About 95% of the 800 blogs at this site related to old houses, but today, I have a gardening emergency and I’m asking for some help.
My formerly lush, verdant and robust tomato plants are dying at an alarming rate, and I’ve no idea what’s wrong with them. They’ve been watered, treated with tender solicitude, fertilized with fish emulsion, bathed in soft words gently spoken and watched over with much approbation.
And yet, they’re literally withering on the vine. I’d be grateful for any insights on what’s happening. My lone theory is that the strong heat (95+ temps) several days in a row puta hurting on them, despite the adequate watering.
Thanks for any insights.
In fact, I am not growing tobacco but tomatoes. They don't look too good and I wish I knew what was wrong. Whatever this is, came upon them in a great hurry, and turned the leaves from lush green to dead brown - fast.
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Close up of the leaves. The plants (three of them) are covered with these burned-up looking brown leaves.
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And what's really odd is that the trunks have turned brown! Before, they were deep green.
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Several of the tomatoes have these tiny spots.
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And some of the tomatoes look much worse!
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At first, we thought it was a fungus in the soil, but I've planted two "container" tomatoes (on my deck now) in the same soil, and they're thriving.
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I'd be grateful for any ideas, because this is pretty sad.
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So, what is eating Tommy Tomato? š
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Looks like a bacteria problem in the soil, you can treat it with a copper fungicide, but it might be too late.
Cut back all the plant parts that are affected to prevent it from spreading.
Make sure you don’t grow your tomatoes in the same location next year, the bacteria stays in the soil, you have to rotate tomato plants in the garden and treat the soil to kill the bacteria.
It could have been your plant (s). I plant all of my tomatoes in trugs and in the same soil too.
I have one that has fusarium wilt and will have to go š Others are thriving.
Check our this website http://www.tulsamastergardeners.org) to trouble shoot, looks like you have a couple of things going on. :/
This link should take you straight to tomato diseases and if not enter tomato diseases in the search bar.
There are three parts, fact sheets, for tomato diseases on this website. http://www.tulsamastergardeners.org/lawngarden/tomatokey.htm
@Rachel Shoemaker
Curiously, these plants came from THREE different sources. š
I’ve got two other tomato plants in the same soil (in those five-gallon buckets) and they’re thriving.
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It appears it is a fungus. It is in the ground and will destroy the plant.
You might use a fungicide, like Daconil or even the organic kind, like EcoSmart. Not sure if it is too late.
Take a sample of the leaves and the soil to the VPI extension office. One is in Portsmouth on Utah Ave.
They can tell and also send the soil off for testing. After the season, cover the soil with plastic for several days, letting the sun bake and kill anything in the soil, if it is a fungus.
Mine died last year and I did the same and all is well now, but I still sprayed the plants when they were put in the ground.
Looks like tomato blight. It can be from the Nursery, but most likely the spores were spread in the air.
A simple cure is to treat the plants to 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (commonly found in the drug store) and copper, and I’m told the Amish sprinkle baking soda around fungus spores and it will kill them and keep them from growing again.
I’m thinking of treating my own garden with baking soda because the blight keeps re-growing every year now in my garden.
(You don’t need much copper, from what I recall if you use that solution…pennies most likely aren’t pure enough now….I’d use a better pure source of copper)