Identify Problem

The lower leaves of this tomato are not looking so great. What is causing this and should I remove all affected leaves? The plant is in a five gallon food grade bucket with drainage holes, with a mixture of compost (I am thinking not as finished as I was led to believe) and perlite. Is the paling foliage due to nitrogen tie up? Is the crispy section sunscald?

Edit to add, the white specks on there were perlite, I think.

Help a newbie to save her tomato!

[My Foot Smells]

No to sunscald, imo.

looks like those leaves were touching the ground.

I grew in a compost mix in bucket one time, not a good idea. the bucket doesn't breath and a whole host of issues. for some odd reasons had a lot of black widow spiders that did like the conditions. I always use a non-soil mix for containers like that.

kinda hard to say w/o seeing the whole picture.

I know compost is not ideal for containers but it was 1/4 of the price of soilless blends in my area. I had 15 five gallon and 10 three and a half gallon buckets to fill so I was hoping to be as economical as I could. Are my plants doomed, or could I amend my mix? No plants are taller than 8-10" yet.

Originally Posted by My Foot Smells

No to sunscald, imo.

looks like those leaves were touching the ground.

I grew in a compost mix in bucket one time, not a good idea. the bucket doesn't breath and a whole host of issues. for some odd reasons had a lot of black widow spiders that did like the conditions. I always use a non-soil mix for containers like that.

kinda hard to say w/o seeing the whole picture.

[My Foot Smells]

I have had some success where I just cut the entire bottom of the bucket off and placed on top of shortly mown grass, that way the plastic bucket doesn't retain as much moisture. I cannot plant directly in the ground here b/c of hard clay issues, everything must be off the ground and drain well.

I'm still a noob, others might give better advice to your situation, as I can only relate to my experiences.

I do understand the cost factor, as I complain often about the cost of a decent potting mix.

my experience with the compost mix (70% compost / 30% green sand) was that things did not grow that well or at all. It got buggy and the compost mix got soggy and stinky. I, however, did get some production (esp. peppers), but was a struggle and not very much. I had my "buckets" outside, so could not control water/moisture & heavy rain (despite holes) made it too wet for too long.

I'm in a dry climate and so I am optimistic that retaining moisture would be beneficial. It's easy to overdo I suppose.

[My Foot Smells]

Originally Posted by braybright

I'm in a dry climate and so I am optimistic that retaining moisture would be beneficial. It's easy to overdo I suppose.

Maybe. I am in the hot, humid, buggy south. You have to walk around with a beach towel around your neck to wipe the sweat away in the summer time.

[Lindalana]

What the rest of the plant looks like?

Originally Posted by Lindalana

What the rest of the plant looks like?

The new growth is looking better.

[PureHarvest]

The water stained look to the leaf in your first post looks like your plant was growing in soil that was too wet at some point, and not enough air in your mix. Containers must allow for good oxygen and drainage, but yet not get bone dry. Tricky balance.

This is especially a challenge for young seedlings that are not using up all the moisture in the container until the roots start to fill and then use the moisture present.

Compounding the issues are all the of the variables of nutrients between your compost and any ferts you have added.

What percentage by volume was the perlite in your mix? I would say about 25% would be a starting point.

The size and number of holes in your container are important too.

If you pour a gallon of water into the top of the container, it should be gone in under a minute, and you should have 10-20% of the gallon come out of the bottom (assuming your container wasn't already saturated or bone-dry. This would be a very-well drained mix that you would have to water every day for a plant beyond the seedling stage.
This requires daily attention, or an automated watering system.

Or you keep the mix you have and back way off on watering in the seedling stage and hope you don't get days in a row of rain.

Or go to a self watering/wicking container system ala earthbox/earthtainer/rain gutter grow system.