Yellow tomato plants?

[MisaGoat]

I have three tomato plants in buckets. 2 of the plants are turning yellow. All three plants were bought as seedlings at the farmer's market and put in plastic buckets with holes drilled in the bottom. They were on the balcony but are now out back in the little patch of grass between are parking lot and the apartment building. We gave them water and tomato food.

1) What do they need?

2) If I were to plant them into the ground what do I need to do?

[belltree]

Hard to tell. Do you have a photo? Maybe some Magnesium would be good, you can provide that via Epsom Salt. Plants need this to produce chlorophyll. If it rained a lot or you overwatered, the earth might be depleted in nutrients.

There are however diseases that can cause yellowing as well.

[cristeen]

Really hard to tell... how often are you watering, and how much? How long have they been in the pots? Are they showing any other signs of stress (drooping or curling leaves)? What's the weather been like? Are you having any pest problems? Are all three the same breed?

For my tomatoes, they tend to turn yellow when I've either underwatered or overwatered them. In years past it's been overwatering. This year I'm trying to prevent underwatering. It's a tricky balance... and each breed also has different water requirements - my paste tomato seems to need more water than my cherry or salad tomato... it will curl it's leaves up days before the other two.