Scrappy Coco
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Tomato leaf whitening in middle

My tomato plants are about one and a half months old and they are still in paper cups. They are about 20cm tall and I've gradually exposed them to the sun on daily basis. They are outside during the day and inside during the night for a few hours under lights.

Today two of plants' leaves have begun whitening starting from the middle and spreading towards the edges. According to what I read on the internet it might be a fungal desease caused by over watering, and I do water my plants every day, but I just want a confirmation from someone on this. Could something else cause this issue? Maybe the roots don't have enough space? I was planning on transplanting them from the cups a while ago but I don't have enough space. At the moment I'm working on cleaning the garden from an infestive plant, its' roots are all over the place so it might take a few more days.

So what might be the cause of the leaf whitening, over watering, not enough space for the roots, any other cause? And except for maybe watering them less, is there anything different I could do to help the plants? Thank you!

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Lindsaylew82
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Scrappy Coco! I like saying that name, it's catchy!

Do you mind posting a picture? While I have a fairly vivid imagination, it doesn't compare to what a photograph offers of what your plant is going through. Could be something fungal, could be something as simple as sunburn, but most of us can give you much more definite explanations with a photograph! :()

Scrappy Coco
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Joined: Mon May 27, 2013 9:32 am
Location: Israel, Nazareth Illit

Lindsaylew82 wrote:Scrappy Coco! I like saying that name, it's catchy!

Do you mind posting a picture? While I have a fairly vivid imagination, it doesn't compare to what a photograph offers of what your plant is going through. Could be something fungal, could be something as simple as sunburn, but most of us can give you much more definite explanations with a photograph! :()
Haha, Scrappy Coco is a fabricated name used in the movie The Zohan played by Adam Sandler. In the movie he is an Israeli soldier that moved to the United States to be a hairdresser and he didn't want his Israeli identity to be revealed so he named himself after two dogs he saw at the airport, Scrappy, and Coco.

Anyway, the pictures are attached below :)
Image
Image

High resolution links to the pictures, first picture, second picture.

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Lindsaylew82
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I think they're just a little sun bleached! It definitely doesn't look like disease to me. There may be some nutrition issue, but it really just looks like sunburn! Could be overwateringr related, but you usually see wilting with that in addition to the yellowing. That's good news! The tiny white holes on the bottom of the one plant are from flea beetles. Your plants will very likely outgrow all this once allowed to grow without constraints!

I would probably up-size those if you don't plan on planting out very soon. Plants otherwise look very nice!

PaulF
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Your plants are certainly ready to be planted outside in the garden. If you need to wait for a while it may be a good time to feed them with a liquid plant food at diluted strength the next time you water. The fertility in the cups may be reduced.

imafan26
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It is looking like sun scald. Adjusting the hardening off maybe to a place that is more shady outside then to more sun after that. It is easier to take them out on a cloudy day. Gradually extend the time they are exposed to light. It takes a week or two to do this. I am having similar problems with my orchids now, not because I moved them , but because I cut the tree that shaded them.

Scrappy Coco
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Lindsaylew82 wrote:I think they're just a little sun bleached! It definitely doesn't look like disease to me. There may be some nutrition issue, but it really just looks like sunburn! Could be overwateringr related, but you usually see wilting with that in addition to the yellowing. That's good news! The tiny white holes on the bottom of the one plant are from flea beetles. Your plants will very likely outgrow all this once allowed to grow without constraints!

I would probably up-size those if you don't plan on planting out very soon. Plants otherwise look very nice!
Oh that's a relief, I thought it's condition is worse. Well I did notice it was suffering from the strong sun today so I got them inside under lights in the afternoon instead of in the evening. Also, thanks for letting me know about the white dots.

I almost finished clearing the ground from the infestive plant, it took me three days and I haven't finished yet I have about one more day and the ground is clear and ready :) Probably tomorrow I will be transplating the tomatoes, the one I transplanted about two weeks ago is doing great, it's color is much more of a dark green rather than the pale green of the ones still left in the cups.

Also, something pretty beautiful happened (at least beautiful in my opinion), one of the cups got absolutely bent over when I moved it out of a crate a few days ago. The stem was almost broken and bent so bad that the leaves were touching the ground. I "gave up" on that tomato plant and put it aside (it's really hard for me to throw away a plant :( ). About two days later I came back and noticed the plant was revived, you can still see "the dent".

Link to high quality version.
Image
imafan26 wrote:It is looking like sun scald. Adjusting the hardening off maybe to a place that is more shady outside then to more sun after that. It is easier to take them out on a cloudy day. Gradually extend the time they are exposed to light. It takes a week or two to do this. I am having similar problems with my orchids now, not because I moved them , but because I cut the tree that shaded them.
Thanks :)
PaulF wrote:Your plants are certainly ready to be planted outside in the garden. If you need to wait for a while it may be a good time to feed them with a liquid plant food at diluted strength the next time you water. The fertility in the cups may be reduced.
By liquid plant food do you mean some sort of a fertilizer? I have a seaweed based fertilizer, if that's what you meant.

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Lindsaylew82
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You can put them out and cover the ground with wet news paper! Several layers makes for a really nice weed barrier. Dump some mulch on top of that and you're made!

You can put a lawn chair over them for the first week or so they're out I your main beds.

PaulF
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Depending on the nutritional value of the seaweed the plants may need some food if they are not going to be planted in the next few days. Not being familiar with seaweed fertilizer and being familiar with liquid plant food (the blue powder you mix with water) that was the stuff I was referring to. The sun scald is not too serious and the plants should recover; a little fertilizer would not hurt.



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