Tomato troubles

[Vince G]

Unusual to have any problems with my tomatoes, other than germination sometimes, but my Apero cherry toms seem to be looking a bit sickly - see pics.

I have not seen anything like this before and the other 4 varieties that have been in close proximity are totally unaffected. So I am thinking it might be something viral and to do with the seeds themselves (bought from Chiltern Seeds). The lower leaves are very limp and the upper leaves seem to be yellowing from the stem to the tip of the leaf. I have changed the soil, isolated them away from the other toms and given them a spray of Epsom Salts but I don't think it looks lke typical magnesium deficiency. I am going to contact Chiltern Seeds too to see if other problems have been reported.

Any thoughts would be gratefully received. These are the best flavoured cherry tomato out there in my opinion and the seeds are hard to come by, especially as they are an F1, so I really want to keep them going if I can.

I can't find any pics that look siilar on the Internet either.

[Andraste]

I'm no tomato expert by any stretch - my call would have been magnesium deficiency too.

Google lens search took me to this link: https://archive.ahdb.org.uk/knowledg...read-tocv-ticv but I'm noting they describe progression of issues from the bottom up, rather than top down like yours seem to be?

You haven't had them nearby when spraying anything have you?

[Mark Rand]

No chance of contaminated compost for just those pots?

[Vince G]

I'm no tomato expert by any stretch - my call would have been magnesium deficiency too.

Google lens search took me to this link: https://archive.ahdb.org.uk/knowledg...read-tocv-ticv but I'm noting they describe progression of issues from the bottom up, rather than top down like yours seem to be?

You haven't had them nearby when spraying anything have you?

Nope, not sprayed anything anywhere near them, they've been on the utility room windowsill all their lives

[Vince G]

No chance of contaminated compost for just those pots?

Unlikely I would say as I used the same compost on the other toms, and had also cleaned the pots beforehand

[Vince G]

I'll just keep giving them the epsom salts and see what happens. Not too late to start some more but I'm reluctant to sow from the same packet. Might have to bite the bullet and buy plants!

[Jungle Jane]

It looks like iron deficiency pictures online,I just read -
“An iron deficiency can also be triggered when there are issues with magnesium, calcium or excess copper.”
Hopefully with nutrients it should show green growth & go back to normal.

[Vince G]

It looks like iron deficiency pictures online,I just read -
“An iron deficiency can also be triggered when there are issues with magnesium, calcium or excess copper.”
Hopefully with nutrients it should show green growth & go back to normal.

I agree Jane, it does look a lot like that. The yellowing of the leaves is more prevalent where it joins the main stem than towards the end of the leaves. Well done on finding that. The Interweb tells me poor iron absorbtion can be caused by cold - these plants have been the nearest to the window, so might be slightly colder than the others. It also recommends lowering the soil pH. I have some ericacious compost so wondering if I should transplant into that and pop them on my heated propogator.

[Vince G]

Don't think I've ever encountered an iron deficiency before. Well...Mrs Vince has one actually so we eat black pudding and faggots regularly, but not sure my toms will appreciate those too much!

[It never rains..it pours]

Is there some aphids or red spider mites in the centre shoot, on the second photo

[JoaoLeaftide]

The fact it's only the Apero and not the others is the odd bit for me. If it was a deficiency in the compost you'd expect them all to show it. Worth having a really close look for mites, they love windowsill conditions and can cause exactly that kind of yellowing.

[Vince G]

The fact it's only the Apero and not the others is the odd bit for me. If it was a deficiency in the compost you'd expect them all to show it. Worth having a really close look for mites, they love windowsill conditions and can cause exactly that kind of yellowing.

Chilterns replied to me and said they also thought it was iron deficiency, and offered me some new seeds. However I did point out exactly what you said Joao - why just this variety? Same compost, same location as all my other tomato varieties. Can't see any mites, but even if there were, again why just the Apero when there's another 5 or 6 plants right next to them. So I've given them a chelated iron feed and we'll see how they do.

I have declined new seeds as they said they would come from the same batch, but they said I could have any others if I didn't fancy more of the same, although I have now sown the last 3 seeds and they're up, so we'll see how these fare. So I'm getting some Orangello, an orange plum-shaped cherry variety. Still just about got time to get them going.

Very nice and quite lengthy reply to my email from Chilterns, nice to see there are still pockets of decent customer service out there

[Andraste]

Glad to hear of a good response from chilterns 👍 Keep us updated on how your plants do