Purple tomato plants??

[nachoqtpie]

So, my wonderful hubby bought all of our seed (save a few) from ARK which is like a disaster preparedness type place. My husband is sometimes a little crazy as well! Anywyys!

Our tomato seed came in a small manila envelope labeled "7 variety tomatoes" so I have no idea what I'm actually growing. The first set of seedlings I planted were done in by me leaving thm outside so I started over (doh!!) This time I started them in my homegrown compost. They seem to be doing really well!

The only thing is.... almost all of them have purple stems and are purple under their leaves! Their true leaves also go almost straight up, not out. I fertilized them with some garden-tone last week and they go outside every morning atabout 8am and come in about 12 hours later (or later if I forget... lol) I just don't understand why they would be purple!

Any ideas?

 

[RidgebackRanch]

Mine look the same way. Waiting to see if someone has the answer.

 

[nachoqtpie]

Maybe we got mutant tomatoes RR!

 

[The Mama Chicken]

I've read that it is due to cool weather making the plants unable to absorb enough phosphorus. Over watering makes it worse. The plants will green up as it gets warmer and will produce just fine. Mine are doing the same thing so if yours are mutants mine are too.
*can't spell this morning

 

[nachoqtpie]

Shew! Okay. That makes me feel a lil better. I try to make sure that I'm doing things correctly at least! I bring the plants in at night, even tho evening temps are starting to stay in the 50s overnight. I wish they would grow a little faster so I could get them in the garden!!

 

[chris09]

There are a number of reasons for tomato stems to start turning purple, If the temperatures are cool (below 65) that would be my first bet for being the problem IF the plants were growing in a soil-less mix.
The cool temperatures make phosphorous unavailable to the plant and in turn the plant turns purple and shows signs of a phosphorous deficiency. If the temperature if below 65 I would raise the temperature to at least 65 if not 68.

I have to run right so I will post more when I get back.



Chris

 

[nachoqtpie]

Well... ther is really no way fo me to "turn up the heat" outside.
It does get a little cool in the evenings and we do leave our windows open... so.. maybe that's the reason? They seem to be doing really well otherwise! They re just seedlings stll tho. :-( I'm soooo scared to transplant them to the garden where I can't watch them as close. How big should they be before I transplant them to the garden? The're really not that big right now, the biggest one is just now getting its second set of true leaves.
Thank goodness for our long growing season! Otherwise I don't know if we would have any garden with me having all our seedling plants die! Lol

 

[momofdrew]

It isnt how big they get... it is all about the climate...tomatoes are warmth lovers dont put them out side in the garden until the temps stay above frost/freezing check your zone...you might want to bring them inside earlier in the day as the air cools down as the sun is going down...

 

[ducks4you]

Mama Chicken is right. When I started like a zillion tomatoes really early about 3 years ago in my cool basement, MOST of them had purple stems. They greened up when I put them outside in the bed.
Now, if you're talking "black" tomatoes that harvest as reddish-purple, well....that's Another story.

 

[joz]

I've got some seedlings that are purple underneath the leaves. It's been in the 70s-80s (lows of 60 at worst) for the last few weeks... certainly since their first transplant. Only some varieties are doing it. Green Zebra and Red Pear are bright green, but Sungold and Brandywine are purple.

I've got them in yogurt cups with holes in the bottom and am soaking them in a tray of water (maybe 1/2" deep, let it dry out and stay dry for a couple days, refill to 1/2"). When I potted them up from their original coco-coir-pulp seedling mix tray I put them in a mix of coco-coir-pulp and compost, and have watered them a couple times with 1/4 strength seaweed and fish emulsion.

I've not noticed if the ones I put out in the garden, in holes prepped with TomatoTone, have recovered.