What happens when tomato seedlings are overwatered?

Question

Some of my tomato seedlings received too much water and it shows. Some of the lower leaves on them have yellowed and the rest of the foliage looks a little lighter but otherwise healthy. Yellowing of the leaves doesn't look like disease just what you get with too much water.

I put them in the ground a couple of days ago. First snipped off the lower yellow leaves (which had even started to grow suckers) to bury the stem deep as well as to get rid of the yellow leaves.

Soil is adequately fertilized and calcium, magnesium are high. Iron is in the acceptable range but on the low side (3.5 ppm).

Are there going to be any adverse affects? Is there anything I can do to help?

Edit: Forgot to mention the roots looked good with no foul smells. Picture has a bit of a color cast but roots looked white and clean from what I could see.

Answer 1

Worst case scenario, they lost more root-volume than they can recover from, in which case they'll die in short order. More likely, given proper watering from here on, they'll rebuild the lost roots and grow strong again. Aside from the watering error it sounds like you've got them well situated, I'd say they most likely will bounce back in a few days with minimal long term impact. Adding some rapidly available Nitrogen might help the tomatoes recover a little quicker, but it's no guarantee, particularly if the full garden already has enough N available.

Based on the updated picture and description you're in much better shape than I was originally thinking. The fish fertilizer probably will help some. I think your plants came through the over-watering just fine.