tomatoes on deaths door....

[nervousgardener]

Hi, I'm desperately hoping someone can shed some light on my dying tomato plants.... They seem to have struggled for a fortnight now and no matter what I change they don't seem to improve.
The main problems are:
1. The leaves are dry and crispy brown on the edges
2. The leaves are so pale they are almost white
3. Some of the flower buds have dried up and died.

They are 2 moneymaker variety plants grown in organic compost and live in my conservatory/greenhouse in a windowbox style contained. I have been pinching out the side shoots as directed and I water them when the soil feels dry. They are about 1.5ft tall and have spent some time outside but now back in again. No sign of pests and I had added some special feed as another online forum said pale leaves were sign of deficiency (they perked up for all of 3 days after that).

I'm almost at the point where I'm going to give up - it seems cruel to keep trying!

Any help very gratefully received - I'm very new at this.
Thanks.

[rainbowgardener]

If possible (re the weather) I'd try getting them back outside. I'm just guessing here, but one possibility is your "contained, windowbox style conservatory/greenhouse" (I'm not quite getting the picture) gets too hot. Is it ventilated? It's the amazing the heat that can build up in a small greenhouse enclosure if the sun comes out. Your plants could just be getting a bit cooked. If you think it's possible that this is the issue, try putting a thermometer in there (while you get the tomatoes out).

Even if it is a well ventilated space and this isn't the problem, the plants are still likely to do better outside, as long as you aren't having freezes.

[nervousgardener]

thanks, will keep trying all options!

[rainbowgardener]

ok, but are you going to tell me, could it have been the cooking?

[Duh_Vinci]

In the past, I've noticed on few seedlings the symptoms you describe (I think)... Are those leafs feel paper thin and fragile?

Sometimes, when the seedlings left inside too long, and not enough light, they still grow, and grow fairly tall, but no "might" in the stems or leafs. Once these moved outside, after first hour on the sun, leafs become discolored, almost like a tissue paper, almost translucent...

If this sounds like what you have, I believe this condition due to the lack of proper, strong light and no air movement in their life - weak seedlings.

In the shade, and outside for a week or two, planted up to their almost 2nd to top leafs (stripping all lower foliage) may nurse it back to life... Kinda difficult to judge with out the picture though...

Good luck!

Regards,
D

[rainbowgardener]

"Sometimes, when the seedlings left inside too long, and not enough light, they still grow, and grow fairly tall, but no "might" in the stems or leafs. Once these moved outside, after first hour on the sun, leafs become discolored, almost like a tissue paper, almost translucent..."

this is a variant of what I was talking about. The bleached out, thin, almost translucent leaves are sunburned. Plants that aren't well hardened off and adapted to direct sun tend to get sunburned ("sun scorch") when exposed to direct sun. Weaker plants would be more vulnerable to it. Plants under glass probably more so also.

[wolfie]

Do they come back from sun burn if you just cut those leaves and keep going?

[Duh_Vinci]

Shouldn't be a problem for them to bounce back. Specially in a good, loamy fertile soil where the roots establish quickly.

Regards,
D