I just planted two tomato seedlings in a large (18 inch) planter with just potting mix (miracle gro variety). I’ve been watering them when the soil 1 inch below the surface goes dry. However, they are yellowing. They are getting nearly 12hrs of sun a day.
Additional point: I also have 6 other tomato seedlings in the ground, in the backyard. These are only getting around 6 hours a day, and are perfectly happy. I have been watering them the same way. Anyone able to tell whats wrong by the pictures? (I put them down about 1.5 weeks ago, is it still transplant shock? none of the ones in the backyard are suffering from that anymore)
Why are my tomato babies yellowing
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applestar
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Welcome to the forum! 
Wow they do look stressed.
OK, my first thought was that you can’t water tomatoes in those two completely different situations on same schedule. I would think the potted plants would need to be watered more often, unless it’s been so dry with the ground completely dried up and stealing water from irrigated plants.
That “potting mix” … doesn’t look like potting mix. Are you sure it wasn’t something like raised bed mix or vegetable garden mix?
Recently, potting mix quality has gone down and contain way more undecomposed woody mulch like stuff, so it might be possible…. But regardless, I think it’s tying up and causing nitrogen deficiency.
What did the potting mix say about included fertilizer? With tomatoes I still mix in organic fertilizer and dolomitic lime….
You could try foliar fertilizing… or what I often do is to just spray container plants with diluted last dregs of milk or coffee or fruit juice.
…ps Fun fact — plants getting less sun do turn darker green — they are trying to compensate for the reduced light by increasing chlorophyll.
Wow they do look stressed.
OK, my first thought was that you can’t water tomatoes in those two completely different situations on same schedule. I would think the potted plants would need to be watered more often, unless it’s been so dry with the ground completely dried up and stealing water from irrigated plants.
That “potting mix” … doesn’t look like potting mix. Are you sure it wasn’t something like raised bed mix or vegetable garden mix?
Recently, potting mix quality has gone down and contain way more undecomposed woody mulch like stuff, so it might be possible…. But regardless, I think it’s tying up and causing nitrogen deficiency.
What did the potting mix say about included fertilizer? With tomatoes I still mix in organic fertilizer and dolomitic lime….
You could try foliar fertilizing… or what I often do is to just spray container plants with diluted last dregs of milk or coffee or fruit juice.
…ps Fun fact — plants getting less sun do turn darker green — they are trying to compensate for the reduced light by increasing chlorophyll.
I think you are right Applestar the potting mix may be more like garden soil. It will stay too wet for a small plant and it also looks like there wasn't any starter fertilizer. A quick test would be to give it a nitrogen boost and see if it greens up in a couple of weeks. I don't mean an organic boost, it will take too long. I mean using a synthetic water soluble fertilizer once a week for 3 weeks.
Yellow means no food. Liquid plant food quick or sure death. High nitrogen to begin with. Imafan26 is correct after the green comes back. In containers the water flushes out the nutrients so you need to feed the plants every other week...forever. At the first blooming switch to plant food with lower N and higher P and K. You may even want to add some granular balanced fertilizer to the soil just to help out.