First time gardener here! I have three tomato plants right now, two with a lot of plant growth (no fruit yet, but blooms), and one very small plant from the same seeds which seems to be stunted. The two large ones have various sad leaves, with holes and whatnot. I water thoroughly every other day, when soil is dry. I'm using a "patio" organic soil designed for outdoor potted vegetables and they're living in plastic pots. The soil is very bark-heavy and dries quickly, especially in the Los Angeles sunshine. These photos are a few days old and feature the watering system I rigged up while out of town but I'm back now and they are removed from this system now. One of the plants is outgrowing it's stake, but seems strong on its own, although all three plants leaves seem a little limp. Stalks are solid though (decent breezes when they were babies helped, I think). What advice might you have for me?

Spots look like leafminers.
Give blossoms a little flick of finger in early morning. To pollinate.
There still young.
There going to need 5 gallon buckets
😎😎😎

Don't forget to fertilize, bark is said to tie up nitrogen from the soil, I've read.

http://www.nola.com/homegarden...

How old are the plants? They don't look bad to me, just young. Mine, planted from starts in May, are over 6 feet tall and really producing.

Philipwonel said:Spots look like leafminers.
Give blossoms a little flick of finger in early morning. To pollinate.
There still young.
There going to need 5 gallon buckets
😎😎😎

Sorry, what are leafminers?
And when should I repot into bigger pots?

lakesidecallas said:Don't forget to fertilize, bark is said to tie up nitrogen from the soil, I've read.

http://www.nola.com/homegarden...

I just fed them a little organic tomato food a few days ago. Just a tiny bit though. How often should I be fertilizing and how much?

Paul2032 said:How old are the plants? They don't look bad to me, just young. Mine, planted from starts in May, are over 6 feet tall and really producing.

I planted them from seed in late June. Would you say even the very small one that was planted at the same time still might shoot up? The two large ones keep growing every week, but the little one hasn't seen growth in several weeks.

We've missed one thing in this discussion. What seed did you plant? Were they patio, determinate, or indeterminate? That would determine the size of the plant. Small one may be just a runt..........

Paul2032 said:We've missed one thing in this discussion. What seed did you plant? Were they patio, determinate, or indeterminate? That would determine the size of the plant. Small one may be just a runt..........

I had no idea, actually! I haven't a clue what I'm doing and didn't pay attention to what kind of seeds they were

Leafminers are little bugs/worms that live between leafs. Eating middle of leafs. So spray doesn't kill them. Drench soil with neem oil mixture. And/or cut affected leafs off and put in tied plastic bag to trash.

Fertilze as per instructions.
😎😎😎

Philipwonel said:Leafminers are little bugs/worms that live between leafs. Eating middle of leafs. So spray doesn't kill them. Drench soil with neem oil mixture. And/or cut affected leafs off and put in tied plastic bag to trash.

Fertilze as per instructions.
😎😎😎

How do I know if I have them?

krystenr1 said:

How do I know if I have them?

They feed beneath the upper and lower "skin" of the leaf, so you should be able to see them in the pale coloured areas under the surface. I actually think it is more like a leaf spot, there appear to be black dots in the middle of one of the spots which would indicate that, if it isn't an illusion of the camera. Any chance you can get a closer picture of that?

Edited to add, this picture shows what I mean:
https://www.google.ca/search?q...:

Here are some photos from this morning:

Not to be depressing, but unless those a dwarf patio type tomatoes, those pots seem too small. 5 gallon tubs are a minimum for most tomatoes...

Yardenman said:Not to be depressing, but unless those a dwarf patio type tomatoes, those pots seem too small. 5 gallon tubs are a minimum for most tomatoes...

Yeah, I was wondering that myself...but what of all these holes in the leaves? I'm worried the plants are heavily compromised and repotting will really take them out?

krystenr1 said:

Yeah, I was wondering that myself...but what of all these holes in the leaves? I'm worried the plants are heavily compromised and repotting will really take them out?

The sixth picture down in your latest set of pics, to the right of your thumb, is the culprit for the holes in the leaves, a green caterpillar. Go on the hunt for him and his friends/siblings and squish them.

sooby said:

The sixth picture down in your latest set of pics, to the right of your thumb, is the culprit for the holes in the leaves, a green caterpillar. Go on the hunt for him and his friends/siblings and squish them.

Oh my gosh I didn't even see him!! Is just finding all of them and removing them sufficient? Or do I need to treat the leaves with something? Man, they sure do some damage...

That's why he's green, makes him hard to spot Find and squish as many as you can and make a note of the level of damage. If more holes appear then you know you missed one or more and can go on another hunting expedtion. My preference would be to go that route rather than spray since you'll be eating the tomatoes.

You can Spray with BT, which is specific to worms, and won't harm other bugs. It won't harm people either, but it's easy to wash off.
Safer makes one called Caterpillar Killer, and there are several other brands as well. Just read instructions before using. In any event, don't wait until those little inch worms turn into huge tomato horn worms.

ctcarol said:You can Spray with BT, which is specific to worms, and won't harm other bugs. It won't harm people either, but it's easy to wash off.
Safer makes one called Caterpillar Killer, and there are several other brands as well. Just read instructions before using. In any event, don't wait until those little inch worms turn into huge tomato horn worms.

Okay I'll take care of them this weekend! And as for repotting, how big of a pot do you guys think I need to repot into? And should I pinch off all of the flowers and some of the tiny new fruit in order to give the plant an easier time adjusting to being uprooted and put into a new home?