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Tomato plant leaves have brown tips - transplant shock or something else? (mander.xyz)
submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by wilted_whisperer@mander.xyz to c/gardening@lemmy.world
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Transplanted my tomatoes into 7-gallon grow bags on Sunday of last week (8 days ago).

  • DIY potting mix w/ approximately equal parts store bought garden soil, peat/coco mix, and compost, w/ a few handfuls of perlite and a touch of granulated all purpose fertilizer mixed in.
  • Mid-Atlantic region of the US (zone 7). They currently sit on my back porch, which faces northeast and gets about 4 hours of direct sunlight per day before they're in the shade. Weather has been mostly sunny w/ highs in the upper 80s to lower 90s.
  • I watered them right after transplanting plus two more times since then (no fertilizer, just straight from the tap or hose), so about every third day.

Is this transplant shock or do I have some other problem? I've tried following this guide (Why Your Tomato Leaves Have Brown Tips), but since the brown tips affect all the leaves (oldest and youngest), I'm unsure of the most likely issue, so in the absence of a clear indicator I'll likely just keep doing what I'm doing and hope for the best.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Clarified some things and fixed a few typos.

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[-] Guenther_Amanita@slrpnk.net 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Looks fine to me. The burnt tips indicate some potassium (maybe calcium) deficiency and/ or not enough water, both of which are often caused by transplant shock.

If the new coming leaves are looking fine, I'd ignore it, since it means the plant has adapted to the new conditions :)

[-] wilted_whisperer@mander.xyz 2 points 3 days ago

This is reassuring, thanks for weighing in. I'll stick to my current regimen of watering every third day and see how they turn out. Fingers crossed!

[-] The_v@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Marginal leaf burning. It can be caused by anything that inhibits the uptake of potassium to the plant. Some causes are: irregular watering and temperature fluctuations, acidic soil, high salt concentrations, K or Ca deficient soil, or damage to the roots.

[-] cranakis@reddthat.com 3 points 4 days ago

They look healthy to me, looking at the new growth. Your transplant shock theory holds up. One thing you said did stand out. 4 hours is barely enough sun. Make it 6 and the plant will do twice as well, in my experience, the more the better.

[-] Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip 2 points 2 days ago

Wait, aren't you supposed to reduce sun after transplanting to give the plant time to adjust while stressed? (I'm learning how to take care of plants, I don't really know what I'm doing yet lol)

[-] cranakis@reddthat.com 1 points 2 days ago

Generally true but tomatoes are like "scorch me daddy"

[-] zarathustrad@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Laughing in Arizona with a shade cloth over my tomatoes as the afternoon June sun blasts them into a curly leafed mass.

"THE SUN IS A DEADLY LASER!"

(My older leaves also brown up on the tips fairly quickly. The 15-25% Humidity and low night temps help keep them alive in summer, but the leaves have a rough time in the sun and dry heat)

[-] cranakis@reddthat.com 1 points 1 minute ago

I overstated that for sure. Here in Ga, the trees almost always limit the sun to 8-9 hours. That said though I wonder if your problem is more heat than sun. I've literally never had an issue with too much sun on a tomato, 15 years of growing them.

[-] Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip 1 points 2 days ago

Ah, gotcha. Thank you, I'll keep that in mind if I try tomatoes again! It was one of the first plants my friend gifted me to try taking care of (cause she had one extra) and it did okay until it fell off a ledge cause I don't have a great place to put big plants so they can get a lot of sun lol

[-] wilted_whisperer@mander.xyz 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

4 hours is barely enough sun.

Yeah, I knew this would be an issue, problem is I'm on the northwest side of a duplex, and the short stretch of southwest-facing facade that I have are my driveway and garage. Only about six feet of my mulch bed wraps around to that southwest side (and it's already occupied by other plants), so for now, all my veggies are on my (northeast-facing) deck, but since they're all in containers, I might repurpose that little stretch of southwest-facing mulch bed, and I could potentially line my driveway with containers. The other caveat is that my driveway is slightly sloped, so... definitely not ideal. It just so happens that all the veggies I'd want to grow (tomatoes, peppers, cukes) love sun, and my physical environment is oriented the wrong way to maximize daily sunlight.

this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2026
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