Lots of green tomatoes! No red ones yet, but it won't be long now. The Big Beef and Purple Calabrese varieties are doing especially well in my garden.
I have always used a tepee structure in the past for my tomato plants, but in my new sunnier garden, I think a more traditional support stucture would give the plants more room. The plants are bigger and fuller than usual in my new garden. So, my husband has started to move the poles and make a box-like structure for the plants. This will give them more space and light as they grow taller.
The lower leaves of my tomatoes plants (and my parents' tomato plants too) have been turning brown and shriveling up in the past couple weeks. I remove the leaves as they die. I assume the problem is over watering. June was very wet. We have torrential downpours and thunderstorms nearly every afternoon. Not much we could do about this. I am curious if other gardeners have noticed a problem with tomato leaves?
Solanum lycopersicum
10 comments:
I've noticed the same thing, and we've had a wet June too. I'm not sure what to do for them. My cherry tomato plants are definitely coming in I had some great ones in a salad yesterday, but I'm worried about those leaves! Afraid to let the plant dry out too much though....
Well, my one tomato plant is growing green ;-) but I have noticed this yellow leaf problem with dahlias and witch hazel. The bearded irises need constant removal of discolored leaves.
One of my tomato varieties, the Yellow Pear, has yellow and brown leaves on the bottom. The other two, Early Girl and Super Sweet 100, are perfectly fine. I've been worrying about them like a sick child! lol You garden is beautiful and I really enjoy reading your blog. Thank you!
It might just be a lack of sunlight, if the lower leaves are getting blocked by the ones on top. Check out this quote from a very good article on tomato cultivation:
"When a tomato plant lies on the ground, or when its growth is extremely dense, many of its leaves are forced into permanent shade, greatly reducing the amount of sugar they produce. There is no free ride in the plant world. If a leaf uses more sugar than it makes, a layer of abscission cells develops between the main stem and the leaf petiole; eventually the leaf yellows and drops."
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/pruning-tomatoes.aspx
The article suggests pruning the leaf stems below the first fruit anyway.
Thanks Amelia!
A lack of sunlight could explain it. The zucchinis to the left of the tomaotes and the broccoli to the right both grew dense and were shading the tomaotes. I pulled the broccoli and stuck in a stick and sting fence to keep the zucc's in place. Also the tomaotes have grown more leafy than I am used to. Thats why we modified the supports - to get more light down into the plants.
I pulled off all the yellowed lower leaves. They were all below the first fruit. I'm glad to hear this is good to do anyway.
PS. I have many large cayenne peppers that will start turning red soon I think :) But no other peppers or chiles yet from my plants :(
"When a tomato plant lies on the ground, or when its growth is extremely dense, many of its leaves are forced into permanent shade, greatly reducing the amount of sugar they produce."
Thanks! This explains a lot for me, too. I have had very yellow leaves both on my cuke and tomato plants which I put into cedar windowboxes. Their lower leaves are definitely hidden from the sunlight. I have also noticed the yellowing leaves with some of my tomato plants that have broad (shading) leaves. Not so much with the cherry 100s, which have more sparse foliage.
Thanks for the insight!
My cherry 100s have been losing the lower branches to yellowing and browning for a few weeks (all below the fruit). I had also read that tomatoes don't need the lower branches, so I usually strip them on my larger plants, which helps the sun get to the marigolds anyway. Glad to hear that other people are experiencing the same issues.
I inter-plant my tomatoes with lettuce, kale, garlic, onions, and strawberries. All of these need light too so I strip off all the lower branches and only leave the ones on the top half of the plants. My trellises are 5 feet tall and by the end of the summer all of the tomatoes will be long tough stems with the leaves and tomatoes laying on a shelf 5 feet above the ground.
I never see and yellowing or stem rot using this method. It seems to be too high to attract bugs and each 3x5 trellis will be covered with it's own mini-greenhouse at the end of September. Last year I had fresh tomatoes on New Years Day!
Wow! Why is the color not red? im sorry im not into gardening or planting?
Hi services,
Tomatoes are green when they are small fruits on the plant. They turn red (or yellow, orange, or purple) when they ripen. You should try growing some! Its fun.
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