Yellowing Toms

[Marb67]

I have fed these toms to be planted out/potted on with seaweed, chicken manure and they are all turning sickly yellow. Even 2 shop bought tumblers going the same way.

[ameno]

It's lack of nitrogen, but that may not necessarily be due to lack of fertiliser.
Vigorous plants like tomatoes can outgrow their own roots' capacity to take up necessary nutrients if left in a snall pot for too long. Basically, those need potting on as soon as possible.

[Marb67]

It's lack of nitrogen, but that may not necessarily be due to lack of fertiliser.
Vigorous plants like tomatoes can outgrow their own roots' capacity to take up necessary nutrients if left in a snall pot for too long. Basically, those need potting on as soon as possible.

Yep, That's the next job even though I am limited with compost and space. I have that many toms I can live with smaller plants but still giving fruit.

[rary]

Possible cause could be over watering, I would recommend that you only water from the bottom, or excessive feeding, or lack of feeding, if you are using a proprietary feed follow the instructions, don't add extra, so I would recommend water from the base, feed at the top

[Marb67]

Possible cause could be over watering, I would recommend that you only water from the bottom, or excessive feeding, or lack of feeding, if you are using a proprietary feed follow the instructions, don't add extra, so I would recommend water from the base, feed at the top

I have been watering from the base in the main, just occasionally when it is very hot and dry at the end of the day (no sun) I have been giving them a general spray over with the hose.

[rary]

I never spray my tomato plants, though when it was hot I did wet down the greenhouse floor, too much water can cause the roots to rot, good watering practice should keep the plants growing OK, I have had a couple of plants growing in small yogurt tubs produce tomatoes this year, they were sitting along with several fuchsia, on a tray with cappilary matting, the mat was kept moist and I did add a nettle/seaweed feed to the mat occasionally, they are now in the tomato bed and growing fine

[Jungle Jane]

If you have no compost you could plant a couple in the ground but make sure there’s good air flow,not touching any other plants & the base of the plant needs to be clear of weeds/other plants so the plant can dry out quickly after rain. Rain with humidity are good blight conditions,we want dry leaves as much as we can. I added fresh grass cuttings in the compost once & the plant had darker green leaves than the other plants but tomato plants usually end up with yellowing bottom leaves as they help feed the new growth. Cut them off on a dry day.

[smallblueplanet]

Seriously? Pot them on into their own pots and compost. Cut off the yellow leaves and let them get on with it.

[Marb67]

I will do that as I would rather have smaller plants that at least produce, don't get blight in the greenhouse (although now congested) than risking everything outside. having said that I have about 5 planted out, very close to everything else but again, I don't have the luxury of a larger garden (which I lament daily) The planted out toms are doing well but I have started to cut off a lot of the leaves to aid airflow and make more fruit. This tip was passed from an expert tomato grower who swore by cutting off all the leaves late summer for better crops.

[Jungle Jane]

Its not late summer yet,you need fruit on the plants before leaf removal. I remove all leaves that are growing under the lowest truss of tomatoes,to speed ripening. Once those are ripened I remove more leaves but only under the truss that ripening,not above the truss. Then by late summer/end of August not many leaves remain.
Edit - there’s no way of making more fruit by removing leaves…

[Nicos]

We had blight one year in our greenhouse many years ago - sun gold tomatoes. The spores apparently can waft in through open doors and windows so do be aware of that.

I was surprised how many leaves the French strip off their tomato plants at the end of summer. But it’s at the end of summer not now when the plant’s green leaves need to photosynthesise their own food. They do it not just to remove old leaves because they aren’t doing much and block airflow but to expose the fruit to more sunlight so they ripen more quickly.

Each of my potted tomatoes have an inverted water bottle with the bottom cut off so I can water from ‘above’ but the water actually goes to the bottom of the roots. I’ve had more success doing it this way.

[smallblueplanet]

I will do that as I would rather have smaller plants that at least produce, don't get blight in the greenhouse (although now congested) than risking everything outside. having said that I have about 5 planted out, very close to everything else but again, I don't have the luxury of a larger garden (which I lament daily) The planted out toms are doing well but I have started to cut off a lot of the leaves to aid airflow and make more fruit. This tip was passed from an expert tomato grower who swore by cutting off all the leaves late summer for better crops.

Perhaps you should accept that you haven't enough room to grow veg on market garden quantities and concentrate on growing fewer plants well. You will probably get better fruit more easily and in the same quantity if you gave the plants more room and therefore more compost. Air would circulate better too.

You can see new leaves growing where the other yellowed leaves and stems are, they'll replace the old ones. Yes normally we only remove lower leaves/stems when there is fruit and to facilitate air circulation. In this case they've not enjoyed being crowded and perhaps under watered. They will root from the stem, choose the best of the plants pot them up and drop them a bit deeper when you do.

[Marb67]

I have 3 in the soil and 2 chilli plants at the front that are still tiny despite feeding and watering. When the now desease peas are out next to them I shall plant more out. I just can't throw them away and would rather use them.

[rary]

You don't need to use compost all the time when growing in pots, a mix of course sand and soil would do, they will even grow using course sand itself, but growing that way they need more regular watering. Seeds and plants can be grown without the use of compost, growing in compost was always recommended as the majority of compost was peat based, with peat being a sterile medium, can't say the same for the peat free composts nowadays

[Jungle Jane]

There’s a risk of too many plants/overcrowded wet leaves,they pass disease to each other by touching,they need air space around them,then the leaves can dry quickly. Never spray the leaves with water,don’t get any leaves wet. Over the years I’ve had blight here,the most at risk plants are ones touching other shrubs/plants,they need air flow to dry. If the blighted plant is touching another tomato plant the disease can pass easily to the next plant. When they have space between each plant,there’s time to cut down the blighted plant & the plants near them won’t get blight (they might do eventually but not from that other blighted plant,unless it’s really blighted,you can usually see blight early & remove the blighted plant straight away to lessen the spores in the garden,allotments have it hard when neighbour plots don’t notice their plants,that should be an emergency situation to remove the blighted plants). I just said blight about a million times,it would take ages editing all that