Tomato looking sick - should I ditch it? (Hillbilly)

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting so hopefully I'm doing it right....You guys all seem so helpful so I was wondering if you can tell me about this bad boy tomato of mine. It's a Hillbilly which is failing to thrive - purplish veins on the underside and leaves folding a little, looking generally sick, and I'm wondering if I should ditch it to prevent all my others from becoming infected

It was planted in new potting soil and I added a slow release fertilizer, around May 20th. I have a second Hillbilly, purchased from the same place, same time, which has been subjected to the exact same conditions and is now up to my waist - (the pic of the healthy looking plant). I've had so many problems with blight and wilt in recent years I'm growing everything in containers this year and trying to stay on top of everything.

The only searches I have been able to find about this kind of appearance say (1) that it's too cold, which obviously does not apply here as it's one of about 20 other tomatoes which are not suffering, or (2) some kind of fertilizing deficiency, which gives me the problem of wondering whether to add more and risk over-fertilizing it. Any advice you can give would be great,
thanks
Ali

PS I have no especial loyalty to the Hillbilly, just trying a few new varieties this year, so if it's not particularly highly regarded by you folks it can go for that reason too....:)

I'm no expert, but, I'd say it needs some phosphorous, with those purple veins...

Give it a tiny shot of Triple Super phosphate or comparable, and see what happens...

And, someone will be along directly to correct me, if I'm wrong here, LOL!

But, you have nothing to lose at this point...

Thanks! I'll try it. As you say, nothing to lose at this stage. Got a bigger problem tonight with high winds - the tomatoes are fairly well supported but it just blew a couple of 10 gallon pots over!
best,
Ali

I second that I don't know why only one plant would show systems tho? What do you have it planted in? Just curious...

I'm learning as I go, that sometimes there can be just a sickly one in the bunch, for some unknown reason.

I do my best to bring all the babies along, but, sometimes you just can't save 'em all. But, I do try...

Which is why, next tomato season, I'm only sowing TWO seeds, LOL!!!! Cause when I sow two or more seeds in 75 flats, I end up with 200 tomato plants, cause they all come up, and I just can't bear to snip one or the other.

They all want to live, tee hee hee!

I would pull that plant and dispose of it asap. But that's just me. It could just be what other have stated prior but there's also Beet curly top virus to consider. Which your plant might be suffering from. Just letting you know it's a possibility. The coloration, twisting, cupping of leaves and a stunted plant leads me to think it's BCTV. It only is spread by the Beet Leafhopper, and they feed very sporadically. Reason why some plants get infected while many others in the area aren't. Been seeing it more and more in garden centers over the past few years. Living in Santa Barbabra you could just replant another tomato. You have plenty of time.

Here's a couple of links.....

Central Coastal Cali- http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=3352

http://entoweb.okstate.edu/ddd/diseases/curlytop.htm

Thanks everyone. It didn't improve so it's gone! I have put in its place a pepper which needed a home, by way of an experiment - if that fails too it may be something in the soil.

1Lisac, I am tending against that since it was planted in new potting soil (with some slow release fertilizer). Half of that same bag would have gone into another plant, not sure which one at this point but none of the other tomatoes are looking like this one did.

Thanks for the links Ray Der Phan, that's one I haven't hit before. Interesting, that could be it.

And yes, I am hoping for a long season - I have had nothing yet except one single, solitary sungold cherry!

I hear you Gymgirl - I have a pot with seedlings that have just appeared, from a tomato I grew last year, and can I bring myself to pull them out? Of course I have no clue which variety they might be......

After seeing the plants in the link I'm pretty sure that's it. Glad you are growing something else. That really looks like a phosphurous deficiency but I'm not familiar with that disease, good to know it only hits occasionally.