Here are some of them, spending the night indoors...
Recently we have had a lot of bright sunny weather, so the tomato plants have spent several hours each day outside in order to get as much natural light as possible. However, despite the sunshine, the temperatures have not been high - typically a maximum of 12 or 13C in the middle of the day. It has also been windy on many days. Because of this, some of the plants are not looking very happy. Many of them are pale and rather sickly-looking.
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| This looks like wind damage, but also lack of nutrients. |
They are not all bad though. This "Primavera" one looks OK, doesn't it?
I have already given the plants a dose of "Tomorite" tomato-food, which I wouldn't normally do before they had their first flowers, but I thought they were in dire need of nutrition!
My plants will remain in these 5" pots for another two to three weeks, and will then be transplanted to their final containers, mostly the big self-watering "balconnieres". I don't want to do this until the risk of frost is past, so mid-May is the target date.
Then comes the big decision: which ones will I keep and which ones will I discard? I currently have 30 plants, but I think I must limit myself to growing no more than 20, so some will have to go to new homes. At the moment it looks as if a big factor in the selection process will be the plant's state of health.
My tomato plants became very pale and sickly looking last year, they were much better once I'd repotted them in fresh compost. I don't think compost these days has the nutrients the plants need, problems seem to crop up which I tend to put down to the compost used.
ReplyDeleteThe soil you grow you plants in matters so much to their growth. I've made my own and bought different mixes. I finally found one years ago that worked better than anything else. It is really hard to get (a local Vermont company that isn't national and doesn't get into the big stores). But the New England Organic Farmers Assoc always has buys for it. So I go in with them. I just have to remember every winter to do that or I'm out of luck. But good compost is worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be wonderful to have a greenhouse large enough to keep them all? For me that would be a (completely unrealistic) dream come true.
ReplyDeleteIn recent years I have been watering the seedlings (of pretty much everything) at the first true leaf stage with very dilute tomato food, otherwise they go yellow very quickly. I've concluded - like Jo above - that modern seed compost contains very limited nutrients or that the compost texture allows the nutrients to leach out very easily (and even the same brand seems very variable in texture and nutrients from year to year).
ReplyDeleteCould the whitish patches be sunscald? I had that issue last year when I tried to speed up the hardening off process on my tomatoes - there's a picture of what they looked like here - http://homegrown-adventuresinmygarden.blogspot.ca/2014/05/lessons-learned-hardening-off.html -, which is especially similar to the first damage photo. The good news is that they quickly recovered and I had an amazing harvest last year.
ReplyDeleteWe have changed our compost brand too to Clover and we won't be using growbags either
ReplyDeleteYes, as some of you confirm, commercial compost these days is generally rubbish! It seems to have practically no nutrients, as well as poor moisture-retention qualities.
ReplyDeleteI am having the same problem with my greenhouse strawberries the leaves have the appearance of being scorched - not looking very good at all - we have now covered the greenhouse roof in Cool Glass just in case it was the sun that was the problem but the plants do look rather sickly - albeit there are strawberries forming.
ReplyDeleteI had similar issues and I used a foliar fish emulsion which helped a bit. But I think mine are a bit nutrient deprived and looking forward to their bigger places in a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteCold soil temperatures can inhibit nutrient availability, the new leaves on my pepper and tomato seedlings were looking a bit yellow until I gave them some bottom heat and then they greened up and started to grow.
ReplyDeleteThat's intersting Michelle, I think I knew that a long time ago but had forgotten. Some of my tomatoes had similar leaf damage to Mark's and then grew out of it once the temperatures improved, without me having to do anything.
DeleteMark they look great! If those were my tomatoes, I would be very pleased. Looks like a touch of cool wind may have caused that damage or sun scald. If the new growth is healthy, you should be fine. Just pinch of the damaged bits and see how it goes from there. I wouldn't give up on a single one as you put a lot of effort into those plants.
ReplyDeleteI think the recent warm weather has tempted a lot of gardeners to put their plants out too early. Mine are on my balcony where they are sheltered but slightly hardened off. Seed sowing compost is deliberately low in nutrients as seeds don't like a rich mix. Once they've got a couple of leaves and been potted on into a slightly richer mix (eg a mix with John Innes No 2) they should do well. I feed with a very dilute liquid seaweed once potted on. (Tomorite, having a high potash ratio, is good for fruit and flowering so I'd use a nitrogen/phospherous feed at this stage - good for roots/shoots.) Sorry, am I being a bit of a know-all?! It's turned very chilly and windy where I am so I'm pleased I haven't been tempted to plant anything out yet!
ReplyDeleteRe the seed compost - yes, I agree, but my tomatoes are not in seed compost. They are in their second-stage homes (5" pots), in multi-purpose compost. I only used Tomorite because that's all I had, and it was just a little left over from last year. I have had the plants indoors for a few days now, and they look much happier, so I think it must have been the low temperature that was the problem.
DeleteI have similar decisions soon too Mark, with over 30 plants but going by last year's plantings, only space for 21 ( and that was a real squeeze). I'm sure I'll find some happy homes for the others through friends or work colleagues.
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