Sometimes nursery plants have a little transplant shock. If they are healthy, they'll bounce back. Last year, flea beetles did a job on mine when I first planted them, but they recuperated very quickly.

We had VERY LITTLE rain here. It has been a very DRY spring. How about where you are? So, unless you overwatered, I don't think that would be the problem.

I planted mine (that I grew at home) the same day as you. No yellowing. Do you have a mulch around the plant? Some compost or black plastic would help.

Hard to tell about nutrients. Too much fertilizing can also cause yellowing. Maybe, the plants you got had not been hardened off enough, and this sudden heat wave we are going through was too sudden for them.. just like for me.

Be patient. Tomatoes are tough plants and they love heat!

Anne-Marie

get a good tomato reference book that describes various diseases and problems, it'll be worth it. (or maybe find one at your local library.)

My tomatoes are blossoming already, what a difference from last summer!

Greetings! After I wrote my initial post, I did some sluething. I do have two plants that are doing EXTREMELY well. They are Grape Tomato plants that are living inside a whiskey barrel planter. They are mulched, and have nothing but great soil...composted manure and well rotted 4-year old standard soil. SO...

I purchased a 40lb bag of composted manure. I made a 2" deep ring around each yellowish tomato plant, then mulched over this with very dry (yellow) grass clippings that have been rotting down. That was 10 days ago...

Now, all is well! No more yellow, and new growth is occuring. My whiskey barrel plants are about to flower, and are 4X the size of my others, but..? I guess the soil I purchased is too sandy for some species. Henceforth, Peppers, Tom's and beans will get a hefty bit of composted manure worked into the planting hole.

THANKS ALL!!

I'm in Albany and my tomato plants are doing terribly this year as are my mother's. Prior years have yeilded a bounty with enough to can. This year with 24 plants we have next to nothing. My mother has about 6 plants with a few green tomatos. She lives about 5 miles from me. Her's are in pots, mine are in a garden (not planted in the same place as last year). We both used Tomato-tone following the insructions. Anyone else with dead and dying plants out there?

Yellow means a lack of iron and magnesium.

Hey Sandy, I'm in Albany too and this is actually my first year planting a vegetable garden since moving here from Long Island. I grew some heirloom tomatoes, and have a ton of fruit sitting on the vine, but all green. I think the variety I planted takes too long to ripen, as now that its starting to get cold at night, I wonder if they will ever have an opportunity to ripen on the vine.

Anyway, what varieties do you typically grow up here? I know you say you are not having a good year, but since you've done well in the past, I thought I'd ask.

You probably already know this, but tomatoes love grass clippings. Could your lack of tomatoes be due to an absense in pollenating insects? I know I've seen A LOT less bees in my garden this year. I actually went and artificially inseminated some cucumbers and zucchini which are usually very prolific and this year its September already and I have but two puny cucumbers and one very small zucchini. All of which seem to be struggling. :(

I'm from near Ithaca and my zucchini have been really producing and we have been swamped. Now the squash bugs have taken over and plants are dying off. I still have one plant left alive and it has a couple small zukes on it. Didn't get too many cukes as the squash bugs took care of them too. As for my tomatoes, they have not been ripening very well as so many others have said. I have a dozen Roma plants and 6 each of Big Boy and Better Boy. They have lots of yellow leaves on them too but I think the blight has hit a lot of them. The Roma's are falling off the vine with no help from me, green ones and some that are partially ripe. I have managed to can about 30 quarts but I'm getting impatient and want the rest of them to get ripe so I can finish up. I have brought the ones off of the vines, into the house and covered them so they are in the dark and they do seem to be ripening but slowly. Sorry your zucchini's didn't do so well, maybe next year?