A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum The Tomato Forum Purple leaves and wilted looking plants

I am really new to gardening. This is the first year that I have had enough room to put in a garden. Always before, I grew a couple tomato plants in 5 gallon buckets.

This spring has been quite cool and wet in my area. I bought 3 Dona, 2 Super Marzano, 2 Roma, and 1 Super Sweet grape tomato plants from a local greenhouse. On all of my plants, the leaves have a dark purple-ish cast to them and look wilted. They do have blooms on them and even a few little tomatoes. Do you think that they are OK? Why would they look like this?

I put a handful of bone meal and blood meal in the bottoms of my holes when planting. My mom (who lives next door) did this last year and had HUGE plants with great yeilds. Could this have caused the color and wiltyness (is that even a word? LOL)?

I imagine it is the cool you mentioned. I've seen this on plants from cool weather. You didn't say how cool. Also did you harden them off or give them any protetion? I imagine when it warms up their color will improve. Jay

The bone meal and blood meal wouldn't cause that. Purplish leaves can be caused by several things, too-cool temps, low phosphorous content are the most common. The wilting leaves could be from too much or too little water. It's always good to use the best soil you can get, and at transplanting, add a half-strength liquid fertilizer. Try letting the soil dry completely to a depth of an inch or so and then use the dillute fertilizer. Within a few days, you may begin to see more greening. If the soil is already too dry, another possibility, watering will perk up the wilting leaves almost immediately. Keep in mind that bone meal is extremely slow to release it's phosphorous, so the soil should either be amended well before planting time, or must have some soluble phosphorous content. Failing this, Kelp extract, Fish Emulsion or a Miracle Grow type product should be used at planting and again 2 weeks later, possibly even every 2 weeks until fruitset.
What is the Dona tomato like? I had not heard of that variety. I have grown San Marzano and liked it, Super Marzano should be similar. Please check back and let us all know how things go.

Haha! Jay answered while i was typing. I couldn't agree more, Jay, time should show great improvement.

Thanks for the info! The temps were in the low 40's overnight several nights in a row after I planted them. I did not protect them those nights.

Since I am new at this, I don't know if I hardened them or not. This is what I did, I bought them the week after Easter. I left them in the little plastic trays outside on the east side of the house in an alcove on the porch. They were right up next to the house. Then every morning about 10am, I would pull them out and set them in the sun until about 7pm and then water them and put them back in the alcove. I did this for a month. We had so much rain (12+ inches) that I just could not get them in the ground. They have been in the ground about 10 days at this point.

This is basically what I saw at the greenhouse on the sign above the Dona tomotoes and it sounded interesting. It said it was a slicing tomato.

"This excellent hybrid was bred to please the fastidious customers in small French markets, where flavor and quality standards are uncompromising. 'Dona' plants bear slightly flattened, glossy, deep fruits with a sweet-acid flavor balance few modern strains can match. Plants are vigorous and very productive. Indeterminate. Fruits ripen about 65 days from transplant."

You may have done okay hardening them off, they should be gradually exposed to sun and wind.
Dona sounds good, if I ger a chance next year I may try it!

Dave pretty much covered everything. And yes sounds like you did ok hardening them off. I still feel the cool temps are having an influence on these plants. I have done a fair amount of experimenting with different methods. What still puzzles me is if I start a seed in a cold frame or a plastic bucket with a clear plastic top they will germinate and although temps will dip down into the low 40's or even upper 30's during the night inside the frame or bucket they hardly ever show the purple tint and will grow just fine. But start one inside and move it outside and let temps get much below 50 and you will see the purple color.
Have seen Done mentioned some. May have to try it. I'm trying three of the new Harris hybrids bred for flavor this year. Supposed to be nice tomatoes. Will have a report after the season is over. Jay