Tomato problems - caused by manure?

Hi all,

I planted my tomato plants out about a week ago, in my polytunnel. Before doing so, I bought some manure from a local farm shop - it was advertised as 'well rotted manure' and I thought yep, that's what I need! I dug it into the soil, and also placed a handful under each tomato plant as I was planting them out.

Now my tomato plants are showing signs of deficiencies, and some leaves look very unhealthy - some are yellowing, some have small purple patches, and on one plant, the uppermost new leaves have turned black and crispy.

I'm wondering if this is the fault of the manure, because all the plants looked very healthy in their pots before they were planted out. I'm wondering especially if the manure wasn't as rotted as I was led to believe. Being a novice I'm not sure what well rotted manure is supposed to look like - the stuff I bought looks like clumps of poo with large bits of straw mixed in with it. The clumps are quite clayey and difficult to break up. It doesn't really smell of anything. The place we bought it from just had a massive pile of the stuff and we helped ourselves to it.

Having since read up about manure I'm now wondering whether the manure is too fresh and the roots of my tomato plants have been damaged by it.

Is this possible or likely? If so, what can be done about it now the plants are already in the ground?

Any advice welcome...

Paddy

 

Hi Marley, thanks for the reply!

What's the best thing to do, do you think? Should I dig up the plants and remove the manure from the holes, or would that just be stressing the plants even more? Should I give them a tomato feed (high potash) to balance out the nitrogen in the manure? Or should I just wait and see?

Have I damaged the plants beyond repair or is it likely they'll recover if just left to it? I really hope I've not done too much damage, I've put so much effort into raising them this year.

P

 

It sounds like fresh dung with straw to me, rather than well rotted manure.

Was it black in colour, it should be, and the straw should not be that apparent.

I'm not sure manure is a good idea for toms really anyway, it contains too much nitrogen and results in very leafy plants.

Is it possible though that there might also be some frost damage???

Bit of a job to make a decision about what to do next, I think they could take a long time to recover

Definitlty dont feed then now.

 

Hi Pete,

It's not black, it's brown, and yes there is a lot of straw. Seems I was mis-sold the stuff. Bit annoyed about that. Won't be buying from there again.

I'm not sure about frost damage, as they've been in the polytunnel. They were in there when we had that really cold snap, about a week or ten days ago, and seemed fine, then I planted them out on Saturday and they've been looking poorly since then.

Do you think digging them up is a good idea, removing the manure then putting them back? Seems a bit drastic I know.

P

 

Dig one up and see how far the roots have grown.

If they have not rooted into the new soil then it wont hurt to remove them and repot into just slightly bigger pots than they were before planting.

 

Were the plants actually grown in the polytunnel or just planted in there? Unless you have heat in there I would say they are suffering from cold damage.

 

Hi there, ive grown toms in relatively new manure and its been fine mixed with soil but i do know some places that sell it have to spray it with chemicals to keep the smell down due to houses being close by and thats not good for growing delicates like toms but is fine for potatoes and brassicas, hope you manage to sort it and get a good harvest

 

Thanks for all the replies!

Dai & JWK: I hope you're right and it is cold damage. The toms were raised indoors and then hardened off by leaving them in the poly during the day and bringing them in at night (this was a few weeks ago). Then we left them in the poly (in their pots) for a week while we were away, unfortunately that week was when that cold snap occurred, and we couldn't do anything about the plants, we just had to hope they were okay! It is an unheated polytunnel, and no I'm not monitoring the temps in there - what's the best way of measuring the temps in a poly? For example, it'd be good for future reference to have a way of measuring and recording the night temps.

Do you think cold damage is the most likely reason then? I've no idea what the temperatures were in the poly while we were away, only that the forecast was for frosts. They did seem okay when we returned, though.

orangepeel: do you know what chemical is used to de-smell manure? I'd never heard of that but that is quite worrying especially as I'm gardening organically. Would sellers of the manure have to say that they'd sprayed it? The place I bought it from is in quite a built up area and there are houses nearby.

Pete: thanks for the reply, it's good to know that's an option. I'm a bit confused now as to the best course of action!

Should I hold fire on digging any of them up and see if the warmer weather improves the situation? :cnfs:

P

 

You should be able to find some offered for free, although it may be more trouble to get. Many stables are only too glad to get rid of it, whereas where it is offered for sale you normally get it already bagged up and have easy access.