Troubled Tomatoes
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perplexed
Posted: May-03-2005 at 6:20am
My tomato seedlings are all turning yellow and the leaves are curling too. I live in the hood canal area, and these toms were started indoors under lights in mid march, moved out to the cold frame in mid april. I dont think its too much water, as I dont water frequently yet. There are 5 varieties....Early Girl, Roma, Gold Nugget, Sweet Million and an organic variety called Double Rich. All varieties except for the double rich are TSC seed.
I had read in an organic gardening magazine that fert'ing tom seedlings before 6 weeks was pointless and had no effect on yeilds, so they had not been fed until that time. I fed them "Earth Juice", mixed at the weak solution rate. I also read in Steve Solomons book that this could be a lime deficiency, and not disease after all. Any help with this, gardeners?
Fern
Location: Washington, Western Cascade Foothills
Posted: May-03-2005 at 6:59am
Tomatos won't really be happy till it gets warmer. They can get many strange symptoms in reponse to cold stress. It is good they are in a cold frame. Usaully they are fine when the soil warms up. Or it might be a soil thing. What kind of soil are they in? Our soil is naturally deficient in lime. If it is a good quality soil you bought it should be fine, if it is your own soil mix you can buy a soil testing kit. Lime is a good thing to add to most vegatable gardens here. Related to both of there factors is that different plants need different soil tempatures to absorb nutrients and tomatos need warm tempatures to do it. You also might try a foliar feed of liquid seaweed.
Fern
perplexed
Posted: May-03-2005 at 8:25am
thank you for responding, fern. As far as the soil goes, there are potted in Sunshine professional grow mix #2, and the "Earth Juice" liquid fert that Ive been using contains seaweed and kelp, also bat guano. I was wondering if it was just a "warm" thing......thanks for your help.
gardennut
Posted: May-04-2005 at 2:49pm
In my experience, when tomatoes are too cold the stems turn purple. I'm thinking maybe yours have been sunburned. Suddenly going out to the sun can fry them, even if they've been growing for a couple of days under lights.
perplexed
Posted: May-12-2005 at 8:15am
The stems are purple, and we havent had any sun to burn them. I was able to determine that it may be a fungus of some sort, easily controlled w/ a fungicide, organically acceptable, of course. After spraying, I've noticed that they are in fact greening up again. I also set all the pots on brown paper bags for several days, changing them daily, to help absorb all the excess moisture. With all this humidity and cool days, a little sun and warmth is all they really need.
Thank you for all your help!
cjmiller
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: May-28-2005 at 2:37pm
I feel your pain--really!--What happens when you are fooled into putting out the tomatoes too soon, is that they go into stasis (same with peppers) and look like heck. It takes them about 3 weeks to come out of this slump, and Fern is right just tune it out when you have the urge to plant too soon, because it is the night time temp that takes the tole on the tomatos, I believe that either Travis or Gary recommend waiting until the night time temp is above 58 or 60 before putting out your tomatoes. So often the advise given by our friends in Iowa is based on their experience where the nights are warm. PNW just doesnt get warm nights until after June--for people that is one of the blessings of living here, but not tomatos.
Carol
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton