The soil could be chilly, I'll check when I get home. I was mainly checking for moisture so I didn't pay attention to how the soil felt temperature wise.

The pots have a few 1/2" or so drainage holes as close as I can get them to the bottom. The dumb pots are tapered so it was pretty hard to drill right at the bottom once the pots were already planted and full of 4' tall tomato plants (again, I didn't know what I was doing at the beginning, these guys had a rough start).

They kinda look like how my plants do when they get damaged by the first frost of the season. It's really hard to tell from the pictures you have posted, though. Maybe you can take a closer picture of the leaves and stems, without the sunlight being directly in the background.

I see one where it looks as if you didn't take it out of the little pot before planting it in the big black one. I assume that you cut the bottom out of it. Perhaps the roots are too confined and unable to take up enough moisture and nutrients now that they are putting out fruit?

Something to think about next year! It really is best to remove any kind of pots before planting out. I had the same thing when I used to grow seedlings in peat pots which are supposed to degrade. I removed the bottom of the pots before planting and at the end of the season I discovered the peat pots still intact and restricting the roots somewhat. My plants were grown in the ground so they did ok, but probably didn't reach their full potential.

It would help if you could pull away whatever you can of that paper pot to prevent it from wicking moisture out of the soil. You could also add some more potting mix to that container.

Thanks everyone for your continued input. It's gotten worse now, when I left for work in the morning, only the top leaves (growing tips) had wilted, but now the whole plants are. The leaves feel smooth, thin, and flimsy, as opposed to the textured and rigid feel I'm used to. Hopefully these pictures are better now that the morning sun is out of the way (East facing balcony).

Also, the pots the saplings came in were made of some biodegradable peat-like substance. It specifically instructed to plant the entire pot, and everything except that plastic ring will biodegrade. When checking for soil moisture I could definitely feel roots as well. I'll remember to remove the pots next year anyway though, I'll see how these pots fared when the plants get pulled up (hopefully later rather than sooner!). Thanks.

The soil didn't feel all too cold either, but it's warmed up a bit since this morning, the 4 day cold spell has ended.

Thanks again for all your help.

It's really difficult to tell. The leaves look so healthy and disease-free!

You could check around the base of the stems, just to make sure they look good. It seems that something is preventing them from taking up water. Maybe they got severely wind blown?

Hopefully, you didn't damage the roots when feeling around for dampness?

One way to do it is to water until you see seepage out of the bottom of the pot. Make a note of how much water it took for next time.

I hope you can figure out the problem!

Linda

It does get very windy on the balcony, so that's a possibility. We've had our fair share of tornadoes and violent storms.

Even though the soil felt a bit damp still, I watered all the plants until it was coming out of the drainage holes. I might have put in too much water (each plant usually gets half a gallon each, I gave them 3/4 of a gallon each this time) because water was really coming out of those holes! Luckily nobody was on the balcony directly below me at the time!

I'll see how they look when I get back from work 4 hrs from now.

Too much water can look just like not enough water.

Too much water, possibly causing root rot. That is my guess. Another possibility is a real heavy dose of fertilizer.

50- 60F will never do that to tomatoes. My night lows are consistently in low 50s.

Sey

Yes, possibly some form of root rot... they are probably toast.

I'm so sorry you are having this problem. It looks like your plants were on their way to being pretty productive considering the difficult growing situation. I have had this problem a couple times over 20+ years of growing tomatoes in pots.

It looks like classic tomato wilt. It can be caused by thrips, which carry tomato spotted wilt virus, or a heavy infestation of chewing insects, like aphids. In one case for me it was caused by using black walnut leaves in the compost I used in my mix. Even a small amount can kill a tomato. In the other case, it only happened to one variety I was growing. Some tomatoes are genetically prone to wilt in poor conditions, especially paste and heart varieties. The fact that all your plants are suffering from it at the same time suggests it could be something in the seeds (genes or disease organisms).

But in your case, I agree that the most likely culprit is too much water, poor drainage or root rot due to soggy soil. If you plan to grow tomatoes in containers again, I suggest you read the popular discussion in the container forum called Container Growing, Water Movement and Retention. Tomatoes in pots need fast draining soil in very large pots with many drainage holes. They need to be able to dry out between waterings.

Here's a link to the discussion I mentioned above. If you just read the long first part by Tapla, you will get the concept. If you want to know more, go through all of the nearly 200 posts. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2842847/container-soils-water-movement-and-retention-xxii

I'm not sure about the bug/blight situation here. I live in the Canadian prairies so we get frigid winters that tend to keep many bugs well away, and even the bugs we do get usually don't venture up to my 7th floor balcony. Only the occasional yellowjacket.

Well, after the epic watering I gave them last night (thanks for the suggested reading Ohiofem, I'll see if I can use toothpicks as wicks in the drainage holes I drilled when I get back from work), the growing tips look fairly pooched (starting to wilt more and turn dark), but the rest of the plants seem to have bounced back!

Most of the leaves are open and full, and back to their normal texture.

The mystery continues!

As far as fertilizing goes, I give them Miracle-Gro water soluble tomato fertilizer (18-18-21) once per week (that's what the package says). And the saplings themselves I got from Wal-Mart back in April. They seem to be doing ok given my awful pruning job and their rough lives so far. They're producing lots of (tiny) cherry tomatoes and they're very tasty.

But all this feedback is really appreciated. I'm sure I'll do a better job with next year's plants.

Tone down on the fertilizer application. I know that fertilizer said its for tomato, but I suggest next time get a fertilizer more specific for peppers and tomatoes, something with less nitrogen. Too much nitrogen will get you nice dark leaves like that and less fruits production. Also it's not a good idea to water the plant too much when it's producing which will decrease the flavor of the fruit.

-Pick all the fruits wit a hint of color.

== Your last picture confirms over watering by displaying some rolled leaves.

-- Make drainage holes bigger. With small holes and bad soil they can get clogged up.Try to unclog them.

Make sure there is no dish under the pots OR there is no water bath in them.

== Hold fertilizing. I never fertilized my potted plants with full strength. 1/3 is about routine.

Finally : WHAT KING OF POTTING MIX do you have in those pots?

Sey

I'm not sure why the plants would bounce back after I watered them if overwatering was the problem, but if that's what the leaves are saying then that's what it is I suppose.

The drainage holes are 1/2" in diameter, and there are 3 in each pot. They didn't have any kind of wicking though, I'll remedy that when I get home and see if they're clogged.

There are no dishes under the pots, the holes drain right onto the patio and away from the plants, though I may need to devise a barrier to stop the patio below me from getting a nice shower when my tomatoes drain.

I'll use less fertilizer going forward, I'll use the small scoop (1/2 tsp) instead of the recommended large one (1 tbsp).

This is the potting mix I used.

http://www.promixfindgrowtopia.com/product/detail/pro-mix-vegetables-herb

Jeff, I didn't say much earlier since Labs pretty much summarized what I would think and you really didn't give us enough info to be sure (and if you knew all the info to give you probably wouldn't have needed any help in the first place!)

I do think the plants were wind-blown. I think 4 days in high winds would have done it, and the cool weather before dawn hitting around 50 F didn't help the recovery. Tomatoes bounce back if it is just a night or two but the winds could prevent that. A lot of stiff 25 mph gusts up there from a dry ripping across the park and river from a North wind would catch your ENE balcony pretty hard. Proof to me is that you had to secure the plants. The tender leaves probably couldn't hack it and dehydrated. The plant looks just like it really ran out of water, and that the watering was uneven, not necessarily the overall wrong amount ... and not that it was over-watered to me (a nice pic of the base of each stem would have been nice) Winds carrying 30% humidity can do it.

It it the only thing that fits which is good news. Others have commented on what could happen in a container, but your plants look too healthy to me to second guess, and I think just got a wind beating. I would put a plastic wind barrier if you can, to stop some of the eddies on the balcony. It is only going to start to get colder now.

Cheers

PC