Hello from Columbus,GA Ya'll.

pawpaw8037 7/9/2020, 5:52 pm

Just kidding about the ya'll. I was born in PA but left for FL about 50 years ago to a job. 7 years later I was transfered to GA and never left. Thankfully I learned a little about raising a garden when it's 95 in the shade! But I swear the last couple years I don't know as much as I thought I knew. Worst two years in a long time. It took me years to gradually move up from the ground to boxes but I have been experiencing a real battle with the tiny ecosystems in a box and how sensitive they are. Anything from messed up ph to low calcium to even how often to water. I even messed around with drip irrigation for a few years. But I need to get to the point before my arthritis kicks up.

My main problem is something I've never seen. My new growth of my tomatoes turns yellow and shrivels up within days of showing itself. I've Googled my brains out but there are so many possibilities it would take me all season just to try them all. I was just hoping that somebody might read this and know exactly what it is. To narrow it down I have tried changing the ph, adding calcium and spraying a fungicide. I went through every plant and snipped out all the yellow leaves and in a week or so some new green growth began to show but after afew more day it started to yellow again. I'll sign off for a while. My hands getting tired! Names Jim by the way.

OhioGardener 7/9/2020, 6:15 pm

Welcome from Ohio, Jim! I spent some time in Columbus, GA, one summer due to the military, and I thought I had been dropped off in the desert! Except I couldn't remember the desert ever having that much humidity.

Sorry to hear about your tomato problems. Normally when new growth quickly turns yellow it is either a nitrogen deficiency, or Early Blight. It is easy to test the nitrogen level, and either confirm the deficiency of it, or rule it out. Blight is much harder, though, as it is a soil-born disease that is hard to get rid of. To control blight, it is important when tomatoes are transplanted into the garden that leaves are kept cut off at the bottom so that they cannot touch the soil, and water cannot splash up from the soil onto the leaves.

**AtlantaMarie** 7/10/2020, 5:47 am

Hi Jim. Welcome! I'm up in the Buford, GA area. We've got some other GA folks on here as well. I spent a LOT of time in Columbus as a kid.

Not sure what to tell you about the 'maters. But I'd certainly start with OG's suggestion. You might also take some photos/samples to your local extension service folks...

pawpaw8037 7/10/2020, 7:29 am

Thanks for the advice. Never thought about low nitrogen. I'll check that today. Just took for granted that normal fertilization was taking care of that. I'm also using Cal Mag and Neem Triple and will be rechecking application strengths. Talk later.

**Scorpio Rising** 7/10/2020, 8:34 pm

Welcome Jim!

I agree with OG, I think honestly it sounds like a nitrogen issue. What’s in your boxes? Mel’s Mix? Or something else?

Glad you’re here!

pawpaw8037 7/12/2020, 7:37 am

Thanks for coming back SR. You were right about nitrogen. Don't know how it got so low.Been using MiracleGro granular and Dr.Earth in HESprayer. Am getting some urea but you got to be careful with that stuff! Talk later.

OhioGardener 7/12/2020, 8:21 am

pawpaw8037 wrote:Thanks for coming back SR. You were right about nitrogen. Don't know how it got so low.Been using MiracleGro granular and Dr.Earth in HESprayer. Am getting some urea but you got to be careful with that stuff! Talk later.

Rather than using urea, get some blood meal. You might also want to get some bone meal at the same time. Put a good size handful of each around each plant and work it into the top couple inches of soil. Then water it in. The blood meal will give a long-term availability of nitrogen, and the bone meal will give long-term availability of phosphorus (use a little less of the bone meal than the blood meal, though).

Urea is a quick fix of nitrogen which is quickly burned out, instead of the long-term buildup of the soil.

pawpaw8037 7/12/2020, 8:35 am

Welcome Ohio. My sister lives in Columbus,Ohio. Appreciate the info but I was afraid I couldn't salvage this season with slow acting supplements. I already applied the urea so I will try your method in a few weeks. Talk later.

**sanderson** 7/14/2020, 3:21 am

PawPaw, I strongly recommend that you make a new bed and try filling it with Mel's Mix. The beauty of All New Square Foot Gardening is that it takes the guess work out of gardening. It will help narrow the problem as to whether it is a deficiency or a disease.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t7451-mel-s-mix-how-strong-is-your-backbone

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Hello from Columbus,GA Ya'll.