This tomato plant I sowed from seed on April 4th in a Jiffy peat pellet, then potted up on May 5th into this 3-inch clear plastic pot w/ a mix of Jiffy seed starting mix and coco coir hydrated w/ boiling water as recommended by Gary Pilarchik of Rusted Garden.
I do believe I’m very late to begin fertilizing as it has had virtually zero nutrients so far and I’m now over a month in. I plan to provide the first dose of diluted fertilizer today. I had been holding off b/c the initial potting mix was already super saturated (boiling tap water, no fertilizer), and I was afraid of over watering. Is lack of nutrients the most likely cause for yellow leaves on this tomato plant? There are other tomato plants from the same group as this one w/ yellow leaves - not all of them, but some.
It’s a combination of nutrient deficiencies. The most significant one is nitrogen. The scaling on the lower leaves is potassium .
Give it a shot of fertilizer and the growth will perk right up.
FYI that’s close to a perfect sized plant for a commercial operation using a mechanical transplanter. They like to transplant them slightly nutrient deficient so that the plants are small and stocky. They survive the transplant process better. Then as soon as they hit the soil with a bit of starter fertilizer they root out quickly and start growing.
Thanks for the tip. I just gave them their first feeding this afternoon and raised the lights so they aren’t so close.