To be able to know if your tomato plant is growing well, you should not just focus on the fruit but on its leaves as well. Having smaller leaves than usual can be a manifestation of a more serious problem.

To know more about this and what you can do to fix this growing problem, below are some useful information that you can use as reference.

 Causes of small tomato leaves

1. Low or high amount of nitrogen

What to look out for:

Thin, small leaves, viney stems

What to do:

Nitrogen is one of the important elements a tomato plant needs in order to maintain a healthy and robust growth. The nitrogen in soil depletes when the organic matter in soil is insufficient; conversely, excessive amounts of nitrogen can cause your plant to grow more rapidly, thus makes your tomato plant leggy or viney. To fix this, you will need to conduct a soil test to determine whether or not your soil needs more or less of nitrogen.

2. Fungal diseases

What to look out for:

Wilter plants, leaf spots, molds

What to do:

Fungal diseases do not simply disrupt the leaf production of tomato plants but it also causes an entire physical and chemical damage. When not prevented, this could lead to molds build up, falling off of leaves, and eventually dying of the entire plant. In order to fix this, you can start by making your plant resistant by applying fungicides or sulfur sprays. It will also help if you space your plants about 2 to 3 feet apart, and as much as possible avoid overhead watering.

3. Insufficient amount of water

What to look out for:

Dry soil, thin and small leaves

What to do:

Tomato is the type of plant that requires regular watering, specifically about an inch of water every week or else the soil will dry out quickly affecting the growth of the tomato, including the production of larger leaves. So, see to it that you follow a regular watering pattern and schedule to make sure that your tomato will get the ample amount of water that it requires.

4. Lesser sunlight

What to look out for:

Wilted leaves, thin/small leaves, leaf discoloration

What to do:

Apart from water, sunlight is also one of the major necessities for growing a healthy tomato plant. Specifically, too little amount of this can make your tomato produce smaller and unhealthy leaves because of lack of nutrients. Insufficient amount of sunlight can also cause your tomato plant to be leggy because they will try to grow taller to reach the light source. To address this concern, make sure that your tomato receives a good amount of sunlight for at least 8 hours a day. 

Other growing problems and diseases

Aside from producing small leaves, tomato plants are also prone to many other diseases and growing problems that affect its roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits. Below are some of the mostly encountered problems while growing a tomato plant.

1. Blossom drop

When your tomato plant produces flowers but they eventually come off even if there is no tomato fruit developing, that means your plant is manifesting a clear sign of blossom drop. Irregular temperature heavily influences blossom drop in tomato plants. In order for your plant to retain its flowers and develop its fruits, you have to grow it in an area that has regular temperatures between 55 to 75 degrees F.

Apart from fluctuating temperature, there are also other factors that contribute to blossom drop; this includes: pest infestation, insufficient water supply, lack or excessive amount of nitrogen, and shortage in pollination.

2. Gray leaf spot

While gray leaf spot does not directly affect the tomato fruit, it can disrupt the overall growth of the plant, thus impacting the process of fruit production. From the name itself, signs of gray leaf spot include brown or gray bruises with yellow halo on the surface of the tomato leaf. This fungal disease causes holes on the foliage which eventually leads to leaf drop. The consistent leaf drop may not instantly kill the entire plant but it can affect the quality and taste of the tomato fruit.

3. Puffiness

This kind of tomato disease is not easily acknowledged until you pick your ripe fruit and slice it in half. Puffiness means that your tomato plant is growing well, the flowers and fruit bloom according to schedule, and your tomato fruit looks healthy and red from the outside but when cut open, it shows huge spaces and not much of the fruit. Basically, puffiness makes your tomato hollow inside and less juicy.

Since this type of tomato disease is caused by lack of fertilizer, poor soil nutrition, and insufficient pollination, you can start by feeding your plant with balanced fertilizer either biweekly or monthly, depending on your plant needs.

4. Leaf roll

Older tomato leaves, particularly the ones near the base of the plant are more prone to leaf roll. Due to extremely soaked soil, high temperatures, and too much pruning, the leaves curl from the outside to the center and once one leaf is infected, the disease spreads across the plant damaging nearly 75% of it.

5. Sunscald

Another damaging disease that affects the quality of tomato fruit is sunscald. This appears towards the harvesting stage of the tomato where yellow patches form on the skin and eventually turn to white, making the affected area paper thin and the tomato unpalatable. 

Sunscald develops when the tomato fruit is overly exposed to full sun. So, to be able to avoid this, you could transfer your plant in a slightly covered area or anywhere with shade especially at noon when the sun is at its peak.

Tips on growing tomato properly

If you are growing tomato for the first time, you need to take note of these growing tips to ensure that you prevent your plant from being damaged by the aforementioned problems and diseases. 

1. Heat up the soil prior to planting.

Unless the soil and air temperature are kept warm, tomatoes won’t really start to grow. So, if you are planning on planting tomatoes at the start of the season, you can begin with the preparation by preheating the soil. To do this in a quick manner, you may cover the soil to be used with a red or black plastic weeks before planting tomatoes. 

2. Do not overcrowd the seedlings.

Since a tomato plant has the tendency to spread, it is best that you give your plant an adequate amount of space, whether you’re growing it in a container or bed. When overcrowded, the tomato plant’s growth will be restricted, resulting in them being stressed out and eventually dying. To avoid this from happening, you may opt to transfer each tomato plant in their respective 4-inch containers once they have produced their first set of true leaves.

3. Ensure that the tomato plant receives sufficient light

Tomato is a sun-loving plant and requires 6-8 hours of full sun everyday for its healthy and optimum growth. So, it would be best if you grow your tomato in the sunniest side of your garden. This will also lessen the chances of your plant to become too leggy, as a result of striving for more sunlight. 

If, by any chance, you are growing your tomato indoors or you’re growing it during the winter where the day is shorter, you can make use of artificial plant light but that will require more time of light exposure. From 6-8 with the natural sunlight, you will need to expose your tomato to artificial light for about 14 to 18 hours a day, as needed.

4. Get rid of the older, bottom leaves

To be able to save your tomato plant from possible fungal diseases, it is recommended that you remove the older leaves at the base of the plant especially when it’s already 3 feet high. When the tomato plant is that tall, the bottom leaves are most likely shaded by the rest of the plant which is the usual origin of fungal diseases.

Aside from this, you can also prevent fungal disease from spreading all over your tomato plant by spraying compost tea regularly. 

5. Prune your plant

It is no secret that pruning encourages more vigorous growth in a plant and the same thing applies to the tomato. Additionally, if you notice some little foliages in the middle of two branches, pinch them out or else your plant will have a hard time bearing fruit. 

While pruning is highly recommended, be careful not to remove too much of the leaves as this may disrupt the quality and sweetness of your tomato fruit.

Benefits of tomato leaves

We all know that tomato fruit is not only incredibly delicious but also contains a lot of essential vitamins, nutrients, and minerals that are body needs especially in nourishing our skin. But, did you know that its leaves are also equally beneficial? 

Contrary to what other people claim, tomato leaves are actually safe to eat. As a matter of fact, like other herbs and greens, tomato leaves are tender and fragrant. You can add it to your soup, or you can make pesto pasta out of it. Tomato leaves are also rich in phytonutrients which are believed to be extremely beneficial to human health particularly in fighting diseases. Additionally, tomato leaves also contain plenty of anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidants.

The post Why Are My Tomato Leaves So Small And How To Fix It? appeared first on Plant2Harvest.

So, you decided to grow some tomato plants in your garden, but then you find out that they grew astonishingly tall! Why is that? There a few specific reasons why tomato plants grow that tall:

Firstly, tomatoes have excessive nitrogen which causes so too much fertilizing will cause the tomato plants to grow so tall.

Secondly, you must make sure that the tomato plants have full sunlight as much as possible. Without enough sunlight, the plant will stretch itself as much as possible to grow.

And thirdly, because the plants were set to in an “Indeterminate” size, see below to more information on that.

So, even though growing tomatoes is a long process that includes some challenges, we have great tips that will make it easier for you to grow the perfect tomato plants! 

How tall should you let tomato plants grow?

Tomatoes can be categorized into plants that were set in advance to either “Determinate” size or an “Indeterminate” size.

“Determinate plants are set to stop growing when the final cluster of flowers reached the pre-set point which can be between 3 and 5 feet at maturity, the tomatoes will tend to be bushy and grow quickly.

And there are “Indeterminate plants” that continues to grow all the growing season long and can reach the height of 7 to 8 feet. 

There are also “Dwarf tomatoes” that reach the height of 1 to 2 feet at maturity. 

Why is my tomato plant growing so tall but isn’t producing many tomatoes?

Sometimes you see that your tomato plant is growing incredibly tall, but the plant isn’t growing many tomatoes if not at all. Why is this happening? There a certain reason,

Firstly, the tomato plant requires a moderate amount of nitrogen but only during certain parts of the growing season, so you must test the soil before and after the growing season to check the level of nitrogen in it and if the plant needs fertilizing or not.

Secondly, make sure that you put to give the plants just the right amount of fertilizer because too much nitrogen will cause the plant to have little energy to grow fruits or flowers.

And finally, if you have overfertilized the tomato plants then you can water the plants deeply will balance the nitrogen level in the soil.

Also, if the tomatoes are spindly then they need a lot of support, so you can cage or stake the tomatoes or prune them to one main stem. 

How do you keep the tomato plants short and bushy?

Tomato plants tend to grow wildly which limits their fruit production, so what’s the best way to keep them short and bushy instead to produce more fruit? There are a few ways…

Firstly, you should allow the plant to grow as tall as 1 foot into one or two main branches and cut the others with gardening shears and keep the plants far from each other. 

Secondly, stick a 3-foot bamboo or wooden stake high as 3 foot in the ground (Around 12 inches into the ground) about 2 or 3 inches from the plants to lead the plant’s growth upward.

Thirdly, cut the offshoots and leave only one or 2 side shorts after the plants grew at as tall as 2 inches, it allows the plants to grow thicker and stronger.

And finally, place a 2-foot sized cage over the tomato plants, it gives the tomato plants the perfect amount of space without sprawling. 

Should you cut off the bottom leaves of the tomato plants?

Some people think that the lower leaves of the tomato plants affect its fruit production because they can drain the nutrients from the tomatoes, which is why the lower leaves must be removed. Is it true?

The truth is that the bottom leaves don’t generally affect the fruit production of the tomato plants unless they turn yellow which means that they are dry and will drain the sugar from the tomato so they must be removed.

Other reasons that you can remove the lower leaves if you want are that the lower leaves become moist which can disease that can be avoided by cutting it. Another reason is that the upper leaves get all the sunlight and lower leaves get less so at some point they might drain the sugar from the tomato and cutting them will avoid this.

What is the best fertilizer for tomatoes?

Fertilizing tomatoes depends on the amount of nitrogen in the soil, which means that first, you must test the soil (Preferably during the fall and when the soil is dry).

If the soil is balanced or has a high amount of nitrogen, then you should use a fertilizer that has a lower amount of nitrogen and a higher amount of phosphorus. If there’s less nitrogen in the soil, then you should use a balanced fertilizer.

Usually, the soil is balanced and it’s best to use a fertilizer with a high amount of phosphorus.

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