Sorry thought I could edit and add the photos but can't figure out how to do that.

Sick

Healthy

here is a link that might help.it looks very close to phosphorus deficiency. It may be the roots are too cool also.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/tomatoproblemsolver/

Actually I don't think they look seriously sick, but they certainly don't look as beautiful as the ones still in the pots. I wonder if maybe they had a little transplant shock and didn't have enough moisture to come out of it. Usually the purple on a young plant is an indication that it is too cool to take up all the nutrients it needs and as soon as warmer conditions are available it just takes care of itself. Since I assume you are in Texas that shouldn't be the problem.

I would give them a good drink of water, and wait a couple of days. If I were potting up, I would eliminate the garden soil and especially the cotton burr compost. I won't even buy cotton burr compost anymore except for one brand. Cotton gets an awful lot of spray and some of it is to get the plant to die at the end of the season. The last time I bought it, I only used it in flower beds and my neighbors across the street could smell it for three days. That was my last bag of that stuff. I think cotton from the Texas plains is harvested differently and isn't sprayed at the end.

Thanks you guys. I deep watered them yesterday and will make sure they stay well watered. Supposed to be nice and warm here and sunny so I'll just watch them and cross my fingers.

Teri

PS yes forgot to say but I'm in North TX blackland prairie north of DFW.

Teri,

They don't look seriously ill to me, but rather they seem to have a bit of phosphorus issue as Busy1 said and look a bit too dry as Carol said and may be staying a little too cool at night if they're being exposed to temperatures below about 55 degrees.

The phosphorus issue is not at all uncommon in new plants and happens for a combination of reasons. The reasons can include any or all of these factors:

--young plants have small root systems so nutrient uptake can be compromised

--the plants do not take up and use phosphorus when they still are exposed to cold nights

--the problem can occur only with some varieties and not with others.

Usually, the purpling self-corrects itself when cool nighttime temperatures warm up a bit, and/or when the plant matures a little and becomes more efficient at absorbing and using nutrients, including phosphorus.

I think it is likely they're staying too dry in the smart pots and that is why they aren't absorbing nutrients well and aren't growing. I would assume your temperatures have been the same as mine this week, and we've had daytime highs in the mid- to upper-80s since then and lows in the low-60s or maybe down to 58 or 59. (On Monday night, though, we went to 26 degrees so the cold hasn't completely gone away yet.) Between the mostly high temps and vigorous winds, I think the plants' growing medium likely is drying out too quickly and then the plants can't absorb enough moisture to grow and/or to absorb nutrients. It may be that the Medina is being evaporated away by the wind before the roots can absorb it.

I know that sometimes I leave my seedlings outside while I'm gone to a fire for a few hours and then when I come home, they look just awful. In a few hours they've gone way downhill. Why? I guess the same high winds that make fires spread quickly also suck the moisture out of the growing medium. As soon as I water the plants they start to improve and a couple of hours later they look fine. I don't see them go downhill like that when I am at home with them, but of course, if I am at home, I'm watering them if the wind is blowing like mad and they don't dry out like that. They aren't wilted when I come home after being gone on a day like that, but their color has taken a nosedive and a couple of times they've had windburn.

I'd try watering the plants really well so that the soil is moist but not soggy and then try to keep it consistently moist. If they are drying out a lot at midday, the swing from moist to dry and back to moist again may be stunting and stalling them. If you think they need a nutrient boost, I'd try some other fertilizer than the Medina. That's not meant as an insult to the Medina because I think Medina makes fine products, but clearly something isn't working so a supplemental feeding of something like liquid seaweed wouldn't hurt and might help.

You plants will perk up and look fine in a few days, I think, as long as you can keep them moist. There are a few varieties that turn purple more easily than others. I have about 45 tomato varieties sitting out on the patio in 20-oz. plastic cups and probably 90% of them look fine, but every now and then one here or there looks a bit purple. I ignore it and continue to treat the purplish plants the same as the others and the purple goes away on its own. As with children, I think there are some plants that behave themselves and do as expected and there are others that are just "problem children" and behave differently.

Right beside the plants in 20-oz. cups I have much larger tomato plants (about 18" tall with main stems as big around as my index finger and with fruit already formed and enlarging) in 2 to 7 gallon pots. These are my 'early tomatoes' planted in mid.-February from already-large transplants purchased in 5" peat pots. The larger plants haven't shown any of the purpling I see every now and then in a younger plant, and I think it is because they are larger and have more mature root systems. That's one reason I think it likely your 'sick' plants really are suffering more from immaturity than anything else.

Finally, from the ingredients you're using it seems like you're attempting to grow the plants as organically as possible. Is that correct? I garden as organically as possible myself, but there are some limits to gardening 100% organically in containers. I'm not saying it cannot be done but rather that it can call for a lot more effort to keep the plants fed.

For several years I tried to raise heavy-feeder type vegetable plants like peppers and tomatoes in containers, everything from 1 gallon size to 20-gallon size. I was using only organic products and found it very hard to do. Organic fertilizers are, by nature, very slow release, and that is fine in the ground where there is steady moisture and the roots can spread out and grow and search for nutrients. In containers, though, the frequent irrigation needed to keep the soil moist can leach out the organic fertilizers before the plant roots can absorb them and this can leave the plants in a perpetual state of hunger. You see it in less-than-optimal leaf color, somewhat slower growth and less fruitset. After trying for years to 'fix' the problem with only organic fertilizers, I started feeding them every week or every other week with a synthetic, water-soluable fertilizer and haven't had problems with the plants since. I still use organic fertilizers, including Tomato-Tone and Garden-Tone, in the soil mix, and I regularly feed with liquid seaweed, but when the plants look off-color or stunted, I feed them a little Miracle Grow and they perk right up.

I don't have the same fertilizer uptake problems with plants in the ground so that's why I concluded the slow-release organic fertilizers, when used alone in containers, are inadequate to meet the needs of heavy-feeding vegetables grown in containers in our brutally hot climate. I think if a person put their containers on a drip-irrigation system that waters the plants several times a day (so plants never dry out) AND used an injector to feed a water-soluable fertilizer at low rates every time the drip system watered the plants, you could raise heavy feeders in containers in our climate without nutrition issues caused by leaching, but I haven't tried it myself. It is just so much simpler to give them a quick shot of a synthetic water-soluable fertilizer when they tell me they need it.

With the drought quickly deepening here, I already know I'll face an uphill battle this spring and summer keeping the plants both in the ground and in containers well-watered and well-fed. I think it is likely I'll grow fewer tomatoes in pots this year than I originally planned. It is a challenge to keep them all watered in regular summers and in drought summers (and springs!) it is almost impossible.
Dawn

These guy have not been feed since being put in the Smart Pots.

So it might not be the fault of the Medina, I just thought that with the additives (Tomato Tone) etc. they wouldn't need to be feed yet.

So since the consensus seems to be they are hungry, rather than overfertilized, I'll feed them, make sure they are moist enough, mulch the surface and see how they do.

If they don't green up after that, I'll use something faster acting.

Thanks again.

I'll keep everyone updated!

Teri

Well I just hate it when I read threads like this and then never know how they turn out. So I thought I'd let everyone know that with your advice, I decided the problem was not overfeeding, so I fed and watered them and now they are doing great. Blooming, growing, setting fruit. They are in an experimental location east of the house and get shade after about 5. We'll see how that works. Looks like it will be a long hot summer!

Thanks

Teri

Teri,

Thanks for letting us know your tomato plants are doing to so well. I hate not knowing how things turn out too!

We're in the 90s here about a day or two a week, so I feel like the long, hot summer started way too early. Today we were supposed to be 91 and went to 94, and tomorrow we're supposed to top out at 96, so I'm a little worried.....

Keep us posted on how you're doing down there. I grew in blackland prairie clay in Fort Worth my whole life until I moved here at the age of 39 and had to deal with red clay. I find I really miss that blackland clay!

Dawn

I put some plants in the ground yesterday that did not look as good as those and I am really proud of mine. I would like to have a bunch ole sick plants like that.

Larry

Thanks guys. I've got tomotoes up to about 1.5" now on those in the raised bed and the containers. The container growns look a little better now as they got to sleep in the garage for a few of those chilly nights, but that last snap down in the low 40's I made them gut it out outside. They are too big and heavy now to be hauling around.

Interestingly, the neighbor's blue bird pair thinks I put up those tomato cages for their personal use as hunting perches. This AM I went out to look at them before work and one of the fledges from the first clutch was sitting there. Too cute!
My first clutch should fledge any day now and my martins are gathering nesting material. What fun!

Teri