Tomato Plant issues

16 years ago

Hello, I am soliciting opinions about what is wrong with my tomatoes.

I have 2 Juliet, 3 Stupice and 3 Hawaiian Tropic plants, all grown from seed. They were planted outside in April. They are in a raised bed, 12" deep with approx 9-10" of Mel's mix and added bone meal and epsom salts. There is 2-3" of straw mulch on top. They are watered with drip irrigation and are currently getting two 10 minute waterings an hour apart in the morning 4 days a week with .9gph drippers. Most recently I am fertilizing with a time released Scotts all purpose 10-10-10 fertilizer.

Pictures can be viewed here are are mixed in with some other garden pictures but are easy to pick out.

Leaves have been curled almost since I put them outside. They seem to be stunted (there is clay soil under the raised bed) and the few tomatoes I've been able to pick are TINY!

I fought off quite a few hornworms but they are all gone now. The plants are not setting fruit which is most likely because of the extra warm weather here, been running 95-103 for several weeks now. But even before the really warm days and nights set in, they were looking pretty ragged.

All comments welcome! I am new at this (2nd year) and want to learn so I don't make the same mistakes again. I haven't picked any tomatoes off the HTropic. Everything I have picked has been from the Stupice except one from the Juliet.

If I left anything out, please let me know! Thank you for any and all help!!

Cheryle

9B Mojave Desert California

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Pictures

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Comments (3)

col_sprg_maters
16 years ago
Heat water and fertilizer are what I would suspect.

My calculations give a 1 gal/week of water per plant? have you checked the soil for moisture? I would consider (not a desert person) changing the water regiment for soil that stays in the moist range.

I cant get a lot of info on your fertilizer, but I suspect that some important micro nutrients and trace elements may be missing- Ammonium phosphate,Sulfur, Potassium chloride, Urea is all that in yours. you and your plants need a more complete package. consider what many folks like which is Foliage Pro. I use Azomite myself, but the idea is that there is more, actually 18 more things, than NPK.

dont know what to say about the heat, some shade?

Thats my thoughts.

D colorado

My plants stress level went way down when I went to a
12-4-8 fertilizer and added all the micro's.
User
Original Author
16 years ago
D colorado, thank you for your insight! I looked at the bag and it doesn't offer much if any micronutrients. I will look for the fertilizers you recommend. Last year I used Osmocote and had a decent harvest, nothing to write home about though.

Guaranteed Analysis
Scott's All Purpose Flower & Vegetable Continuous Release Plant Food 10-10-10
Total Nitrogen 10%
7.9% Urea Nitrogen*
2.1% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
Available Phosphate (P2O5) 10%
Soluble Potash (K2O) 10%
Sulfur (S) 2%
2% free Sulfur (S)
Derived from : Urea, Polymer-coated Sulfur-coated Urea, Potassium Chloride, and Ammonium Phosphate.
*Contains 5.3% slowly available Polymer-coated Sulfur-coated Urea.

I actually just started the 4 day a week water regimen and that lasted one day. It was 109 today and everything in the garden wilted. I watered everything for 30 minutes of drip plus 30 minutes of hose spray for the tomatoes in particular.

Changed the regimen to daily, 30 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon. I have found anything more than 30 minutes at one time builds up over time to overwatering and yellow leaves.

Heat: Not much to do. Tried shade cloth but then the sun is blocked, although the heat is lowered maybe 15 degrees or so, I didn't notice any glaring difference after trying it out for a week or so, so I removed the shade cloth so they could get full sun.

Anyone else?

Cheryle
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korney19
16 years ago
Some of the tomatoes look like they have stinkbug damage--the ones with cloudy spots.

This is the first time a picture wasn't worth a thousand words; it was really hard to make out anything especially with the plants sprawling and not staked or caged.

Curling leaves can be overwatering, however even here in zone 6 Buffalo I use more water than you, almost twice as much, about 20 minutes 2x/day. Maybe the vermiculite in Mel's Mix is causing it, keeping things too damp? Are you using the newer Mel's Mix formula that's 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost, or the original formula that adds a coffee can of lime and fertilizer?

Small fruit are common with not enough water & food. Maybe mojavebob will add his 2 cents here, he grows in similar conditions as you. Maybe it's too hot there now.