What is wrong with my Tomato Plants? (pictures included)

[BrianSkilton]

My tomato plants are looking very sick, and I think it is most definitely my soil. The plants are all in a raised bed, comprised of some clay, top soil, and compost (sheep and cow manure). I checked the PH of my soil yesterday and it was around 7.8-8.0, rather alkaline. Anyway my plants are turning purple, and are starting to curl, and bottom leaves are droopy. It has been pretty cold the past week highs in the high 50s, low 60s and rainy, the soil is pretty saturated. When I first put them in the ground, I added a tea spoon of bone meal to each hole. This week I gave them some fertilizer "Miracle Grow" for tomatoes. Pictures Below:

[img]https://www.phantom360.com/Gardening/tomato1.JPG[/img]
[img]https://www.phantom360.com/Gardening/tomato2.JPG[/img]
[img]https://www.phantom360.com/Gardening/tomato3.JPG[/img]
[img]https://www.phantom360.com/Gardening/tomato4.JPG[/img]

[GardenerGirl]

That looks like phosphorus deficiency to me, probably brought on my the cold weather. When roots get too cold, the plant has trouble absorbing the phosphorus in the soil. I'd try clearing out the mulch around the base of the plant (mulch shades the soil and cools the roots).

Also, the alkalinity of the soil could be interfering with phosphorus uptake. If it's just the cold, they'll probably bounce back once the temperatures go up, but it would be good to try and lower the pH of the soil. You can use sulfur for this, but keep monitoring your pH levels through the year: you may need multiple amendments.

[BrianSkilton]

Thanks for the post, GardenerGirl. Where can I buy sulfur? Also how would I go about mixing that in, with the tomato plants in the soil? I did a test for phosphorous, and the results said I had medium phosphorous levels, so maybe it is the cold? The plants looked like this before the cold spell too however.

[GardenerGirl]

The one time I had to buy sulfur, I got it from my local garden store, but I suspect you could find it in gardening shops online, too. I found some listed on amazon.com, but the shipping costs are significant for most chemical solutions, so buying locally is usually better.

I put the sulfur in before planting, and just mixed it in with the soil while tilling: for an established, planted bed, I'd carefully loosen the soil around the plants and sprinkle in a bit at a time. If other people have more experience with altering the pH of a planted bed, they may be able to help more.

Good luck.

[BrianSkilton]

I have racked up all the mulch, and the soil has dried out fairly fast, I kind of hoed it a little bit. I will check the PH again today, maybe my soil sample wasn't very good, and I used fairly damp soil for the PH test. If the PH is still high, I will add some sulfur like you suggested someone else also said adding peat moss will lower the PH. I hope my tomato plants don't have some type of disease, but I haven't been able to find out anything about their conditions other than bad soil.

[melissawho44]

Did you fertilize the ground real good before you planted?
what kind of tomato plant is it?

[scgardenman]

The clay that is in your soil may be adding to your "saturated" issue. I had to add a soil additive to my soil because of clay. The soil additive basically is just 50%compost and 50% mulch, but it worked real well. The mulch mixed into the dirt allows for areation to happen underground, therefore the dirt still retains moisture but also drains well.

Robbie