Yellowing tumbling tom

[Marb67]

Well again there seems to be a problem with a healthy tumbling tom that has started to show signs of mottling and yellowing, sickly leaves. Last time this happened it went downhill and died. Planted in deep pot in good, grow bag compost. Watered every day and fed once a week with comfry feed.

[veggiechicken]

Cut out the yellow leaves - they're the old ones. It'll look a lot better then. I've been doing that to my toms this morning.

[Marb67]

Ok,as long as it doesnt invite disease.

[Penellype]

To remove a tomato leaf cleanly, bend it upwards then down, if it doesn't come away, try side to side. Aim for a break at the actual join to the stem, where it should come away cleanly, rather than cutting the stalk or tearing it off.

You may find that comfrey feed doesn't contain everything that a tomato needs. Try a tomato feed such as Tomorite.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I agree Pen comfrey once a week will not provide the nutrients required. Also it looks like it is in a container of some sort if so this will exacerbate the situation as watering tends to wash the goodness out of the compost.

Growing in containers I feed with tomorite every three days, much more than the recommendations but they were written for growing in the ground.

[Marb67]

I snipped off the leaves with scissors. Tumbling toms are grown in containers of some sort. They certainly would be difficult to harvest from the ground.

I know comfrey is good feed because Monty Don said so on GW. He interviewed a guy who grew all kinds of toms that were fed with confrey every day! He said they were the best toms he had ever seen. I like the fact that it is organic too. Tomorite seems to be made of chemicals. I could adda bit of chicken manure and blood fish and bone instead ?

[Potstubsdustbins]

Marb I know tumblers are grown in a pot I grow mine in hanging baskets and science proves comfrey is a weak feed.

If however you followed the advice Of Monty's friend and fed ONCE a day you might get better results.

[Marb67]

They seem to habe some knd of leaf miner inside the leaves now. Patches of tissue paper thin bits on the foliage.

[veggiechicken]

Cut them off!

[Jay-ell]

The leaves that is, not the plant

[veggiechicken]

Thanks for clarifying that, Jay-ell. Actually, now that I've read what I wrote, it sounds a bit rude.
I've been in the GH today with my toms and tried to look at them critically. There are yellowing leaves, leaves with white patches, some with purple splodges, some curling, some very wilty, some thin patches. Anything I didn't like the look of, I cut/snapped off. They're just wilted and curly now.

[Jay-ell]

I snipped off the leaves with scissors. Tumbling toms are grown in containers of some sort. They certainly would be difficult to harvest from the ground.

I know comfrey is good feed because Monty Don said so on GW. He interviewed a guy who grew all kinds of toms that were fed with confrey every day! He said they were the best toms he had ever seen. I like the fact that it is organic too. Tomorite seems to be made of chemicals. I could adda bit of chicken manure and blood fish and bone instead ?

Monty Don isn't the font of all knowledge. Just because you've seen him talk to someone about comfrey does not make it a panacea.

Was he growing in soil or compost? What type of compost bib he use? What amendments did he use? How did he make his comfrey feed? How are you making your comfrey feed? What part of the plants did he use? Do you use the whole plant or just the leaves? What concentration did he use? How much do you dilute yours? How much does he give each plant? How often does he feed them? How much sun do his Tom's get? What varieties are his toms? When did he plant them out?

Lots of different variables can lead into him having nice healthy Tom's.
I add concentrated comfrey made with the plant and step without water to the water barrel at a dilution of 100 parts water to 1 part concentrate and the plants are watered 3 times a day using drippers on a timer (I'm not growing Tom's this year but that's how I grow them usually) and planted in compost with a bunch of long term ammendments in it.

[Marb67]

Ok, so now a lot of the fruiting stems as well as the leaves, going pale yellow and withering despite being correctly watered when needed. This seems to happen everytime I try and grow any type of tumbler.

[Marb67]

They seem to be going downhill as they did last year. I just can't seem to keep tumbling toms going for long

Shall I give them chicken manure pellets ?

[Runtpuppy]

I'm no tomato expert, Marb, but I think the colour of the leaves seems too pale. Could it be a deficiency or something?