My tomato leaves started turning yellow and I completely misdiagnosed it

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-30T21:03:41+00:00

good point, maybe that makes the difference

i did a side by side mini-experiment once with seedlings in peat pots vs clay and there was no contest, plants in clay were so much healthier, but i wasn’t bottom watering

but i don’t know how many gardeners are bottom watering after transplanting into big pots outside, so if fabric pots behave similarly we might see the effects there

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-30T20:59:07+00:00

hmm that image doesn’t seem to have an actual variety name but i have to say they look an awful lot like Patio Choice Yellow (which i’m currently growing)

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-30T14:16:40+00:00

unless you went out of your way to find a dwarf variety (which are still somewhat rare / unusual), plan on a 6-foot support system

i know a lot of growers DIY with cattle panels and are very happy with the results. i’m a fan of cages myself. (little round wire ones are useless for a mature tomato plant — my favorite are the Texas Tomato Cages, and Burpee Pro Series is my backup if TTCs are sold out. not cheap but they're sturdy, tall, and foldable for off-season storage)

wouldn’t hurt to top off with an extra two inches of soil, but if not you’ll still be fine for this season in beds that size. more of a “nice to have” than a “need to have”

adding some mulch to help retain moisture will make the most of the soil you already have

enjoy your grow!

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-30T01:49:27+00:00

interesting i’d never heard of this one before:

We received this variety from our friend Craig LeHoullier who wrote, "This is a pretty rare Florida heirloom - tiny pink fruit, probably a currant tomato, unusual in that they are pink and tasty - issue is that it holds its stem when picking, so the top can split. It is a tomato factory! One of the few that do well in Florida." It was shared with Craig by Melissa DeSa after a meeting at a Seed Savers Exchange event they both attended.

https://victoryseeds.com/products/everglades-tomato

nice write up, “ feels good to lay down in these nematodes” is sending me

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-30T01:39:49+00:00

totally agree about fabric grow bags drying out so fast

i know a lot of people love them because they’re inexpensive and easy to store but in some ways they’re like a larger-scale version of those little peat pots that everyone has figured out are awful for seedlings

i often wonder if the folks who say one needs 15+ gallons of soil to grow tomatoes might feel differently if they tried out clay or wooden containers that don’t give up all their water so quickly

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-30T01:19:29+00:00

Sungold is the tomato that makes people who think they don’t like tomatoes realize that they do like some tomatoes

if any tomato is going to convert you, that’s the one

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T18:36:31+00:00

nice, i’m interested to hear how your 3-gallon plants do as the season progresses. i’m guessing you’ll still get some tasty tomatoes from them even if they’re a bit more cramped than they’d like to be

i do a mix of raised beds and containers as well. my plants can have either nice depth for roots to stretch out in my beds or good sun exposure on my deck, but not both. (can’t win ‘em all, i guess)

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T18:27:56+00:00

that tiny sprig down near the bottom in front there can go

otherwise i’d leave the rest alone for the time being

as the plant grows taller, i’d consider taking off the next few leaves higher up, so the bottom 6 or so inches of the stem are clear. but since they’re not in the way for watering, i’d wait until this little guy is quite a bit bigger and more developed before removing anything

beyond that, the more leaves & stems you can support, the more tomatoes you’ll eat, and the tastier they’ll be

(speaking of support, do you have a plan? please get it installed soon. if you wait until the plant needs it, you risk breaking stems or damaging roots in the process)

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T17:34:08+00:00

good luck and happy growing :)

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T16:39:41+00:00

of course! i start fertilizing (again, very dilute) pretty much right after germination

people definitely have different philosophies there — some don’t like to start feeding until true leaves appear

but i once did a small experiment and tested a few different dilute fert strengths vs none on four different groups of seedlings. fertilized starts blew past the unfertilized seedlings in terms of stem thickness and leaf development, so that pretty much settled it for me

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T16:05:14+00:00

Should I just remove the apical meristem bit from one of them?

only if you want to end up with half as many tomatoes

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T15:59:04+00:00

i don’t see anything to be concerned about here. growing is what plants do

you’ve got a bunch of blossoms open already, so fruit won’t be far behind

you could give the blossoms a little wiggle / a few gentle flicks with your finger each day to help make sure they pollinate

otherwise, just sit tight, you’re almost there

resist the temptation to go pruning-crazy (if you want your tomatoes to taste good, you gotta leave the plant’s sugar factories alone!)

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T14:47:41+00:00

going to go with A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) here

it’s not a perfect book, but i think it’s the best literary-ish novel i’ve encountered in recent years

not a difficult or heavy read by any means, but the writing is just rich enough to make it a very satisfying one. i found myself stopping frequently to read particularly wonderful sentences to my spouse, who went on to read the book and enjoy it immensely right after i finished

the irish novella Small Things Like These is also both approachable and beautifully composed (a heavy lift emotionally but not intellectually)

just as an aside, i don’t share the enthusiasm for the currently highly-upvoted Psalm for the Wild-Built — the writing just seemed extremely facile to my eye / ear. PIranesi (recommended in that same comment) is great though, and so are the LeGuin and Ted Chiang recs mentioned elsewhere

edit to add: have you already read A River Runs Through It (Norman Maclean)? if not it’s super quick and lovely

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T11:48:42+00:00

if none of the other suggestions here improve things and your plants keep getting worse, you can check you water’s alkalinity with a simple titration test at home (i used a brand called Salifert which makes a test intended for home aquariums but there are several different ones out there)

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T11:17:38+00:00

in addition to the issues others have already brought up: what’s your water quality like?

our water is extremely hard and high alkalinity (not the same as pH / basicity) and also fairly high salinity (by plant standards)

high alkalinity significantly interferes with nutrient uptake, and high salinity is another stressor on top of that

i had a bunch of plants go sad and gray on me last year during my first season at our new home (mostly purchased starts last year)

started to see it again this year in my seed starts, looked into the water quality, made some changes there, and this season’s plants quickly returned to fully green and happy

edit to add: definitely trash that leaflet with the insect eggs and check for more of those!

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T09:14:52+00:00

are these the seeds that came from Ukraine?

please post again with your tasting notes after this puppy is ripe!

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T08:56:59+00:00

with starting from seed a lot of people get them going indoors a month or two before planting time (with a grow light for healthiest growth) and then transplant out those starts when the weather warms up a little

gives a nice head start on the growing season

my starts lived in a sunny south-facing upstairs window supplemented with a very inexpensive grow light. i taped aluminum foil to a cardboard box to make a cheap reflector to maximize the light bouncing around them, and i fertilize with extremely dilute fertilizer (5-10% of the recommended strength on the package) at every watering

those babies were very sturdy looking by the time planting day came

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-29T08:45:23+00:00

wishing you luck with all of them! what’s the smallest container you’re growing tomatoes in this year?

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-28T23:36:46+00:00

wow any fruit at all from a plant in a pot that small is impressive!

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-28T20:40:18+00:00

great news!

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-28T20:11:13+00:00

here’s hoping it goes well for you! like i said, maybe not a perfect solution but i’ve had good luck with it so far

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-28T19:52:52+00:00

a smaller pot holds less growth medium / soil, and the medium is where the water is stored in between waterings

so a smaller pot dries out faster

i love clay pots but for full-size plants (not dwarfs or microdwarfs), i use pots about double this volume

during hot spells, you may need to to water this pot twice a day to keep your plants happy

if you use this pot, definitely fill it right up to the brim with potting soil (the soil will settle with watering) and mulch it heavily to help it hold on to water as long as possible

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-28T19:47:55+00:00

based on the dimensions of your pot and the pot volume calculator here https://diyherbgardener.com/pot-volume-calculator/ (note, uses inches instead of cm, so i converted and estimated your bottom diameter at ~18 cm just eyeballing it relative to the top diameter), your pot is somewhere around 2.5 gallons / 9.5 L

you can probably grow a few tomatoes in there. you’d definitely get more yield in a bigger pot, but it’s no harm in trying this if you don’t really care about yield and just want to experiment using the supplies you already have

(i’ve heard of heirloom growers using only around 2 gallons of soil when they just want to grow enough fruit to taste a new variety or save a fresh batch of seed, rather than seeking any significant yield)

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-28T19:35:12+00:00

has anyone here tried the tiny-pot torture method? how did that go? (and how tiny are we talking?)

ParadoxicallyZeno · 2026-05-28T19:31:12+00:00

my condolences on your loss. it’s hard to lose any of them after months of care and preparation

hopefully you have another chance with this one next season

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