Hi, You come highly recommended, so I'm asking you: I planted a cherry tomato plant, about 6 inches tall. Not it's about 2 feet. Has flowers and fruit already. It's in a 4x4' container - urban deck garden bed - with compost, peat moss and vermiculite. It's on its second year. This year, I have another tomato plant, lots of strawberry plants, borage, cucumbers, onions, herbs. All are doing very well, but the cherry tomato plant developed bright yellow leaves, from the bottom now up about half way. My gardener friend suggested removing the yellow leaves and stems because he thought of fungus. The place where I bought the plant thinks either over- or under-watering. I diligently water the bed, and it has a felt liner, and sits on a plastic sheet that is not attached to the structure, so water can drain. I added some Miracle Gro two days ago. The part with flowers and tomatoes looks good, and when I removed the leaves and stems, they felt "plump" as if well-watered. I don't see any evidence of undrained water. Can you help??

Hi,

Yellow leaves on tomatoes can be the result of a lot of things all producing similar symptoms. When growing in containers a number of things need to be looked at. It could be from over or under watering. When you do water make sure that yo apply enough water each time so water drains out of the holes in the bottom of the container. Make sure there is good drainage and water only when the soil feels dry about an inch or so in the soil. That means sticking your finger in the soil to see if it needs water or not. The other thing that can result in yellow leaves is lack of fertilizer. In a containerized planting it is a good idea to fertlize about every two weeks or so with the liquid fertilizer.