The planter in the first picture looks as if it might be made of clay. If so, they dry out really fast. The second planter is black, so the heat could be a problem for that one.....

I water my containers twice a day.

Just my two cents worth.

Linda

Feed it too. Your plants are showing all the classic symptoms of inconsistent watering issues (tomato leaf roll) and nutrient deprivation.

That composted manure quickly loses any nutrients every time you water plus it is only valuable as a nutrient source if there is an active soil micro-herd to digest it. That doesn't happen well in containers. The heat and low humidity kills them off. There are plenty of organic liquid supplements you can use to feed it at least once week.

You need to come up with a day to stabilize your soil moisture levels.

Dave

As I look at your first picture, first thing crosses my mind is : It Needs Water. The second thing is (question form) : Why is it so small ? Maybe it is a small det variety ?:

WATERING and LEAF CURL.

Contrary to the common belief watering is NOT the primary reason. As Linda just said she waters her pots twice a day. No problem. (heard of hydroponics ?)
What is the actual root cause is BAD medium/soil. It gets packed and/or stays soggy. This way, the root system is not getting enough air/oxygen. With my 5-1-1 soil mix I can water as often as I want. The only drawback will be washing down the nutrients. To remedy that I water with 1/4 to 1/3 strength liquid fertilizer solution (mixed In watering can), every other time. In other words, it is hard to over water with a good well drained soil. We hear often tha " ..yeah, that year it rained a lot and our tomatoes, peppers did very well.."

Drying out, packing, root bounding, smaller pot size, lack of nutrient are the inherent short comings of container growing. Thus it becomes challenging and requiring much more know how and care. Unfortunately most container growers are newbies. It is much easier to grow in the ground/bed that in the pot. I know this because i am doing both ways right now.

Thanks! I stepped up my watering schedule, mulched the pots with grass clippings, and fed them today. We'll see if they can recover as we head into the hottest days of summer!

In hindsight, I feel a little foolish for believing the label on the Miracle Gro bag that said "feeds up to six months". That must be under ideal conditions, indoor plant, low nutrient needs, etc. Not outdoors in a container with daily watering.

rt_peasant, are your tomatoes any better today? Hope they feel better soon.

Mine are huge but aren't ripening yet! Going to post separately about that matter.

My first impression just by the photos was hot and dry. Is the water getting into the soil? Sometimes the soil can dry out and shed water. Can you test/probe the pots to make sure the roots have water?

Hi rt,

I am close by in Broomfield. I have grown tomatoes previously, but that was before I moved to CO 20 years ago. In addition, I grew them in the ground. I'm growing them this year for the first year in CO and for the first time in containers, so I may not know what I am talking about!

I am growing one each of Park's Whopper, Early girl and Big Beef. They are pictured below - the light is not good as the sun is just starting to hit them at 8:30AM. I probably won't grow Early girl again as it not any earlier than the other two.

I think that your containers are pretty small - as you can see I am using the big containers from Costco - I think I put about 20 gallons of material in each. A bigger container not only gives the plant more room, but makes watering easier (holds water longer) and reduces the heat problem. I'm using Neptune's Harvest Fish/seaweed fertilizer about every 10 days. Got a late start about June 10, but the plants are near the top of my 4' high cage setup. I water about 1.5 gallons every 2 days by drip irrigation.

I don't know how my crop will go. The 3 plants have about 40 tomatoes of various sizes right now.

Hi, I'm happy to say that my tomato plants in containers are recovering nicely. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions! I mulched with grass clippings, increased the watering to 1-2x/day, and started feeding the plants Miracle Gro 1-2x/week. The new growth coming in looks great, which hasn't been the case for several weeks.

To JerryM down the road in Broomfield (I'm in Boulder), my containers are 14" and 17", and I think you're right, the 14" container is pretty small. The 17" container seems to be doing better.

To edweather, the water was soaking in nicely. I'm starting to think that my biggest problem was a lack of nutrients, since I hadn't ever fed them (other than what they got from the composted manure or the MG fert that came in the bag of potting mix.)

New growth on Bloody Butcher:

Grape tomatoes ripening plus some new growth:

-Mark

This post was edited by rt_peasant on Wed, Jul 23, 14 at 1:09