Stress or disease?

10 years ago

I had these tomatoes outside hardening off since Mother's Day, would take them in at night (others stayed in garage but I didn't have enough room on table for all so some including these Brandywines came back into house). Then the cold snap came, these have been inside since Wed night. Others came in Friday evening and got crowded in with these on my shelves. Not enough grow lights and even in front of window Sat was gloomy and rained all day. Taller ones on top shelf brought in from garage look fine. Others from garage on lower shelves by themselves look fine. But these started looking like this Sunday.

So there are 2 problems. First, the twisting. Then, the drooping discolor end petioles.

I noticed lighter scaly patches on some petioles (various plants, not just these BWs) while they were outside in bright sun, figured it was scald. Now I'm not sure, since some of the Cherokee Purples with this "sunburn" have started dropping their leaves. The CP also have the problem of overwatering though so it may be unrelated.

So, will these BWs and CPs recover once I can get them back outside? I still need to finish hardening them off - none of my plants have been out in the sun since Wed, and these particular plants haven't even experienced any cool nights yet.

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Comments (4)

2ajsmama
Original Author
10 years ago
Can only get 1 photo at a time uploaded from iPad, here is pic of "sunburn"
edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
10 years ago
Don't really see much of a problem, except that they aren't in the ground yet :-)
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Bets
10 years ago
The twisting may just be an attempt to find better light, and the drooping may be related to the fact that they were outside and are now in (and overwatered). I think when you get them back into the hardening off process, they will perk back up.

I can't really see the "scald" well enough to tell if it is sunburn or something else. I've alwsys seen it as whitish patches on leaves, but perhaps I just didn't notice it on stems.

I see that your neck of the woods is supposed to have temps in the 70s for the next few days with some very cool nights, I say get them back outdoors and get them ready to planting. Warmer weather will come.

We've been cold, wet, and windy here too.

Betsy
2ajsmama
Original Author
10 years ago
Had trouble logging in. The plants did look better in the morning, and stayed looking good when I put them out under overcast skies this afternoon. I'll have to go slow with hardening off process again since it is supposed to be in the 80's (near 90) later in the week and they hadn't spent a full day in bright sun and heat before the cold and rain came. But they are all in garage and basement tonight, no more coming in the house under the lights!

Hope I can start planting them this weekend - a week behind schedule.

Going to start hardening off the peppers soon. In the meantime, I planted more lettuce, beets, and got my cukes and radishes in today, squash and beans tomorrow. Carrots are starting to germinate.