I bought this tomato plant a few weeks ago and I noticed a few days ago that its lower leaves are developing something. The leaves are getting yellow and have spots. Other than the lower leaves, the rest of the plant looks pretty normal. I'm not sure what it is. Is it early blight? What could have caused this and how can I fix it? Its a Husky Cherry Red, being grown in homemade compost. I water daily if not every other day. It gets plenty of sun. Im quite new to this, so please excuse the lack of knowledge.

Thank you

-Daniel

It is normal for tomato plants to lose their lower, older leaves as they grow.

Hi Daniel, and welcome. That's why we all come here, to get and share knowledge. No need to apologize and the only dumb question is the one you didn't ask.

Your plants looks pretty darn healthy to me. I agree with porkpal that those lower leaves just have some normal "age" spots and will probably drop off. The plant will shade them out pretty soon anyway.

Just a word of caution though, about growing in homemade compost, it may get a bit too compacted in that pot over time, and this causes the root system of the plant to not get enough air when the soil dries out a bit. For future reference, use a good sterile potting mix for growing anything in pots. It's quite a lot lighter and more porous than straight compost you made yourself.

Signs of soil compaction are if you pour water into the pot and it seems like it goes whizzing right through and out the bottom. IF it starts doing this, you must take the plant out of the pot, loosen the root ball, soak it until the whole ball is wet, then re-pot in a bigger pot with potting soil. Tomatoes are very resilient plants, so it won't hurt it to do this.

The only thing I can add is that the soil is WAY down in that pot. Fill it up! Tomatoes will root along their stem and become healthier, happier plants. The soil should be almost to the rim of the pot - you are wasting root space. Fill it up!

Thanks to everyone for the replies, you have been very helpful. Regarding the sterile potting mix, how would you fertilize that and how often?

Most potting mix comes with some fertilizer added. What's in your home made compost will be all used up by now, so you need to get some slow-release veggie fertilizer pellets to mix into that soil, too. If you use a good quality timed-release product you'll only have to remember to put it on about every 3 or 4 months.

Your tomato plant will very likely peter out around May or June anyway, so one application may carry it through for you.

Agreed the tomato plant should be in a 5 gal bucket, planted DEEP, go light on fertilizer for maters or you get all plant and no tomatoes. If you are using purchased soil, dont add fertilizer yet. Florida has been cold lately and tomatoes like a temp (and soil temp above 60*. Do watch the calcium as not having any would possibly give you blossom end rot). I do need to check that soil temp for tomatoes again...I do know they stall in 90* and up temps...fertilizer should have a LOW nitrogen %...

The other common blossom end rot cause in container tomatoes is inconsistent watering.

I also agree they look fine. But, it's early, even for Florida. Are they warm enough?

Tomatoes are a specialty of mine, sort of. I agree with the others that what you could do, is remove the lower branches, and add soil, or simply put it into a bigger pot.

What I do with tomatoes, is I keep removing bottom branches, and keep burying them deeper and deeper. As seedlings, I do this when I transplant. When I first transplant them, I put them deep into the pot. Then, as they grow, I remove bottom branches, and add more soil.

It's my opinion that tomatoes are all about their root systems. There will just be a slight delay in productivity by removing bottom branches and adding more soil, or repotting them deeper. Then, when the root system is big and awesome and you can leave them alone - they will reward you with tons of great tomatoes.