Sickly toms in B&Q compost 2022

[mrsbusy]

Hello. I looked at the Which review and bought peat free enriched compost from B&Q as recommended. My tomatoes don't like it at all. I have started giving them tomato feed in their water although they are not fruiting yet. They are looking a bit greener but the foliage is sparse. In the photo there is one plant top right that looks taller and greener - same variety and batch and same compost.
Has anyone on the forum found a decent and affordable peat free compost?
I am hoping eventually to make my own but for the time being have to buy in.
I know this is probably a perennial question..

[Jungle Jane]

Its been 6 degrees overnight,if they’ve been outside they could be affected by the cold rather than the compost. The leaves look a bit rigid & pointy.
Its confusing why that one plant at the back looks so good in comparison to the others,was it ever treated differently,was it put in the greenhouse more recently than the others? The other plants do look more affected by the cold.

[Snoop Puss]

I agree with Jane: if they're all the same seeds and same compost, the compost isn't very likely to be the culprit. Maybe the healthy one is in a better spot in terms of light and temperature. Might that be possible?

[ameno]

I have been using the B & Q Good Home Enriched Compost this year, too, and it has performed very well for me. Plants growing very strongly, no problems whatsoever.
As suggested above, it may well be down to temperature or light level differences. Alternatively, the yellow ones may have something wrong with their roots (admittedly unlikely).
One further possibility is that you accidentally bought the wrong compost. B&Q also do a normal (not enriched) Good Home Compost, and the packaging is very similar. This non-enriched one fared much worse in Which's trials.

[mrsbusy]

Hi and thanks for your opinions.
I did make sure I got the enriched compost - as ameno says there are 2 and easy to pick up the wrong one.
I had germinated the seeds indoors and kept them in for a while. Unfortunately they did get cold in the greenhouse when we had just one night when the temperature dropped to below freezing and although I had covered them with fleece they were very unhappy the following morning. So maybe they were permanently damaged. Yes the leaves are dry and brittle.
I have taken the side shoots off the healthy looking one and will try and grow some plants from them as I particularly like the variety(Sungold)

[ameno]

The damage won't be permanent. As long as they are alive, and as long as they are given enough warmth, light, nutrient and water going forward they will recover - tomatoes are actually pretty reliant plants (if it weren't for blight they would probably grow wild as weeds in this country). But that cold snap definitely will have slowed them down, and it can often take a week or even two weeks for the plants to begin recovering from such an ordeal, at which point they are obviously well behind any which didn't get exposed to the cold.

[mrsbusy]

It's good to know they should be ok - I keep looking at them and thinking maybe I should just buy some new plants....but I generally don't like the varieties that are easily available in our local shops.
The Sungold side shoots look promising and I got a couple of black tomato seedlings from my allotment surplus plant table.
Thanks for your advice.

[mrsbusy]

Just a quick update - the tomato plants all recovered and are doing reasonably well.

[quanglewangle]

Thanks. Always good to get an update on these things