Question
QUESTION: Hello, I planted tomatoes and used Lilly Miller's Tomato & Vegetable fertiliser, 1/4 cup for each plant, as box says.  After about 3 weeks I found out my tomato plants developed purpulish, short and kind of spiky leaves.  One person told me, they have lack of calcium.  Is it true?  What do I need to do?  I live in Seattle area and we had lots of rains the past month.  Thank you.

ANSWER: Hi Svetlana,

Purplish tomato leaves are usually an indication of phosphorous deficiency, which can be caused by a variety of issues including too-wet soil, cold soil temperatures, or phosphorous deficiency in the soil. You mentioned that you've had a lot of rain, so my first thought is that your problem is soil that is staying both cool and wet. When that happens, the plant isn't able to take up phosphorous from the soil as well, and the result is those purple-tinged, stunted leaves you mention. The good news is that the plant will bounce back on its own once things dry out a bit and the weather warms up.

If you'd like to help the plant along a little, I'd recommend applying bonemeal around the base of your tomatoes and letting the rain water it in. To give the tomatoes an extra boost, you could also try giving them a foliar feed of fish emulsion.

Good luck!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again.  You didn't say anything about calcium.  Do I need to use it too?  What kind of effect it does?  Thank you.  Svetlana.

Answer
Hi Svetlana!

The symptoms you describe indicate phosphorous deficiency rather than calcium deficiency. Symptoms of calcium deficiency are die-back of buds and emerging leaves. The die-back would start at the top of the plant and work its way down the stem, eventually killing the whole plant. Since your main symptom is purplish, spiky leaves, it's definitely not a calcium issue. Adding the bone meal will help with phosphorous deficiency, as will the fish emulsion. More than anything, though, we have to start hoping the rain lets up a little! Your main problem is that the soil is staying too cool and wet. Once it warms up and dries out a little, you'll see your tomatoes start to look more normal.

Thanks for following up!