Yellowing Tomato Plants

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Maintaining Tomato Plants

I raised heirloom oxheart tomato seeds which are growing well but slowly and which are yellowing. Yellowing is a sign of nitrogen deficiency. 

This is most likely because I planted the tomato seedlings with Sunflowers, which take nutrients from adjacent plants. Sunflowers are good soil conditioners, once they have gone to seed and are dyeing back. It is best to plant Sunflowers first and later on, plant out your garden beds.

To help my tomato plants, I have recently added composted soil from my compost bin and some old chook manure. It is said that tomato plants should be watered well, but at consistent intervals and not over watered. Other good tomato “feeders” include blood and bones or fish emulsion. If you are a meat eater and buy meat in plastic containers, drain the left over blood from the containers around the base of the plant. You can see in the image that the tomato fruit are yellowing and they are stunted in size. I will upload images in a couple of weeks to see what changes have taken effect.

It is important to supply “nitrogen, phosphate, potash, calcium, magnesium, potassium and other micro-nutrients to build cell wall structure and increase plant vigor” (veggie gardener.com)