What is on my tomato leaves???

Just transplanted these tomatoes 2 days ago in new MM. There are 4 different kinds of tomatoes and they are all doing this, mostly on the bottom leaves but some are on the top too. We have gotten a ton of rain lately. I put powdered milk and Epsom salt in the hole, about an 1/8 of a cup of each per hole. I mixed it in with the MM just slightly. I did water with a sprayer, but tried to keep the leaves dry.

What do you think is going on? Too much rain? Chlorine from the spray water? Messed up MM? Something wrong with the salt/milk mixture?

Thanks

I am no expert, but it looks to me like a 'fertilizer' burn, of course it could be from the chlorine in the water, but, if there is that much then it would burn your throat. I don't know what direct contact with epsom salts will do to a plants roots, but my suggestion it to water the bed til it's very wet, then start over and water again, maybe this will dilute the epsom salts.
I either add the epsom salts in water in a watering can, or sprinkle sparingly on top of mm and gently mix in. The milk shouldn't hurt anything. One thing with MM is that it has most of what you need in the mix, and any additives should be added sparingly.
Jo

It looks to me as if there was perhaps water splashed on them. Probably nothing to worry about if it doesn't spread or persist in the new growth. Are you watering at ground level or sprinkling the plants from above?

I would certainly keep a close eye on the new growth.

I watered with a sprayer on a hose, but very lightly and I squatted down so I mostly sprayed very lightly under the leaves. But, with a sprayer, there is still some spray up that was making it to the leaves. Maybe I should put the sprayer away!

When you amend the hole with salt and milk, are you supposed to mix them well with the MM before putting the tomato transplant in the hole? I just lightly mixed them together with my hand and with whatever MM fell as I was mixing. I planted the tomatoes sideways as Mel instructed. So all the salt/milk was on the bottom and no salt/milk on top. Obviously, first time doing this so I just did what I thought was right.

I really don't want to have to dig them up tomorrow and throw away the part of MM with the salt and milk in it, but I will if I did something wrong and can amend it.

I have peppers to transplant tomorrow and I was planning on doing the same hole amendment. Yes? No?

Do you mean Epsom salts? Just a point of fact here, Epsome salts is magnesium sulfate, not sodium.

Lightly mixed should be fine.

I myself would wait and see how things look in a few days. Once the plants get over transplant shock and start growing bigger you can remove the affected leaves.

Tomatoes are very forgiving!

What? No iodized table salt??? Just kidding, yes, I used Epsom.
I have a few more to transplant today. Maybe I'll amend the hole the same but water with a cup instead of a spray hose and see how that changes things. Maybe I should give them a drink of fish emulsion?

If you made your Mel's Mix from quality ingredients in the 5 way compost blend, there is no need at this time to fertilize with fish emulsion.

I got that on one of my tomatoes right after I transplanted it, the plant is fine now though.

So how are your plants? Did they recover?

Looks like some sun scald to me. I get that if I'm not careful with my transplants. If they get wet right before the sun comes out, it magnifies the sun and gives it a nasty sunburn I did that to my brassica this week. I was just too impatient! I wanted to plant something!

I have that on my babies, I know its not lacking in nitrogen so I think its sunscald. Hopefully they pull through

I grew up on a farm with a 30 acre garden.  We dug a two foot length trough for each tomato plant, put compost in the trough and one tablespoon of Epsom salt in each trough (one tbs. total sprinkled across the hole).  We then filled the hole with water and waited for it to drain down before placing the plant in (sideways) in order to bury as much of the stem as possible (for a stronger root system).  Maybe you overdid it on the Epsom salt?