Yellow Leaves on Tomato Plant

Someone asked me the other day about their vegetable garden.  They said it was already established, but the bottom leaves are starting to turn yellow and didn’t know if that was bad, or what to do to fix it.  There are several things to look for before you can jump right to the solution.

The first thing to look at is the weather.  This year in Middle Tennessee where I live, we went from the coldest winter in a long time, to the wettest May on record, to the hottest June I have ever experienced, now in July we are back to normal.   Of course, we did not have our gardens planted in the winter, so that had nothing to do with the garden problems.   But when you look at the rain in May, then the dry hot June, that can dramatically shock vegetable plants.  It is kind like when I heard Tony Robbins talking about health and he was wanting us to drink lots of water, he said, “When you’re not used to drinking water, you don’t crave it, but when you start drinking everyday the right amount, your body adjust and adapts to being able to endure and starts craving it everyday.”   That made perfect sense to me, and can be the same with plants.  They want to be regular just like us humans.  Watering the same amount consistently can sometimes fix any color changes in a vegetable garden and allow the plant to focus on fruit production instead of leaf support.

The next thing to look for is in the soil.  What type of soil did you plant in.  Vegetable plants will grow in just about anything, but when the soil has no nutrients, you will want to add nutrients to the plants to get the best harvest.  I use and recommend the organic Espoma products.  They won’t burn the plants and are easy to use.  It is a powder that you sprinkle over the soil and water in.  You can use at planting and weekly after that.  ‘Garden Tone’ is the one I use for my garden.  That makes sense to me…how about you?   As we have talked about in a previous blog about the fertilizer nutrients, Nitrogen quickly leaves the soil and has to be replaced, which can cause ALL the leaves on a plant to turn yellow.

To answer the first question directly, more than likely the problem with the leaves on the bottom of the plant turning yellow and falling off is a moisture problem.  Deep regular waterings should take care of the problem.  Use fertilizer to help the plant recover from the stress it is under and produce new foliage.

Happy Harvest