Young tomato plant issues

[rhyswales]

Hi all hoping someone can help

Planted bush Tom's around a month a go and potted up in to bigger pots around 2 weeks a go. Give a water every few days. Have grown Tom's for 10 years odd now with not too many problems but this year the bottom leaves and branches just seem to be dying. It's happening to all of them. Grown indoors at room temps under lights.

Not too sure of the issue here I don't believe they are over/under watered. I haven't given any feed either.

They were grown in Westland multi compost with John innes.

Thanks

[Snoop Puss]

I shall follow this thread with interest. Yours look miles better than mine! Like you, I've grown tomatoes for maybe a dozen years, around 30 plants each year so you'd think I'd know what I was doing by now. But mine this year are disastrous. The consensus on another thread is that it's to do with the compost.

Maybe try a very dilute liquid feed?

[ameno]

Do the dying leaves feel dry and/or crispy, especially around edges of the leaf?
It looks like some sort of physical damage has caused them to do, or else the leaves have been scorched by something. How much heat to these grow lights give out, and how close are they to the plants?
Or perhaps you just damage some of the leaves at some point when moving the plants around, watering them, etc.

[Jungle Jane]

Those pots are quite smaller than the brown pots,maybe they just need watering more regularly,maybe because the compost isn’t holding water as well as it usually does. Feel how heavy the pots are daily to see how heavy with water,every few days might not be enough?

[quanglewangle]

I assume you turn the lights off at night? There are processes in the leaves that can only take place in the dark period.

[rhyswales]

Do the dying leaves feel dry and/or crispy, especially around edges of the leaf?
It looks like some sort of physical damage has caused them to do, or else the leaves have been scorched by something. How much heat to these grow lights give out, and how close are they to the plants?
Or perhaps you just damage some of the leaves at some point when moving the plants around, watering them, etc.

Yeah the edges go crispy and dry and just end up dying along with the branch.
The lights are about 7 inches from the light and are fluorescent grow lights, not too much heat if any.

[rhyswales]

Those pots are quite smaller than the brown pots,maybe they just need watering more regularly,maybe because the compost isn’t holding water as well as it usually does. Feel how heavy the pots are daily to see how heavy with water,every few days might not be enough?

So usually water every 2/3 days I've checked the soil and it's still damp, not soggy not dry so I believe my watering cycle is okay.

[rhyswales]

I assume you turn the lights off at night? There are processes in the leaves that can only take place in the dark period.

Yeah light go off around 10 PM and come on around 8AM.

[rhyswales]

I shall follow this thread with interest. Yours look miles better than mine! Like you, I've grown tomatoes for maybe a dozen years, around 30 plants each year so you'd think I'd know what I was doing by now. But mine this year are disastrous. The consensus on another thread is that it's to do with the compost.

Maybe try a very dilute liquid feed?

Well that's the weird thing the leaves look more of a scorched result which normally happen when hardening off or over fertilizing, I'm leaning towards more it's the compost. The chillies and peppers are happy with the same compost but it's just the Tom plants that seem to be struggling.

[ameno]

Apart from these dying lower leaves, do the plants show any other problems? Are they growing well, or are they yellowing or barely growing?

[Penellype]

Shirley tomato plants growing in Westland "Big Tom" tomato planter compost, same as I always use. My issue seems very similar to yours:



These plants have been potted up into 3 litre pots today. They have been carefully lightly watered and kept under lights, on for about 14 hours a day. I am trying an experiment here - there are 4 plants all the same size and similarly yellow and shrivelled. I have potted the 4 plants up one in each of:
Westland Big Tom tomato planter
Westland Big Tom tomato planter with added perlite
Westland Jack's Magic
B&Q Verve multipurpose (peat free).

The plants are now all under the same growlight in as near identical conditions as I can create. I think there is an issue with the Westland composts as I am having dreadful trouble with tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, microgreens, spinach and beetroot (so far). The peas are exceptional - from a new packet of Hurst Green Shaft, 125 seeds produced just 25 plants. Beans that have been sprouted on kitchen paper and are definitely forming a root have not come up when planted in Jack's Magic.

[Snoop Puss]

Sympathy like, there, Penellype. These situations are really frustrating. I'd gone to some effort in choosing my tom seeds, but I think I might have to buy plug plants for the large toms at least.

[Penellype]

My 4 tomato plants have ben in their new compost for just over 24hrs. I'm pretty sure that all the plants were equally yellow when I potted them up, but already the one in the Verve compost is much greener in the middle than the other 3. It is, of course, far too soon to draw any conclusions.

One thing I have noticed is that the water runs through the Verve compost much more quickly than the others. This sort of backs up my theory that waterlogging may be at least partly to blame - the pots are on a self watering tray so do have access to as much water as the compost can suck up.

[Penellype]

48 hours after potting on - Big Tom on the left, Verve on the right. These are the same 2 plants that are in the photos above, in the same order. I concede that the plant in Verve possibly started off a little greener than the one in Big Tom, but the difference now is staggering.



The other 2 plants look like the plant on the left.

[Jungle Jane]

If the plants are on self watering mats,does this mean that the verve compost has little moisture hold in the compost,jacks magic definitely holds water well & could be too wet if left on self watering mat? I wonder if it’s something to do with that & the plants having wet feet & less oxygen?
You could try a pot full of just Westland compost on its own on the self watering mat & a pot full of verve compost without plants in,both on the self watering mat. After a day,empty both contents out to see how saturated the Westland compost is? Jacks magic is very good at holding water,they need time away from water for a bit to dry off a bit although hydroponics contradicts that so I don’t know,hydroponics wouldn’t use jacks magic though they’d use something like coir?