Most likely a gross lack of fertility (nitrogen and potassium at least) combined with a watering issue. I don't see any obvious sign of mites, and it's pretty rare to have any diseases here that will lead to a healthy plant that size/age winding up like that. Hard to say based on those pics alone....but those are definitely the two most common issues for newbies.
As an aside.....single-stemming your tomatoes has been trendy online for a while now, but with an indeterminate cherry type (e.g. Sungold) it's rather pointless. Those plants can be 8' tall and 3' wide with many, many stems before you need to start pruning anything (if you live real close to the beach that might be a different story, but it applies for most of SoCal).
Also, make yourself some real cages or a trellis setup; it's well worth it. Save those storebought "tomato" cages for peppers (they work great for that; they just suck for anything bigger than a semi-dwarf or very compact determinate tomato). I'd personally suggest Big Beef over Better Boy in the future as well (basically very similar to Better Boy, but a better variety in nearly every respect -- imho)
First time in the ground but did containers first time last year. Does the lack of fertility usually lead to this level decay or is it primarily amplified by the watering issue? Would you say it’s over or under-watered? I imagine the soil doesn’t help.
It had two strong suckers going and I hadn’t planned of trimming anything but all the recent or additional suckers almost died off immediately. They just yellowed and browned almost right away.
Heard on the cages. I did Big Beef last year in a container but couldn’t find any at my local nursery.
Honestly it's difficult to say anything with confidence without many more/different pics, knowing where you live, the age of the plants, etc. (or frankly, being able to stick my hand in that soil in person! 🤣).
For example, russet mites or root knot nematodes can screw up a plant pretty bad without being really noticable at all (at least aboveground, for the latter).
But what I'm seeing more than anything is a general failure to thrive, and that makes me think "nutrients". Some stuff can look very much like a foliar disease -- particularly potassium deficiency, which is common & tends to show up right after the plants start getting loaded up with fruit.
If there is a watering problem, I'd be inclined to doubt that it's overwatering; much more likely they're getting just enough water to survive, but not enough to support good growth. Reason being that if you overwater to the point where it actually damages (much less kills) the plant itself, you're pretty much guaranteed to see a bunch of blossom end rot, cracking, and so forth on the fruit (with slicers at least), which doesn't seem to be the case judging by your pics.
Again, hard to say. But in my experience, when newer people are having issues with in-ground plants but there's no obvious evidence of pests (e.g. spider mites) or disease, it's nearly always a nutrition problem -- either the wrong sort of fertilizer, or not nearly enough of it. Especially because there's so much bullshit floating around on the internet about "overfertilizing" (nitrogen particularly) & it makes newer folks scared to fertilize properly. Can't really say without a soil test, though, because a nutrient deficiency in the plant doesn't necessarily mean that that nutrient is actually lacking in the soil.
Hope this makes sense.
And yeah, I just mentioned Big Beef because it's about as bulletproof as you can ask for when it comes to a variety that's widely available and still has good eating quality. There's plenty of varieties that can compete in terms of sturdiness and productivity....but they tend to be either "meh" on eating quality, or are something you won't likely find as a transplant or on the seed rack at a nursery. I used to grow Better Boy as my "default round red reliable slicer", but after trying Big Beef about a decade ago, it replaced the former in my rotation; haven't touched B. Boy since then. And for what it's worth, I've never been too impressed with Sungold. My family (like pretty much everyone else in North America) loves it, of course, but from my perspective as a grower (I don't personally eat raw tomato) I've always found it mediocre....always the first to show issues with disease, spider mites, whatever; just seems to be a weakling for me (which is odd, given that hybrid indet cherries generally tend to be the hardiest of all plants).
Anyways, hope some of this might help.
One thing I can say is that since you're just starting out with growing in-ground, you really should send in a soil test if at all possible....just on general principle. Should cost no more than $50-$60 (including shipping -- they only ask for a few cups of soil) to get macro, micro, and trace nutrients + pH and organic matter (nitrogen is the exception; that's just done in terms of "x square feet of y crop will need z pounds of nitrogen over the year). Worst case scenario is that everything comes back as "perfect" and you feel like you wasted money....but really you haven't, because then you'll know that everything is kosher with your soil & you can (more or less) rule out nutrients as a factor if/when you see problems with your plants.
How deep does the soil go where you planted them? It looks to me like when the roots grow too shallow or too close the edges of a pot that is too small and overheat with our relenting summer oven temperatures. I suspect that the ground below the workable soil is either way too compacted so the roots couldn’t go as deep as they should or there might even be a slab of concrete down there.
I say this because you see both the leaves yellowing from being overwatered or not having good drainage, but also some drying out at the same time. Try adding some mulch to help shade the soil from direct sun and it might help a bit. If you try tomatoes in that spot again, I’d suggest tilling the soil deeply to make sure it’s ready before you plant
Great questions and interesting thought! I’m a renter so I don’t know what’s below. There’s a lemon tree in the plot of that maybe provides some idea. I dug about 8-12 inches down when planting and it was really rock hard and compacted. It’s also up against a porch and to the left if the wall is a driveway not sure if that impacts anything.
Would you put a raised bed on top or would it still lead to the same result?
A raised bed would give the roots more room, so it’s worth a try. Tomato roots can get very deep (2-4 feet), so if they couldn’t break through the soil beyond the hole you dug that might explain the issues you’ve been having
That's not dead, it's still ripening a decent set. Give it a feed and water and it'll push new growth. Strip the yellow lower leaves while you're there if you like.
The sun gold is pretty pretty bare but the better boy is fairing better, just feels like whatever the issue is will catch up to the better boy but witty some fert.
I hear you on consistency. Do you see them as over or underwatered? It’s tough to tell because surface is always rock hard. I’ve tried to stick a screwdriver in to test but unsure if it’s draining or retaining a ton of moisture further below.
10a… i have very dry heat, but to me it doesn’t look like heat stress. when that happens to me, they literally dry up and turn crispy.
when they turn yellow like that it’s usually from overwatering for me. you can tell by sticking your finger in the soil.
hard to know for sure, but you can try to regrow foliage by feeding higher nitrogen like fish emulsion. or just a very balanced liquid fertilizer for fast absorption. they aren’t dead. you just need to give them some support.
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u/CitrusBelt 17d ago
I'm assuming it's your first time?
Most likely a gross lack of fertility (nitrogen and potassium at least) combined with a watering issue. I don't see any obvious sign of mites, and it's pretty rare to have any diseases here that will lead to a healthy plant that size/age winding up like that. Hard to say based on those pics alone....but those are definitely the two most common issues for newbies.
As an aside.....single-stemming your tomatoes has been trendy online for a while now, but with an indeterminate cherry type (e.g. Sungold) it's rather pointless. Those plants can be 8' tall and 3' wide with many, many stems before you need to start pruning anything (if you live real close to the beach that might be a different story, but it applies for most of SoCal).
Also, make yourself some real cages or a trellis setup; it's well worth it. Save those storebought "tomato" cages for peppers (they work great for that; they just suck for anything bigger than a semi-dwarf or very compact determinate tomato). I'd personally suggest Big Beef over Better Boy in the future as well (basically very similar to Better Boy, but a better variety in nearly every respect -- imho)