Tomato trouble

One plant is starting to show some yelllow-green mottle, and the leaves are getting crispy. Treat? Remove? ID?
Thanks!
Lise

LiseP,
Could be you're fertilizing too soon?

I destroyed 1/3 of my 208 tomato seedlings last year with too much fertilizer, too soon. They had the same malady as you describe above. Yellow mottling, and crispy edges. It took a good while before the gardeners here identified the problem...

I saved the remainder of the seedlings by flushing the pots with fresh water and letting them drain well. Maybe twice a day I was flushing the soil.

Hope this helps. But, again, I could be very wrong, and someone will come along and correct me, lol!

Hugs!

>> flushing the pots with fresh water and letting them drain well. Maybe twice a day I was flushing the soil.

I second the motion. Crispy edges could well be too much nitrogen, or maybe excessive salt buildup. Maybe, possibly, a far-off pH? If there is too much fertilizer, AND the fertilizer is acid, you might have a double-whammy.

Does your soil coarse and well-draining, or is it mostly peat? After each flushing, try to avoid leaving the pots water-logged (if possible). That would add "drowned roots" to the probable "fertilizer burn".

One way to help drain water-logged pots is to drape some absorbant cloth like cotton flannel, towels or old Tee shirts over a shelf or anything raised, so that the cloth drapes DOWN 6-12" below the level of the shelf.

Then park the pots on top of the cloth. The soil should TOUCH the fabric through holes in the pots, so there is a capillary connection.

The dangling fabric will encourage excess water to drain OUT of the soil and into the cloth. Then capilarity PLUS gravity will drain that water out of the cloth and down the dangling wick towards the ground. Then it should drip away or evaporate to make room for more water to come out.

It's sort of like a spihon, but works through capilary action as much as by gravity..

That keeps pulling water out of the soil until there is no perched water left, and less capillary water left, in the soil.

And that will allow air to enter the soil.

I bet it's spider mites that's what it sounds like. Just about the right time too. Have you dealt with them before?

Thanks for the comments. Linda, my one troublesome tomato is in a raised bed with four others (all healthy so far).The plant is also just across the walkway from the end of the bean row where I accidentally spilled the fertilizer awhile back. Now there is one tomato in between the beans and this problem plant, that so far isn't showing any problem. But who knows, maybe that one's plant system isn't as deep so didn't absorb as much, or, maybe the fertilizer migrated past the healthy plant and pooled near the problem plant, as opposed to sort of just passing through. We had a good rain last night, and I'll go out and check the fert/pH levels.

That said, 1lisac, you may get the prize -- the leaf images I googled look exactly like spider mite damage, although I have not seen any webbing and didn't look closely enough to spot the critters themselves. The article I read says to use a water spray, insecticidal soap, or Neem. I can do that!

So yay, either way I have a plan of attack.

Rick, thanks for the discussion on wicking. It doesn't apply to this plant, but I can use that info nonetheless.

You don't have to see webbing but if you do then you know it's SMs. I've had a lot of issues with them and when I read your description that's the first thing that came to mind. They are very small and hard to see. You can shake a leaf over a white piece of paper and they may fall on the paper. But even if you don't see them you can still have them.

Thanks, guys! I never knew spider mites could do that!