Help with my romas

[Jared77]

They look awful....somethings got them feeling down and I hope I can bring them back. The whole row of them looks awful. Never had an issue with tomatoes, so I think I've used up all my good luck and I'm making up for it with these guys.

The other varieties look ok but you look down the row of these Romas and they just look like this:

The plants are droopy and just look poor. The leaves darken first then they get droopy. We've gotten a few good rains and they've been looking good up until now. There is some new growth thats lighter so I think I can save them if I can get a treatment regiment in place. Anybody have any ideas/suggestions Id really appreciate it.

edited to fix the picture

 

[digitS']

Well yes Jared, mine look like that also. But, I'm fairly sure it is because they've turned purple from the cold . . .

I took the liberty of looking at your weather altho' I couldn't find Fowlerville. Just went where the Weather Service told me to go. It doesn't really look to me that they've had too much cold these last few weeks.

The cold interferes with the plants uptake of phosphorus the horticulturalists tell us. There may be plenty of phosphorus in the soil but the plants aren't moving it thru their tissue very well. But, how about with your soil -- any idea if these plants have a good supply of phosphorus?

Steve

 

[Jared77]

70's during the day, 50's at night. Its been cool, and rather windy. Nothing really that cold though. I'll have to see if I can find the results from the soil sample I sent out. Its on a paper around here somewhere.....in this mess I call a computer desk. Try looking up Howell or Lansing for the weather.

If I need to suppliment the phosphorus any suggestions? Its a lot of rocky clay from the glaciers that cut this land. I know they do suppliment some of the big fields around here but those are corn and beans for the dairy farm, no big tomato growers here.

 

[digitS']

The garden temperatures may still be making it a little tough on your tomatoes, then.

Manure is a reasonable choice for an organic source of phosphorus. And, the dry organic fertilizer I use has bone meal.

I understand that the problem with organic sources is the ready availability of the phosphorus. It isn't water soluble so it takes some time and decomposition before the plants can make use of it. So, I feel as tho' I'm relying on what I've put on the ground in years past.

If you use bone meal, be sure that it is steamed bone meal. It can have as much as 30% P. And, my Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening also says that guano is up to 25% P. My guess is that guano would have the most available soonest but it is also a very high N source so you have to take that into consideration.

I know that there is something called "liquid bone meal" but I have never seen it.

If it is a deficiency, one has to wonder if the Romas won't come out of this on their own since the other tomatoes are doing okay. It doesn't seem surprising to me if one variety acts differently than another.

Steve

 

[Jared77]

Thanks for the info Steve. I'm going to wait and see how they do hoping the ground temps go up and things get better. Its crazy my Early Girls and Big Boys are doing much better than the Romas, but even better than those are my Green Zebras, but the Lemon boys....holy Moses those are doing crazy good.

They are all planted in the same general area, each are 36" apart and the rows are too. So time will tell.