This is when my tomatoes drive me crazy!

[jenfur]

Last year I lost all of my tomatoes mid season to some sort of disease. I have just transplanted around 30 into my garden (different spot) and now they are driving me nuts! Half look great, a few look a little iffy, and a couple are shriveling. I tried some new varieties and really want them to work out. I am out there everyday wondering if I am watering them enough or too much, are they getting enough sun, is the drainage good enough? DH suffers through this every year as I get a little plant obsessed. Of course, if they don't look any better by the weekend I may pull them up and start over. Anyone else stress over the time between getting plants in the ground and when they start to perk up?

 

[UrsulasShadow]

It's hard to know what's going on without knowing the conditions. Is the soil rich? Can it hold water? What's the weather been like? Do they get enough sun? Are they watered deeply? Are they drying out between waterings? Tomatoes like a good, rich soil and even moisture. Once they're established you can start to feed them with a good veggie fertilizer...I like TomatoTone by Espoma, with an occasional foliar feed with a fish/seaweed emulsion. They do not like their foliage splashed with a whole lot of water, so I prefer a good drip irrigation/soaker hose type of watering. They need in excess of 6 hours of sun per day...remember, they originate in Mexico, where they get plenty of sunlight. You should mulch them lightly, perhaps with straw or grass clippings to keep the soil moisture even. And always plant varieties of tomatoes that are resistant to disease (it says on the seed package that they are VFR resistant, but you often don't get that info at the garden centers. Pays to do your research before you shop if you're into tomato-growing) What varieties do you have? Which are doing well? Take notes for next year, and weed out the troublesome varieties.