Many summer residents, seeing the lower yellow leaves of tomatoes under the brush, pick them off. But in fact, such leaves feed the brush: they work exactly until the fruit grows. If you remove the leaf too early, the food supply to the ovary will stop – the tomatoes will grow small and will take a long time to ripen. An expert from the Zen channel “Garden Cribs” told the summer residents about this.
But it’s still useful to know why tomato leaves turn yellow – and how to fix it.
Reason #1: Improper watering
Tomatoes need to be watered rarely and abundantly, in hot weather – twice a day at the root, about 7 liters per bush. When the weather is cloudy, you can take breaks of 4-5 days.
If the root layer is dry, the leaf turns yellow at the edges, dries and curls. And if you flood the soil, the leaves will fade, turn yellow and droop. Finally, when tomatoes are watered not at the roots, but over the leaves, then drops of water in the sun burn their surface – they lighten and dry out.
Reason #2: Lack of magnesium, potassium and nitrogen
With nitrogen starvation, the leaves turn pale and yellow, and with a lack of magnesium, the space between the veins turns yellow.
To feed tomatoes with nitrogen, make a nettle infusion, dilute it in a ratio of 1:10 and water it at the root every 10 days.
And to feed with magnesium, make an ash infusion: mix 200 g of ash in 10 liters of water and leave to infuse for a day. This infusion will also cover the need for potassium and calcium.
Reason #3: Lack of light
When the leaves are constantly in the shade, they turn yellow and dry out, and thickened plantings are to blame. The distance between bushes should be at least 60 cm in greenhouse conditions and from 50 cm in the open air. Leaves should not come into contact with the soil surface.
