Do you mean that the tomato plants are water logged and the foliage isn't looking too good at the moment? During periods of extremely heavy rainfall in both 2007 and 2009 I had a lot of that with my tomatoes. I did rake back the mulch so the soil could drain more quickly. Still, due to the way the rain continued to fall heavily for several weeks, it took them a long time to dry out and for the foliage to look normal again....and those were in raised beds well above the grade of the soil. Too much rain can be more damaging than too little as you're seeing with your plants. While the plant roots remain waterlogged, you may even see symptoms of nutrient deficiencies because the waterlogged roots cannot adequately absorb nutrients from the soil.

If you can remove the mulch that's what I would do. If there is any way you can dig small trenches to funnel excess moisture away from the roots, that might help.

In this part of the country sometimes it seems like rainfall arrives in only two amounts: too much and too little.

Sheila, I think I would ride it out, I bet you have more tomatoes than you need anyway.

I have been working on two beds of mine that are in low areas. I just went out to check them, got water standing by the beds but the cantaloupe and Tromboncino look fine.

yes the ones in the low lying areas of the garden look like you have poured hot water on them. They are wilted and just look like crap! They looked so good this weekend. Yes Larry I planted 90 something this year but I sure do hate to lose them. Some of them already have tomatoes on them. And my sun sugars are in the wilted bunch too. I eat those things by the handful when I am working in the garden. (or just passing by). Oh well thats the way gardening goes. Ya win some ya lose some. Keeps ya humble.

Sheila, In 2009, we received almost 13" of rainfall in one day, followed by another 9" or maybe even 10" over the next 6 or 7 weeks. My tomato plants looked much like the way you have described yours. Even worse, since our property is downhill from the property next door, that foot of rainfall brought down almost 4" of sand, silt, weed seed, bits of grass, rocks, etc. into my garden and piled it on top of the low end of the garden where I was growing heavily mulched corn. About the only good thing was that at least the tomatoes were in the raised beds and not at grade level where the corn was growing. All the soil, whether in raised beds or at grade level, got that mucky sour-soil smell so common in slow-draining soil when it is heavier waterlogged for a prolonged period of time. I was incredibly frustrated because the one thing we didn't need at that point was more rain and it just kept falling and falling and falling. I just toughed it out and left the plants alone. I even contemplated digging up the tomato plants out of the ground and putting them into containers, but felt like digging plants that large would set them back more than being waterlogged was doing. Eventually they began to recover. It was a very slow recovery, but the plants finally started looking normal again and did produce fruit, albeit much later than usual.

Don't give up on your tomato plants yet. Mine were awful in appearance all of May and most of June (the heavy rain began on April 29th) but finally began to perk up and recover in July. We had great tomatoes from sometime in July through the first frost. It was well worth the frustration and the longer than usual wait. Sometimes the hardest thing is to just do nothing at all, but right now all you can do is wait for the soil to dry out and the plants' condition to improve.

I did have a handful of unplanted tomato seedlings that were backup plants, but didn't want to put them in the ground. Finally I took those round cardboard tubes you use when pouring concrete posts or piers and cut them into 12" sections, placed them on top of the soil in a raised bed, filled them with a soilless mix, and planted the leftover tomato plants in those tubes. So, what I had was mini raised beds, or hills, atop the raised beds. That allowed the tomato plants in the tubes to grow for a few weeks above the grade-level mucky-wet soil. By the time the plant roots were growing down into the soil in the raised bed, it was a lot drier than it had been when I put those cardboard tubes atop the soil. The new plants were so small that by the time they grew and began to bloom and set fruit, the older plants were recovering and setting fruit as well.

If your beloved SunSugars look beyond salvation, you have plenty of time to start more seed for plants that will be producing by August or early September.

Dawn