16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
The twisting may just be an attempt to find better light, and the drooping may be related to the fact that they were outside and are now in (and overwatered). I think when you get them back into the hardening off process, they will perk back up.
I can't really see the "scald" well enough to tell if it is sunburn or something else. I've alwsys seen it as whitish patches on leaves, but perhaps I just didn't notice it on stems.
I see that your neck of the woods is supposed to have temps in the 70s for the next few days with some very cool nights, I say get them back outdoors and get them ready to planting. Warmer weather will come.
We've been cold, wet, and windy here too.
Betsy
Had trouble logging in. The plants did look better in the morning, and stayed looking good when I put them out under overcast skies this afternoon. I'll have to go slow with hardening off process again since it is supposed to be in the 80's (near 90) later in the week and they hadn't spent a full day in bright sun and heat before the cold and rain came. But they are all in garage and basement tonight, no more coming in the house under the lights!
Hope I can start planting them this weekend - a week behind schedule.
Going to start hardening off the peppers soon. In the meantime, I planted more lettuce, beets, and got my cukes and radishes in today, squash and beans tomorrow. Carrots are starting to germinate.
wrong forum! I didnt know there is a tomato pests and diseases forum .. Anyway, I found a similar situation discussed here .. older thread
One of the suggestions is that water on the leaves with bright sun .. I did spray water on that plant in the afternoon, assuming the trees would like the "rain feel". Of course when it rains, sun is not bright .. so this probably never happens during regular rain.
Can that be the explanation for this necrosis? And in that case, it should recover fine, right?
I don't buy the idea that sun on water droplets on the leaves will harm them in any way. That happens too often in nature for us to have no evidence of it in the wild. What I see on your plants doesn't look like a disease or malnutrition to me either. It is some kind of stress, possibly sunburn or insect damage. Sorry I don't have a more specific diagnosis.
I doubt is is the mulch although it does seem quite early to be putting the mulch down, especially if you have been having the cooler and wetter than normal weather most of us have. Like planting out, mulching will be delayed this year by at least a couple of weeks.
The most likely cause of the symptoms you describe is just the weather - overly cool, overly wet, retarded root development, slowed nutrient uptake, etc.
If on the other hand you live in one of the isolated spots in the country having normal weather then I'd pull the mulch back from the plants and let the soil dry out well. Then hope that neither your mulch nor your compost contained any herbicides. Check with the sources for both.
Dave
It has been in the mid-80's here, a couple of 90 days (high desert though, nights are 44-50 - could wide temp swings do that?). I don't think wet weather is an issue, we're at 0.5" for the month, probably all we'll see.
At what point do you recommend putting the mulch down? I didn't realize it shouldn't be put down right away. I was hoping to keep the weeds at bay (which are a HUGE problem for us), but I'll pull it back and see how they respond.
I have it saved in my faves,stil lactive last I knew, and have posted it here and elsewhere several times in the past few years,
Whoops, I just went to pull it from my faves, and you're right, gone with the wind.LOL
Yes, Paul used to post here a lot and did the uploading of many of the new at the time FAQ's that we did here several years ago as you can see from the credits given at the end of the various articles.
Carolyn
Hello!
Just to make sure I understand ... (and I did a search but still wasn't sure), is it correct that once the tomato has started to turn whatever color it is supposed to be when it's ripe, which is called "color break," you can pick it and it won't affect the flavor?
I am growing some new kinds and I don't know when to pick.
I haven't been doing this actually, I've been leaving them on a few more days.
But I want to make sure I understand. It is okay to pick the tomato once the color has *started* to develop?
Is there a way to tell if the calyx is closed? Does it look shriveled or something?
Thanks!!! This is kind of exciting!
To missingtheobvious, thank you for the link to the weather site. I had that bookmarked on my old computer, but when that died I couldn't find it again. I used to use it because the local weather station is a farm only a few miles from my house. It was so much more helpful than the general reports from TV news.
As Carolyn stated you can have leaves curl from various conditions and I witnissed leaves curling in front of my eyes at my farmers' market stand last Friday. The day was a cool 45*F with gusts of wind and all my plants didn't like it. Eggplant leaves were the first to curl, then I noticed basil leaves were turning blotchy. The result is that today we had to remove 150 plants from the original total of 430 that were displayed Friday. I did sell around 100 plants (even sales were poor due to weather) but I'm hoping they turned out OK. None of the plants are a total loss but with brown burn on the leaves they cannot be sold in the near future. Like responses on this site, customers see a freckle on a leaf and they don a face mask so they won't catch Late Blight.
The odd thing with mine is that the older, larger, plants were hardest hit and they are 95% heirloom plants. Many younger hybrids escaped without any damage. This is possibly due to the stand position and subjection to the biting wind.
Here's an article I wrote a few years ago which I think will help clear up some misconceptions and explain more about BER.
I had lost this article, but Bets, who posts here, posted it and I was able to get it back thanks to Betsy,
&&&&&&&&&&
With BER there is NO problem with absorption of Ca++ though the roots. The problem is maldistribution within the plant that can be induced by a number of stresses which include uneven delivery of water, too much N, growing in too rich soil, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry you name it.
As the plants mature they can better handle the stresses that can induce BER so usually it goes away.
The two exceptions are first, if the soil has NO Ca++ as confirmed with a soil test, and that's a rare condition, and second, if the soil is too acidic in which Case Ca++ is bound in the soil.
Again, adding lime, egg shells and on and on can not and will not prevent BER b'c absorption of Ca++ thru the roots is OK.
Paste tomatoes are especially susceptible to BER and I think someone in a post above mentioned that.
If you go to the top of this first page and click on the FAQ link and scroll down you'll also find an article about BER in case some of you have never looked at the FAQ's And there's some darn good articles there as well, but I wouldn't pay any attention to the variety list b'c it's way out of date.
The old information about BER being caused solely by lack of soil Ca++ has been shown to be wrong with research that's been done in the last 20 years or so, but it's going to take another generation before the real story gets into books, websites, magazines, etc. Most of the better websites already have the correct information.
BER affects not only tomatoes, but peppers, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., and it's a huge multimillion dollar problem for the industry, which is WHY all that reasearch was done. For instance, when tissues were taken from a plant that has BER fruits and was assayed for Ca++, the normal level of Ca++ was found, it just wasn't getting to the blossom end of fruits. And there's also a condition called internal BER where the fruits look fine, no evidence of BER externally, but when you cut open the fruit the inside is black
Hope that helps
Carolyn
Thanks, Carolyn, especially for that last point about internal BER. I've had that happen with a few tomatoes in the past where the tomato looked fine but was black inside. I didn't know it was a form of BER.
I will be passing on the info about the egg shells, etc. to the few serious tomato growers I know. I think we always tend to think BER is caused by something we did or didn't do when it seems more likely from what you wrote that it's probably something we can't necessarily control, at least not when growing outside where we can't control the weather.
Caryl
If it's been that hot and you only water for a minute (even if it is every other day) that is probably it. Water so the soil is soaked (trickle for maybe 30 minutes, a soaker hose laid in the whole bed would be best), then wait for it to dry out (depending on how man hours of sun your bed gets, how deep it is, how dry and windy it is that could be the next day or 3 days - rain might mean you don't water for a week).
Your plants have developed shallow roots from the brief shallow watering and they are drying out when the surface of the soil dries out between waterings. Even if you planted them deep, the original deep roots aren't getting any water. When you say the soil is damp, how far down did you check?
If you haven't mulched, you should to retain moisture and to keep soil from splashing up on the leaves when it rains.
I checked the plants again today and it seems like they're no longer limp and are perking up. I guess it's just been stressed, either by wind, a spike in temperature, or not enough watering.
I use the typical garden hose nozzle with 8 different settings. I use the soaker setting and leave it there for about a minute. It seems like that equates to 2 gallons of water per plant. Is that enough water?
I do believe the plants have developed shallow roots. I use newspaper and pine bark as mulch. I've only checked about 5 inches deep.
You never keep soil "soaked". Lightly moist/damp only. Assuming this container has drain holes as it should then slowly water until water begins to drain out the bottom holes and then don't water again until needed. To determine need you use the wooden dowel method or stick your finger deep into the soil. Do not use the condition of the surface to determine when to water. It will dry out quickly.
As often discussed in detail over on the Container Gardening forum here, containers require a no-set-schedule watering. In other words sometimes it will be once a week, sometimes every other day, other times 2x a day. And fertilizing containers is usually done every 7-10 days since nutrients leach out of the soil every time you water. Liquids work better than granular fertilizers for containers.
Dave
Us too. Just got in from covering strawberries (again), after dinner I think I'll cover my spinach transplants (and the kale in the same bed). Unfortunately, blueberries and raspberries (in bud) are on their own since we're having gusty winds and I have no way to secure any coverings.
Senor,
From the pics I would not panic. But what was not revealed in your write-up was removal of peat pellet netting. One can assume this was done; (and for 1st timers) the netting is removed before potting-up. So the tomato seedling is free to place roots in your garden soil. -R.S.
The 511 mix definitely encourages root growth. Last year the roots went clear down throught the 511 mix and grew through the drain holes in the bottom and anchored the container to the ground.
5/1/1 is definitely something I want to try, as I have read the rave reviews! But I got lazy and ended up using MG mix in one container (a big Rubbermaid tub) and another bagged mix (jungle something?) in another. Both are thriving, and both have roots growing throughout the tubs and into the ground through the drain holes. So far so good!