Different quality leaves on tomato plants

[Primrose]

I'm pondering on the fact that when I see other peoples' tomato plants growing, their leaves sometimes seem a lot lusher, bigger or darker green than mine, yet I usually manage to get a reasonable crop from my plants.
Do bigger, lushier leaves automatically mean a plant is more healthy than a plant with smaller lighter green leaves and will yield more/heavier fruits?

I've been alternating the location for growing my outdoor tomatoes every other year and manuring the soil annual as much as practical but wonder whether this practice has resulted in the soil becoming "tomatoed out" causing the foliage on my plants to become less bushy over the years.

[WestHamRon]

Often, the opposite can apply. If too much fertiliser is applied, Toms will indeed grow lots of greenery. however that inhibits growing flowers.

[Nature's Babe]

Different varieties have different leaves too Primrose, this year so far generally tomato fruits look smaller than last year. I have a few in pots in one the leaves went that purple colour but are still fruiting. In the new mulched beds om the north side I put some rockdust and those tomatos look lush and cope with heat and drought well despite me not watering them at all, not sure if that is due to the mulch or the rockdust lol. Some outside in ring culture pots/growbags lush but tend to curl when its very hot. Greenhouse ones look fine but very thirsty need watering every day, five or 6 ripe fruit now - but it has been so hot here in the SE that the outdoor ones have a ripe tomato on too, catching up with the greenhouse ones, so I'm wondering if I gained much plantimg earlier in the greenhouse and if it was worth all that watering !

[Primrose]

Nature's Babe - I was interested in your observations about the tomatoes which have had an application of rock dust looking very lush because there was some discussion about this substance on here a while back and at the time I intended to get some and try it, but got distracted. Where did you get your rock dust from?

Incidentially I have three little tomatillo plants (8 inches high) & two small tomato plants growing from the seeds you kindly sent me. I know it was really too late to sow them this year but I couldn't wait for another year to experiment so I may get the odd very late fruit. How high do the tomatillos normally grow and will they need staking?

[Nature's Babe]

I would stake the tomatillos with fair sized branched twigs Primrose, mine are flowering now and about 2.5 ft tall, they can sprawl a bit need some support so they don't drag on the ground when heavy with fruit.
I think I ordered the rock dust from garden organic, I used it for those beds because the only fertiliser i will be putting on them is the mulch, over time it will fertilise itself,gradually increasing topsoil depth, plant waste will be returned to its same bed dried as mulch, so I wanted good mineral content to start with that they could utilise and return, with interest, from the sun. I have been very impressed with Emilia Hazlips you tube, synergistic garden method, it has meant no digging, no watering, less weeding and so far good results which she says should improve yearly - and I was too impatient to get going and planted out before the soil had settled properly, LOL The only draw back is you have to be one step ahead of the slugs, bait and trap before planting out the mixed planting from modules, and I dot wiilted lettuce leaves about, sprinkled with organic slug pellets. I also innoculated seedlings with local soil bacteria and mycelium, by taking a little untilled untreated woodland soil to mix in with the compost, it only needs doing once and its quite amusing to see the tiny fungi pop up along side the seedlings, the symbiotic relarionship gives plants greater vigour, because the mycelium benefit frrom the plant utilising sunshine that it can't access underground and the plant benefits from sharing the myceliums greater root area with access to more water and nutrients underground.
Westhamron is right too much fertiliser upsets the natural balance of the soil, the soil is capable of regulating itself to the right comditions if what is growing in the soil is returned back to the same soil after cropping, the worms turn the mulch in and aerate the soil for you and the mycelium channel the nutrients to where they are needed. She says as much in the video.