Tomatoes again...

[banth]

Following on from a question below, my tomatoes have also started turning yellow and looking wilted on the bottom branches. The plants are in a grow bag and about a foot tall. They have the sun for most of the day and I water them plenty.

I also have a tomato food fertiliser which I have used twice, having only had them for three weeks. The tomato food has magnesium oxide MgO soluble in water 0.016% (0.008%Mg) in it. I use 1tbsp per gallon. What am I doing wrong?!

Should I get some epsom salts? If so do I use them alongside the fertiliser?

I've never grown them before (they are Big Boy toms btw) and would love for them to be OK.

Any ideas appreciated,

Thanks
B
x

[Lonnie]

Everyone has their own method of growing things, as far as Epson Salts is concerned, I sprinkle it neat around the base, works for me, and yes, you can use a fertiliser using this method.

I never grow Tomatoes or Cucumbers in Growbags, (a personal preference), I dig a hole in the ground, put a layer of well rotted manure at the bottom, cut the base out of a flower pot, put that on top, filled with a good multi-purpose compost, then put the plants in, the roots are now not restricted, as they are in a Growbag.

As for your present problem, yes, use the Epsom Salts. and it also could be over watering.

[gumboil]

The reason that your plants are looking yellow is that they are desperately in need of plant food and whatever was in the growbags is now useless.

Forget about feeding them tomato fertiliser until the first fruits begin to form . The fruits will be visible after the flowers drop off. Tomato fertilisers contain very high levels of Potassium (Potash) and potash is needed by herbaceous plants to form flowers and fruit only and will not promote foliage growth.

What you need now is to use a general soluble plant food such as Miracle Gro or Phostrogen in order to get the plants over the deficiencies they've been suffering. It will also bring on the flowering of the plants. Don't go overboard with them all the same, as you'll be growing lots of lush foliage instead.

[gumboil]

Most general fertiliser such as Miracle Gro and Phostrogen do contain Magnesium as well as other trace elements. You'll not harm them all the same by spraying them with Epsom Salts as well, but you're not going to cure them by using Epsom Salts alone here.

I've often seen lanky tomato plants that have been grown by home gardeners in old yogurt pots. The plants are often around a foot tall, like yours, and they suffer from the same symptoms as yours. The reason for it is that there is such a low volume of compost in the yogurt pot, that when they water them, all the nutrients are washed out of the compost in no time at all - it wouldn't matter if you bought the besy compost on earth. The compost simply can't sustain the plants.

Personally, I've used Phostrogen for donkey's years and I get better results with it than Miracle Gro (don't believe everything you see in the adverts!). Make sure the Phostrogen is the one in an orange coloured box, labelled "All purpose soluble feed for a healthy garden".

[gumboil]

Lonnie's method is a variant of what's known as Ring-Culture. You can get good results using this method.

There is a possibility that over-watering coul be the cause of this, but everything seems to point to nutrient deficiency from this and your earlier post. Try keeping the soil evenly moist at all times but not soaked. This will also help prevent split-fruit when the tomatoes ripen.

If you have holes in the underside of the growbags, much of the nutrients could be being washed away. On the other hand, unholed growbags are easily waterlogged.

Watering growbags is an art - you've got to get it just right to keep the plants moist but not saturated.

[gumboil]

Sorry banth. I did think you were the same poster as the earlier one!

I still stand by my advice all the same.