it is just right, something else is going on.

Betsy

Thank you to everyone who's responded. Your input is greatly appreciated. I did a soil test a few days ago and discovered that, aside from my cherry, which is at 5.5 pH exactly, all my tomatoes are ranging between and 6 and almost 7. So, could the problem be in the somewhat alkaline soil? If so, how do I fix that?

The soil itself seems to be properly moist to 5" down. Neither sopping wet, nor dry. And the temps here have been ranging mainly in the 80's - though that's soon to change, as forecasts are predicting temps in the 90's to the low 100's next week.

Not much has changed since I posted last. The top tomatoes on all the plants are still small and don't appear to be getting any bigger, blossoms are falling off and the leaves on the Black Krim are now not only curling, the edges are turning black. Though, on the positive side, the three largest (and lowest set) tomatoes on the Krim are starting to ripen.

"I did a soil test a few days ago and discovered that, aside from my cherry, which is at 5.5 pH exactly, all my tomatoes are ranging between and 6 and almost 7."

How did you test them? (And why?) Home testing kits are notoriously inaccurate as are the Ph Meters. You could probably test the same pot in the same spot six times in a row and get six different readings.

As for the "and why," you shouldn't have to test commercial mixes for nutrients and/or Ph, they should be ok to begin with and you should have to feed the plants because the nutrients wash away every time you water. That's why container growers fertilize their tomatoes so often with a balanced water soluble plant food.

Granular fertilizers may not break down rapidly enough into a usable form to support you plants (if they break down, see the info on the micro-herd link above.)

Sorry we can't be more specific.

Betsy

"Additionally, the top leaves on the Black Krim and Copia have started to curl." - Reason could be that the stem is ruptured somewhere above the large tomatoes at the bottom, please check carefully. If that is the case, there is no solution, you will just need to let it grow leaves and suckers below the damage and prune the top from damage level.. happened to me a few weeks while trying to string them. - FB group - Container Gardners