What is Happening to This Tomato Plant???

[ydolem11]

This is my first time planting tomatoes, and the other plants are all thriving and have started putting out their little baby tomatoes, so I'm SUPER EXCITED, but... This one plant is just not doing as well. It hasn't flowered and many of the leaves are turning yellow. It's also stunted compared to the others, and a lot bushier. The other plants are more spindly and have had to be tied to the trellis a couple of times as they grew up and fell over a bit, but this still just has one tie to the lower part keeping it in place.

Any ideas? It just seems weird to me that it's just this one plant whereas the others are fine. Obviously, they're probably all a little too close together and the soil probably isn't ideal (it's a bit rocky and I didn't add any topsoil or anything), but it just seems weird that the others are fine.

Anyway, here are some pictures. Hopefully someone can help...

It's the one slightly to the right of the center. You can see several of the other plants that are the same age are significantly taller and bigger than it...

Thanks!

 

[Chuck]

This is my first time planting tomatoes, and the other plants are all thriving and have started putting out their little baby tomatoes, so I'm SUPER EXCITED, but... This one plant is just not doing as well. It hasn't flowered and many of the leaves are turning yellow. It's also stunted compared to the others, and a lot bushier. The other plants are more spindly and have had to be tied to the trellis a couple of times as they grew up and fell over a bit, but this still just has one tie to the lower part keeping it in place.

Any ideas? It just seems weird to me that it's just this one plant whereas the others are fine. Obviously, they're probably all a little too close together and the soil probably isn't ideal (it's a bit rocky and I didn't add any topsoil or anything), but it just seems weird that the others are fine.

Anyway, here are some pictures. Hopefully someone can help...

View attachment 11113 View attachment 11114 View attachment 11115 View attachment 11116
It's the one slightly to the right of the center. You can see several of the other plants that are the same age are significantly taller and bigger than it...

Thanks!

Are all of these plants the same variety? The taller ones look like indeterminates and the other one a determinate. Whatever the case remove the yellow leaves with a sterile tool. What you have going on looks like early blight and some varieties are more prone to it than others

 

[ydolem11]

They literally came from the same seed packet and have had completely parallel lives including transplant days and locations and everything, which is why it's so weird to me that it's just one... Maybe something went wrong where they package the seeds and another variety snuck in. They should all be organic Roma tomatoes, though.

I'll trim the yellow leaves back and hopefully that will help at any rate. And now I really hope it survives to see if maybe it is another variety.

 

[Bootsy]

Apart from the possible diseased part, that particular plant looks to be growing more the way it should than the others. Roma is a determinate tomato and should bush out. The others look a bit too leggy to me. Have you been taking off the side shoots?

 

[Chuck]

In my experience growing tomatoes, Roma's are without doubt one of the worst varieties to disease resistance. Heavily mulch around the base of the plants to stop the soil from splashing up onto the leaves when you water or it rains. I agree with Bootsy. The only plant that resembles a Roma is the affected one. The others look like Cherry's to me and they are much more resistant to diseases. One way to make sure they are all of the same variety is to look at the way the buds or blooms are arranged. I have had this problem myself a few times. Plant the seeds and something entirely different pops up. I once planted tomato seeds and ended up with bell peppers.

 

[Corzhens]

I think there is a pest in the soil. You can check it by pouring a glassful of water with some drops of liquid dishwashing soap. Pour it all around the stem of the plant. But do not forget to wash it off with water after 5 minutes. My husband said that a borer might be damaging some small roots. However, if the yellow spots are bigger that means the soil becomes very dry at times so you have to water it 3 times a day.

 

[ydolem11]

Apart from the possible diseased part, that particular plant looks to be growing more the way it should than the others. Roma is a determinate tomato and should bush out. The others look a bit too leggy to me. Have you been taking off the side shoots?

I haven't been taking off the side shoots... Should I? They're starting to form tomatoes, so I don't want to do anything to ruin that.

 

[ydolem11]

In my experience growing tomatoes, Roma's are without doubt one of the worst varieties to disease resistance. Heavily mulch around the base of the plants to stop the soil from splashing up onto the leaves when you water or it rains. I agree with Bootsy. The only plant that resembles a Roma is the affected one. The others look like Cherry's to me and they are much more resistant to diseases. One way to make sure they are all of the same variety is to look at the way the buds or blooms are arranged. I have had this problem myself a few times. Plant the seeds and something entirely different pops up. I once planted tomato seeds and ended up with bell peppers.

Yikes. The tomatoes that have started to develop do have an elongated shape that makes me think they are probably Roma, but who knows? I guess they could have been mixed up, so I'll just have to wait and see. I'll try to get pictures of the developing tomatoes and see if anyone can give a little more insight on what type they might be.

 

[ydolem11]

I think there is a pest in the soil. You can check it by pouring a glassful of water with some drops of liquid dishwashing soap. Pour it all around the stem of the plant. But do not forget to wash it off with water after 5 minutes. My husband said that a borer might be damaging some small roots. However, if the yellow spots are bigger that means the soil becomes very dry at times so you have to water it 3 times a day.

I don't think the watering is a problem. It's the rainy season right now, so it usually storms at night if it's not raining all day... Today it was drizzly pretty much all day, and that's how it has been, which is partly why I decided to grow now, since I don't think plants will do as well once the hot dry weather gets here... Since my tomatoes are at the school, I don't even have time to get out there and see them every day, much less water them...

 

[Bootsy]

I haven't been taking off the side shoots... Should I?

If they're Roma then you don't need to remove them (maybe if you gets loads of side shoots you would remove a few).

The others look like they are a normal indeterminate and those should have the side shoots (the bits that grow where the leaf branch meets the trunk). The flowers grow on branches that are not in the joint. BUT don't do it until you see what type of tomato forms as they may still be Roma that are growing unusually.

 

[ydolem11]

Sounds good. Thanks! I'm generally a fan of letting nature do its thing, so I'm going to just keep letting them grow and can hopefully get some pictures of the developing tomatoes on Monday to see if anybody knows what they are. I'm hoping they're what the package says because I was hoping to try to do some canning, but I guess it doesn't matter that much since I can can whatever they are anyway.