A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Tomato plants in containers

Hello,
My tomato plants' lower leaves are turning yellow. This is my first year gardening, and I was feeling so happy and proud because my tomatoes were doing so well. But suddenly, in the past week or so, the lower leaves have started turning yellow.

I read an earlier post about all the reasons tomato plant leaves can turn yellow, but I wanted to provide a bit of specific information about my plants here and see if anyone can help me out.

The lower shoots seem to be starting to turn yellow from where they attach to the main stem. In other words, the leaves are the last part to turn yellow. Additionally, the first tomato suddenly had a brown, indented bruise-type area, with a couple of similar smaller areas. I also notice some of the top-most leaves are a bit droopy.

I've done some research about what could be wrong, but to be honest, I'm feeling a bit panicky and I'm afraid my plants may die Can someone please advise me what to do? Am I over or under watering? Do they need fertilizer?

Please help!

Thanks,
Zelinda.

Hi Zelinda

Can you tell us what your watering practices are?
And what you have underneath your plants, (ie: mulch or not mulch??)
And have you fertilized at all????????

And what kind of dirt is it in???????????

Weezie

Welcome by the way!!!

Hi Weezie,
Thanks for your quick response! Here is some more detail...

Watering: I water them every morning, around 8. I've been varying the water over the past couple of days, to see if I see any improvement. When the yellowing started, I was giving each plant about 3-4 beer-bottles-full (this was the only thing I could find that would reach between the holes in the cage to the container ). The cherry tomato plant (Sweet 100) is about 4 feet tall. The regular tomato plant (Celebrity) is about 3 feet tall. They are in 12" diameter plasic pots with drainage holes and saucers. Since the plants are so tall now, I'm careful not to water so much that the saucer fills because it would be very difficult for me to drain it out.

What's under them/what type of dirt: Inside the pot, there is only "Ready to Use Potting Soil", with a bit of pearlite mixed in. The Potting Soil package indicated it's for vegetables (among other things). I checked today and noticed fine roots peeking through the drainage holes.

Fertilizer: I used Jobe's Fertilizer Spikes for Tomatoes. The package indicates 2 per plant and claims to feed for 8 weeks. I used 2 per plant when I put them in the 12" pots on June 3. This is the only fertilizer I've used.

You all may think I'm a dork, but I've been taking pictures of my plants every few days. I just noticed that the yellowing began July 1. Before that, I was out of town for 2 weeks and my (completely non-gardening) husband was caring for them. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Zelinda.

Zelinda,
You wrote; NEVER!!!!!!!
We love people that go to great lengths to help their plants out!
And when diagnosing a problem, that is the best way to help in it's diagnosis.
VERY HELPFULL INDEED!!!

You sound like you've done everything quite good!
And sounds like they are doing great, especially for being in pots and being 4ft tall!
(You will have to tell us how you keep them upright and stable when they are in the pots! )

I think your plant is just succuming to age of a annual, they are just that.... they do only live and/or produce for a certain amount of time...
some may get a longer growing season because of their climate/zone... but there is a time limit to the plant???

Also, maybe a touch of heat.....????? Is your weather really warm out there?
Maybe the heat on the outside of the container *what kind is the container anyways???*
may have a bit of effect on them from the heat on the "outside" of the container....where the roots would be touching the inside of the container....

I know Papito is into container gardening, maybe he may have a bit more advice for "container's"??
Hopefully he'll be thru in a bit!

Weezie

Keep us posted!!!

And by the way, those are my two most favoritest tomatoes! (Beefsteak and Beefmaster's too)

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for your input about my tomato issues. Just wanted to let you know the (hopefully) conclusion to the problems.

I took the bruised green tomato to the hardware store/nursery where I originially bought the plant. They looked in a huge reference book which contained information about all plant-related problems, and found what was wrong with my plant.

Turns out the containers were too small, and the soil was compacted, so the roots were not getting enough water. I repotted my plants into much bigger pots today. This was no easy task, since the plants are sooo tall.

I gave them some vitamin B1, which I understand is supposed to help them deal with the shock of transplantation.

Hope this will work.

Zelinda

If I may suggest, I would take one ounce of fish and seaweed extract add them to one gallon of water and totally spray your plants every other day for the next week,or until you are sure they have re-established themselves. Once that happens then cut back on this mixture to once per week watering, and once per month foliger spraying. You might loose whatever fruit you have due to this move; however, until the roots re-establish themselves you need to address this issue by foliger feeding your plants.

This mixture will address all of the needed N-P-K plus all other macro and micro nutrients, and some 50 to 60 trace elements.