I am trying to grow tomatos and there is mould...?

Question

on the base of the stem just sitting on the soil, its like balls of white mould, and also i have them tied to a bamboo stick that i got in the garden shop and that is going a white colour where it is in the soil, does this mean there is too much water and i should give the pot more holes to drain the water

Answer 1

That's botrytis (grey mould).  It was probably in the soil before you planted the tomato.  You can rescue it with a fungicide spray.

Answer 2

Yes the soil is too wet....and yes the white stuff is a form of mould...

Let it dry out a little between feeds

Answer 3

You are correct. To much water is the problem caused by lack of drainage holes in the pot.

                             Self watering plant!!!

The plant knows exactly how much water it wants so why worry about how much to water it?.

Before planting next time take a cotton rope 1/4" in diameter or more (I find a clothes line works well for this) and cut a length of about 3 ft. pull the rope end through the drainage hole on the bottom of the pot until it is about mid way and  add the soil while holding the rope up. Place your plant  in the pot and continue adding soil as usual. Next place your pot on a stand.

Now fill a second pot with water and place below the stand.Put the free end of the rope in the water and you now have a self watering plant.

The way this works is the roots of the plant seek out the moisture and attach themselves to the rope drawing water up to the plant. You do have to refill the bottom pot every so often but you never have to worry about under/over watering your plants again