Young tomato plant issues

[Penellype]

The Westland definitely gets very wet, which is why I have added perlite to one of the pots. I am unsure whether the problem is waterlogging or something else, but it seems to be pointing towards a compost issue at the moment. I like to grow my tomatoes on self watering trays as big plants can dry out very quickly in 3 litre pots on the windowsill, therefore I need to use compost that can cope with this growing method.

[Mark Rand]

Have you done a soil/nutrient test on the various composts? That could be telling.

[MelanieSW]

I've had generally terrible germination this year esp with tomatoes, less than half the seeds even came up. Baffling, various varieties, even fresh packets of seeds. Also a fresh pack of peas, same thing, 2 out if 12 have germinated. I'm wondering if it's the compost - this is the first time I was using a seed compost.

[Plot70]

I filled a tray with gutter silt from a concrete tiled roof. I have tomatoes and peppers in it and all of the leaves are perfectly green.
The tray is in an old enamel baking tray that gets a jug full of water added each day.
It is very mossy as there are many clumps on the tiles but the plants are looking much more happy than yours.
It is not a good advert for store bought compost.

[Penellype]

I think the issue is definitely waterlogging. Despite being very very careful with watering, the Westland composts seem to absorb it all and become very soggy - green algae grows on top. The evidence is stacking up:

Seeds that will germinate well are small - lettuce, flowers, mustard, some tomatoes, plus Meteor peas, which are a round seeded variety less prone to rotting.
Seeds that have difficulty are large - cucumber, beans, beetroot, spinach, wrinkle seeded peas (Hurst Greenshaft) and some peppers. These are rotting before they can germinate.

I sowed 50 Hurst Greenshaft peas in Jack's Magic compost and 50 from the same new packet in Verve a week later, 5 peas to a pot, treated in exactly the same way as I always do. After 2 weeks there are 14 plants in the Jack's Magic. 2 of the pots have no plants at all. After 1 week the seedlings started to emerge yesterday in the Verve compost. There are 24 already, at least 1 in every pot, and more are likely to emerge today.

The lack of air in the compost due to excessive water retention would explain the wilted, translucent brown leaves on the tomato plants and would also explain why I had extreme difficulty with my brassicas last year (same sort of compost, similar problem) as brassicas hate waterlogging.

The tomato experiment has definitely helped nail this to the compost - the plant in Verve is already much greener and noticeably bigger than the others. I will probably ditch the experiment and repot the other 3 plants in Verve as I am not prepared to sacrifice them by leaving them to struggle like last year's plants did.

[Penellype]

Have you done a soil/nutrient test on the various composts? That could be telling.

I don't think this is nutrients. I had the same issue last year (which I initially thought was due to cold weather) and one of the things I tried was feeding with tomato food. It made no difference.

[Snoop Puss]

Really interesting results, Penellype. I use shop-bought compost too and am having difficulties this year with larger seeds, as you report. Very unlikely I'm using the same compost as you, but maybe the manufacturers are using a similar peat-free 'recipe', which might account for the similar problems. Either way, I've decided I'm going to try and make more compost this year and make my own next year.

[bramble]

I have been reading through all these posts regarding problems with disease on tomatoes.
I had the same problem about two years ago. Leaves drying up/withering with absolutely no explanation.
I tried everything but to no avail.
The plants did grow and produce tomatoes but nothing like other years.
I still dont have any answers.
However, I just want to say, this year I am using Westland multipurpose compost and all my seedlings, both tomatoes, peppers, cucs and flowers are doing really well and are extremely healthy.
I know how you feel, it's so frustrating when there seems to be no explanation.

[Penellype]

Update on the tomato experiment:

On 19th April the plants looked like this:



The plants were: back left Jack's Magic, back right Westland Big Tom with perlite, front left Big Tom, front right Verve. All the plants had been started off in Big Tom. Shortly after this photo was taken I took the 2 plants in Big Tom out of their compost and repotted them in Verve. I left the one in Jack's Magic as it seemed greener than the other 2.

Today the plants look like this:



The plant in Verve is clearly doing best, the one in Jack's Magic is ok, and the other 2 are starting to look a good deal happier. The only conclusion I can come to is that the Big Tom compost was the cause of the problem. Jacks Magic is not off the hook, as I have had problems with that too, but I won't be using Big Tom again. It does explain the horrendous problems I had with all my tomato plants last year as well.