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Sat, Jun 1, 13 at 0:56
| I came home today to find the tops of several of my tomato plants shriveled as though they were broken off. The bottom of the plants look fine. Some plants have more damage than others and some have none at all. I don't know if this is a watering issue or disease. It does not seem to be physical damage. I have not spayed any chemicals. Any ideas of what happened? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by Whosurtomato 6a Southern IN (My Page) on Sat, Jun 1, 13 at 8:02
| Wow, that does not look good. How long have they been put out? They look like they might be in containers? If so is the drainage adequate? Overall they look very healthy except for the tops. This would lead me to believe it might be some kind of insect damage like aphids or some other sucking insect. I would spray them with whatever you might have for these and maybe for disease as well. Hopefully others have seen this before. |
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| Herbicide damage. There are tons of discussions here about it. Have your neighbors been spraying? Remember it can travel for some distance (up to half a mile). They may grow out of it |
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- Posted by Whosurtomato 6a Southern IN (My Page) on Sat, Jun 1, 13 at 10:17
| Herbicide could be a good call. I think sometimes it can be used as a catch all, but it does have that appearance. If someone had sprayed and you were downwind you might have noticed the odor as it can persist for a few days. |
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- Posted by suncitylinda 9A SoCal Inland (My Page) on Sat, Jun 1, 13 at 10:49
| I have had herbicide spray from neighbors before. I don't recall the tops of my plants withering like that. the growing tips became stunted and curled with small leaves. Withering tops happened several times to one of my plants this year. I saw a discussion about it somewhere that attributed it to very rapid growth don't know if that's true or not. I had a lot of hot windy weather when it happened to me. |
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| My wife waters by hand which I feel believe tends towards shallow watering. I like to use the drip system we have but I am thinking maybe I didn't increase the time enough to keep up with their growth. My wife watered that morning and said they were fine. I wondered if the plants could have taken up that water and used it up. The lower parts of the plant got water but the tops got short changed because the water was used up before it flowed all the way to the top. They are all side by side in a 30 ft growing bed. Some have worse damage, some have none. It was a hotter day also. This morning the wilted parts seemed to have progressed more towards crispy dead, but it hasn't spread any. Also today one plant has a sickly look with leaf curl all over it. I had a lot of that last year. They never did well once they got that look. |
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| As I look closer at the photos I am think maybe it is some sort of herbicide drift. In this photo it shows some leafs dead and a little tiny one on the same leaf still fine. One leaf dead and the one next to it fine. One half of a leaf shriveled and dead the other half fine. I can't imagine any way that could be caused by lack of water/heat. Can you? |
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| I had cherry tomatoes that looked similar to that (limp leaves). I thought it was a watering problem (and in the past it had been, especially with container plants), but the problem seems to be stress from too much sunlight/heat. I added some shade using cardboard and the plant finally perked right up. |
This post was edited by oilrigg on Sat, Jun 1, 13 at 17:07
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| The curled leaves in the final image look crispy. Are they? If so, they ran short of water during the day. During excessive heat, plants can't take up sufficient water to avoid wilting even if the soil/potting mix is thoroughly moist. Temporary shade (as mentioned in the previous post) during a hot spell slows water use by the plant as well as evaporation from the soil/potting mix. |
This post was edited by jean001a on Sun, Jun 2, 13 at 2:19
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- Posted by DownBabylon none (My Page) on Sun, Jun 2, 13 at 2:48
| I agree with the heat/wilt diagnosis, though there's no way to be sure. Herbicide tends to kill entire plants in the sections of a garden closest to the place it drifted from, not just the tops of a few scattered plants. Cut off the affected parts of the plant. If it is heat/wilt, then you probably have (as suggested) a rooting problem. The plants just aren't getting enough water to their tops. And yes, giving them a little shade can help. But you really shouldn't have to do that with established tomato plants. Make sure you aren't over-watering or over fertilizing. Tip dieback can also be caused by diseases, but in the picture the rest of the plants look healthy, so I doubt that's your issue. |
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