What is wrong with my Ebox maters?

[CLa]

Did I over-fertilize these guys? The cherokee purple also has a leaf curl thing going that seems to be caused by this light coloration thing. Not sure what else it could be. Too much limestone? I barely put any in there. But I guess it is possible. no more then a couple tablespoons I would think if not less. Too acidic? Moss + 15% compost 5-10% perlite...

[sirtanon]

Definitely looks to me like some sort of a nutrient deficiency.. Perhaps you've got too much of something in there that's interfering with the uptake of other nutrients..

If it's too acidic, then that could also interfere with nutrient uptake. Perhaps you could try a foliar feed with some epsom salts and some blue stuff.. see if that helps.

Of course, I could be wrong.

[amideutch]

CLa, How many EB's are you growing tomatoes in? Is this the only one showing foliage problems? Did you check the drainage holes to make sure they aren't plugged up. How long have the plants been in the EB's. Are you adding amendments to the water that you are putting into the EB's? Alot of questions to be answered. Ami

[Mantis]

Looks like herbicide damage to me.

[CLa]

Hey, let me give you all the details:

Premier peat moss: roughly 65-70%
Composted soil, roughly 15-20%
Perlite: 15% maybe

The strip of fertilizer (1.5 - 2 cups) on the opposite side of the container, very similar to the basic earth box idea if not identical.

Nothing else in the box. Drainage holes are right at the bottom plate line where the mix is resting. about 5 and 1/2 inches space of water space below.

Pictures located here
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=4913


Nothing plugged up, draining fine.
Only earth box I have. Rest of the tomatoes are in the ground.

So I'm thinking...it must be a ph imbalance, or the fertilizer somehow dissolved quickly into a larger portion of the soil, making it too hard for the roots to build a wall against it. Does over fertilization cause leaf lightness like that?

My fertilizer strip is right on the edge of the container, couldn't be any farther away from the plant, but before I put the strip down, I soaked it well to settle the plants and mix.

[amideutch]

CLa, My compliments on your DIY EB, nice piece of work! Your problem is a tough call and like the other posters have said, it could be caused by something airborne or something in your growing medium. You can let it go and see what happens or removed the plants and put new growing medium in and use the sterile stuff and go from there. Ami

[sirtanon]

I've done a bit more thinking and looking.. and now I'm torn..

On one hand, it could be the result of an iron deficiency as I originally thought... Here's an example of Iron deficiency:




....but on the other hand, it also looks like it could be the result of herbicide drift.. in this case, ROUNDUP (Glyphosphate).. as shown HERE:


and here:



One thing you could try is a light foliar feed of Ironite and epsom salts every other day for two or three applications. You should be able to find liquid ironite at your local Lowe's, Home Depot, or similar.

If it is an iron deficiency, the Ironite should help it overcome that problem by supplying it with a quick dose of iron. If it's Roundup, then the epsom salts will help keep it as healthy as possible.. and it should eventually grow out of it (provided the dose wasn't too strong)

[CLa]

That last pic looks more like mine. The reason why I thought that it would not be roundup drift, is because it is only the new leaves that were coming out white like that, so I thought it was from in the container, but I suppose those new leaves may also be more vulnerable to drift and that is why they are looking so light colored..? Anyhow, I'll try the epsom salt, but how do you add this stuff? remove the black plastic and coat the top of thje planting mix with the epsom? work it into the mixture? feed it through the watering tube? Same for the iron? The soil in the fields has very brown like soil, lots of iron in it. I could always sterilize some of that and add it for iron...

[amideutch]

CLa, How's your EB doing. Any changes? Ami

[CLa]

well have not added anything, just letting them go, the white areas are turning brown and dying, (mostly the new small leaves and tips of the new suckers, main stems) but the older bigger leaves are green, firm as if they are not lacking water, but heavily wilted, especially the Cherokee purple. I don't know whats wrong with them, gonna let them go though, I have 18 plants in the ground that are doing ok, including a Cherokee green with about 10 tomatoes on it now so I can afford to lose the box I suppose

[Big_Red]

CLa, you state:

"Drainage holes are right at the bottom plate line where the mix is resting."

Is your box level? I had a similar problem with mine last year because they were not level and part of the "plate" set in water soaking up way too much into the mix. I drilled another hole about 1/2" below the original, leveled up the box, and once the mix dried out my plants were fine. Try it, all you will do is reduce the water storage capacity is a little. ☺

Red

[CLa]

Hey been so busy forgot about this post, Well, my earth box plants are making an attempt to pull through that problem, there is a brandywine now,(1) bigger then a golf ball and growing. Cherokee purple is also sprouting new better looking leaves not wrinkled and hardened (which by the way leads me to believe that they were over fertilized). Yep that right, in fact, I just remembered (actually a few weeks ago) that I placed the fertilizer strip against the wall, trying to stay as far away from the plants as possible. That is where I think I messed up. The drainage holes are close, so with a fair amount of moisture in a closed environment and with a 'rigid plastic' container that if you were to say.. push on the side and let go, you have just created a slight gap for water(and fertilizer) to drain from the top to the bottom of the container into the water. If I would have placed the fertilizer strip away from the edge this would have fixed the problem, but instead, I put it right on the edge where it could fall along the inside of the container, straight into the water, creating a fertilizer nuke. You live and learn.


Ohh by the way what you did not see in the first pics is how they became in the next few weeks, very squiggly and firm, fully green. Perfect sign of over fertilizing.