16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

nss213 - Spots develop on the older tomato leaves for all sorts of reasons, some bad, but are most no problem other than to indicate tissue death due to stress.

But it is the over-all health of the plant that should be the focus so that it can resist disease and pest problems. And with your plants the severe yellowing should be the primary concern as it indicates a more serious problem than the spots I see in your photos.

While it is possible that some of the spots in your photos could be signs of Early Blight it is not possible to say for sure from any of the photos. Removing the affected foliage and spraying them with a fungicide sure wouldn't hurt them, but it is the nutrient ad water issues that really need to be addressed.

They are growing in a somewhat stressed situation already from the over-crowding and the appearance of the soil condition in your pics so providing them with sufficient nutrients in a form the can use will go a long way to improving their situation.

When one is new to growing tomatoes and a problem develops the inclination is always to jump to the conclusion that it is a disease. But 8 out of 10 times the problem is actually related to the growing conditions rather than any disease issue. When the growing conditions are less than ideal to begin with then those odds go up even more.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Thanks!
Can you elaborate a bit about the appearance of the soil condition in the pics? What looks wrong with the soil?

Thanks Dave and Linda. Will try with a few of the taller ones. In the meantime, I relocated my plants to another room, which has good light, but not ceiling to floor windows and much cooler, especially with the windows open and the cool winds. It was almost like being outside. We are looking at some cool but sunny weather, so I'd like to start bringing them out iin the shade tomorrow. Too soon for zone 5b?

mmm, why too soon... I mean tomatoes can linger outside as long as they have to til they get planted. As long as you can drag it back or in garage if the really bad weather strikes at this point I would not bother to keep lights going in zone 5. But thatôs me. 2 weeks of hardening is something I aim for.

Being organic gardener simply means you wonôt use certain things in your garden. In my mind it is not equal to better. I much rather think of myself as biological gardener, one who uses understanding of the soil, its needs and distribution of nutriens.
Container gardening is way different that gardening in ground.
I second Neptune for foliar feeds. Love the stuff! I use mixture of fish, seaweed and molasses added for sugars. Everyone has their favorites as for NPK feeds, mine is Grow Big from Fox farms 6-4-4 till the plants start fruiting and then I switch to Amaze from Ag Lab 5-16-4 after fruit set.

I believe "organic" when it comes to fertilizers is MOSTLY an environmental concern and issue. The plants won't make distinction as what the source of NPK is nor veggie/fruit produced by either one will b any different as far as health and safety is concerned.
That is just my personal understanding.

Link to Mexico Midget below and I'm sure it was on that list of currant varieties I linked to above.

I see SSE as one of the seed sources, but a few years ago folks who got seed for MM from SSE didn't get what they were supposed to so Craig LeHoullier,his name is in the link below sent the correct seeds.

Above Darrel mentioned some LA, etc varieties from TGRC and I just wanted to mention that TGRC is an abbreviation for theTomato Genetics Resource Center and they are not a source of seeds to the general public, just those who, as tomato breeders submit an application stating how they are going to use what they request in their breeding efforts and documenting their previous experience.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Mexico Midget

jadie-- how funny! Yes let's def keep each other posted on progress. And funny, it was sun sugar I picked up, I forgot ; )

How interesting that the currant tomatoes are completely different species! I obv know nothing about tomatoes-- I only tried growing them in the first place because a little produce stand not far from me sold little market packs of currant tomatoes and I got tired of spending $5 on them each week (or more). I love them so much! They weren't labeled beyond just "currant tomatoes" so I have no idea what they are really. I know I love roasting them w some olive oil and salt and a little garlic and making that my "sauce". Mmmmm. Sometimes adding other veggies but the tiny little tomatoes are always my fave thing in the mix. Just pop so nicely in your mouth and not all seedy and slimy inside if I eat them raw in a salad. With larger tomatoes, I usually spend a good amount of time cutting that slimy stuff away. I don't have time for that. Plus the tiny ones are so darn cute!!!

I've read up a little now on these Tess's ones and I'd love to try them but don't want to bother w seeds again yet. Hopefully they'll be available in plant form sometime; they certainly sound popular enough!

I would just clean up the dead and yellowed leaves and fertilize the plant a bit more. The damage is environmental. Once it warms up and you feed it , it should bounce back.
JMO.

The lady at the nursery said I could go ahead and plant it

Don't you just love nursery people that throw out advise with little concern for if it is accurate or not. Not to mention selling plants that already 1.5 feet tall.

Yeah what you are seeing is lots of environmental damage and the results of root damage from a plant that was too old and big to tolerate transplanting and was planted out way too early without protection or pre-warming of the soil. Variety has nothing to do with the problems.

As mentioned, strip off all the affected foliage, feed it well and cross your fingers. It may have already been exposed to bacteria or fungus issues given its weakened condition so if it was mine I'd plan to use a regular fungicide spray program on it too to increase its odds of thriving.

And do please avoid overwatering it. It will need time and somewhat drier soil for the roots to recover.

Dave

So the planting in WOW pays off. My plants doubled up in size for these 2 weeks, robust, dark green leaves, thick stems, setting up flower and looking great. Most people have not planted theirs, although this is first year I am seeing increase in simple cold frames and row covers at our community gardens so there are few people that planted some. Couple of people planted uncovered tomatoes about a week ago, bought in store as large size pots- those look trashy, lots of environmental damage.
I have planted all my tomatoes and created plastic wall wind protection around the bed, this area calls Windy city for a reason. So far so good. We will drop for 3 nights into low 40 but soil in beds holding very nice temps so am not worried. Did plant some peppers and eggplants so we will see, those ones usually like to stay about 50...

Good luck , Linda.

Low 40s, being 42F+ is fine, as long as the soil (where the roots are stay warm (50F ++, at 4"+ depth).

Other things about night lows:
If you look at HOURLY temperatures, you will see that the low last an hour or so. Lets say the low is forecast @ 44F ( 5:am). This will be a typical hourly temperatures pattern:

3: am >>46F
4: am >> 45 F
5: am >> 44 F
6:am >> 45 F
7 am >> 47 F
.............

The other thing is windchill effect when Relative Humidity is low. That can cool off the plant and remove moisture from it faster than if the winds were calm. So by having a wind barrier , or WOW, or cage wrapped with something can provide a good cushion.
FN:
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starting as of yesterday, we are going to have a nice 10 day weather, mostly sunny, temps in 65 to 80F range(for highs). I look forward to seeing my matoes to get a real boost for the first time since I planted most of them on Apr 4-5.

Due to some things going on I have not been able to take the pics, and give more info.

For information the plant is listed as indet. due to the fact that it will keep producing as long as temps are not too awful hot. (Over 95 days and nights of over 80)

I like them. No they are not my total faves, and they are not the greatest thing ever. They are however good, and they produce when the others have quit. My fist ripe fruits of the season came from them.

First pic is of the one that the hail storm pruned down to the stems.

Next is the one I brought home last night. The local BBS (Lowe's) had a one day sale on them so I brought one home with me.

In my honest opinion they are worth it even at the $15.95 or so full retail price as the plant, container, and potting mix would run near to that, and also many of them already have fruit set on them. My only complaint is that the planter tips over too easy in the wind. I use bricks around the bottom to stabilize them better.

Note the pepper plant next to it. It appears to be a mystery plant. My guess is either hbanero, or bell. The pods will tell me in a few days.

A would say 6 - 8hours also.

Tomatoes need limited amount of light (in lumin )
The amount of lumins can come either from INTENSE direct sunshine or indirect daylight.
So any direct sun beyond plants needs for photosynthesis is not going to make any positive contribution and the plant juts would try to cope with that. Tomatoes in particular are NOT full sun (all day sun) plants. I have personally grown tomatoes with 5 to 7 hours direct sun with no problem. People down south, (TX , FL, S.CA ) use shade cloth to reduce the intensity and thereby lumins.

Depending on weather (mostly humidity)....morning sun is really quite important. The more direct sunlight the better. I do container plantings...so guess where I move my maters?

Seysonn: in another thread about flowers forming on seedlings, you gave this advice:
I would also remove any and all the buds that appear before plant out and maybe for two week after that . According to some plant scientists, this will direct more energy to root developments.
Have you changed your mind overnight?

Carolyn and Linda, my seeds came from Tomatofest. I was surprised because in general my germination rate was much better than last year. I order from Tania and Gary for the most part. The IS seedlings are looking more robust.
As to the rest of the above discussions, I'm pinching off any flowers I find.