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| I am so bummed!! Feeling really really defeated. This is my 13th year growing tomatoes. Every year I grow between 12 and 15 heirloom tomato plants and every year there comes a point where my plants start turning yellow and dying or just withering and dying. Every year I try and diagnose what the problem is and try a different method to keep it from happening. I live in Los Angeles and have a small plot of land on which to grow. It is a long stretch along the side of the house. It is the only usable land on the property for growing. This year I have 13 plants...10 in ground and 3 in containers. I began treating them when I planted out in March with a weekly rotation of sprays. Copper fungicide one week, then a mix of Actinovate and Excel-LG the next, and sprayed diligently every week. I also gave them a root soak with the Actinovate when I planted to help inoculate them. The plants were looking amazing!!! They were about 8 feet tall and all producing fruit. Fruits just started ripening over the past couple of weeks and then...BOOM!! Plants start falling apart. Some are yellowing from the lower leaves up with brown spots. Some are just withering and drying up from the lower leaves up. It is happening to both the plants in ground and containers. The containers are also new this year. I can't figure out what is causing this and what to do, if anything. At the rate that they are decaying, I figure I might have a month left before they are all destroyed. As I said....I'm so bummed. I feel like giving up on this whole gardening thing. I thought I was doing so well this year protecting them. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks Don
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| First, prune the wilted and yellow leaves. They will not get better and are not making food for the plant. How is your sun exposure along that wall? Are they getting enough light? How are you watering? Try watering the ground only so you don't splash the leaves. I noticed in one photo that there was a little screened vent by the plant. If this is a garage vent, they may be getting car exhaust. It's hard to grow the perfect tomato plant, but that doesn't mean that you can't get some tasty fruit. BTW, heirlooms are generally not disease resistant, so you may want to try some tomatoes that have codes like VFF or VFT. Large Fruit Varieties Park's Whopper Improved VFNT Giant Beefsteaks Varieties Big Beef VFNT Small Fruit Varieties Sweet Chelsea VFNT |
Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato problem solver
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| Thanks LG...I did prune the lower leaves after I took the pic. But I prune and then within a couple of days there is more wilt and more yellowing. The vent you see is just a crawl space under the house....no exhaust. I have been very careful to water without splashing leaves....what's puzzling me is that there seem to be 2 different things happening and they seem systemic as they're starting from the lower leaves and traveling upward. I'm also thinking that it's some kind of fungal thing affecting them, but I've been so diligent with spraying. Can anyone speak to the effectiveness of the products I've been using, ie. Copper fungicide, Actinovate and ExelLG. Thank you for your non-heirloom recommendations. I do really love my heirlooms for their exquisite flavor profiles, but maybe my growing environment just can't handle their particular sensitivities. |
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| Looks like either fusarium or verticillium wilt. Typically yellowing and dying from the bottom up. I've had it before. Personally I use Daconil as a fungicide, but not sure if it stops it or prevents it all the time. I would just suggest removing all the affected leaves and hope for the best. Sometimes it stops and the plant recovers a little. |
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| Might be tomato russet mites. |
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| Root knot nematodes (RKN) are rather common in SoCal. So have you ever dug up a failing plant to see what the roots look like? Will be very obvious nodules of varying sizes on the roots. (Don't bother asking how I know that.) If RKN are the reason for failing plants, you should start with transplants rather than seed directly. And those transplants should have an "N" following their cultivar name. See this from UC: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7489.html Jean who gardened in Long Beach CA for 30-some years. And yes, I had RKN. |
Here is a link that might be useful: RKN
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| Hi Don, sorry to hear that. I'm in LA area, so I know it was really hot the last few days. I'd do a "spider mites test" I learned from San Gabriel Nursery. First bring a leave inside, use a ball point pen to shake it over a white paper, if you see red dots moving on the paper, draw a dime size circle around it, the red dot will move a lot but always stay inside the circle. My setup is similar to yours, year after year, it's always spider mites that draws my tomato season to an end. |
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| Spider mites aren't red during the growing season. |
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| I'm having the EXACT same problems with my 4 plants, and I'm also in LA. Am feeling so defeated. |
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| ladon Did you ever determine it was spider mites? I've Spider mites thrive in hot, dry situations, so I've been I know, you're not supposed to get the leaves wet. But #1, it washes off virus spores that cause disease and |
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- Posted by donnamarienj Zone 6b NENJ (My Page) on Tue, Jul 2, 13 at 20:30
| I often have the same problem. Once, I was so upset that I took a leaf cutting to the local Rutgers Master Gardeners for a diagnosis. I forget what they told me exactly, but I remember them saying blight. When I discussed it with the people on another forum, most of them disagreed with their diagnosis. I never did get a handle on what it is/was, or how to deal with it, I just put up with it. They never died, but were pitiful to look at! |
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| I'm nowhere near an expert on tomatoes, but could they be using up all the nutrients in your soil and need fertilizer? Just a thought.... |
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| My msg posted twice. Sometimes that happens and I don't know why. Sorry about that. |
This post was edited by gjshawk on Wed, Jul 3, 13 at 13:31
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| Ok, just had another thought. Perhaps there is something under your soil that is killing your plants once the roots reach a certain depth? You say the same thing happens every year. Sometimes city soil is contaminated, and is it possible that you have some kind of contamination under where you plant? |
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- Posted by suncitylinda 9A (My Page) on Thu, Jul 4, 13 at 11:48
| The kind of heat we have had recently is really hard on tomatoes, although in LA it has not been as brutal as out here in the inland SoCal valleys. I have had Tomato Russet Mites which are not visible to the naked eye; a goggle search will turn up good info and pix of symptoms. Mites are a common pest here. I too hose down my plants. We have just been through 100+ temps for over a week so unless it is humid I cool them off daily. If you have one of the soil born wilts, you might want to try the grafted plants. Many who experience high loss from soil born wits are reporting very good results. |
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| HERE IS A SUGGESTIO: Foliar feed/spray your plants with Epson Salt(Magnesium sulfate), 2 TBLSP per gallon. This is not going to harm but chances are that it might help. One of the causes of yellowing is said to be magnesium., the other in Nitrogen. |
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- Posted by phyllisb2008 8 DFW (pb_hall@att.net) on Thu, Jul 4, 13 at 14:13
| I live in Dallas and I've been gardening for many years and have never had this problem but this year has been a disaster. I also have tried several things and nothing seemed to help I'm getting ready to pull them up and burn. I also did a Pineapple plant this year and it has never even bloomed and I've had a couple that looks like the flowers are being eaten. Maybe next year will be normal |
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| "I know, you're not supposed to get the leaves wet." Plain water does not harm tomato leaves or plants. The recommendation not to get the leaves wet comes from avoiding splash back that might carry soil born diseases. I watered for many years with an overhead sprinkler and never had any more of a problem with diseases than I have now that I drip irrigate. If wetting the leaves were a problem, nurseries would not be able to grow and sell tomato plants because 99% of them overhead water everything in their greenhouses. It would be very difficult to set up a drip system that would not miss some of the tomatoes in cell packs. Now as for Don's issue: Perhaps gjshawk is right and there is somehing under the soil that affects the plants when they get large enough to reach it. Have you checked to see if you have a RKN problem? Are your three plants in containers exhibiting the same problems? If they do, that would seem to rule out soil bourne issues (provided you have not used garden soil in the containers and they are isolated from it so we can rule out RKN). You know the usual questions, but specifically what is your watering schedule and how/what do you feed the plants? Most importantly, what color is your shovel handle? (Just kidding on that.) Betsy |
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- Posted by pkapeckopickldpepprz z9 a/b FL (My Page) on Thu, Jul 4, 13 at 15:47
| Pics in the OP looks like the same problems I get with my tomatoes this time of year and I am in Florida. I actually came here for this very question. I am thinking maybe the influx of rain causes this, but even in years past (I have grown tomatoes at least for the past 20 years) with no a huge amount of rain, tomatoes seem to wither and die after the first late spring harvest. What is this and why aren't tomatoes thriving from June to September. The hotter the better right? |
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| I think you've got a wilt - fusarium or verticulum. I have slowly gotten fusarium in my raised community garden plot. Of course, 3 year rotation is recommended for tomatoes, but this is not an option for my bed. I'm attempting a 3-pronged approach this upcoming year. I'm going to try some hybrids (gasp!) that are resistant to wilts (look for "F" and "V" after the variety name. I'm also grafting some heirlooms on to resistant rootstock. We'll see how this works out. Finally, I'm going to do an Actinovate spray on my seedlings and a soil drench on my bed. I love my heirlooms and have started several varieties from seed over the past several years. Hopefully, I can still produce some in the future. Who knows, maybe the hybrids will be good also! |
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- Posted by beeman_gardener 5 (My Page) on Wed, Feb 12, 14 at 17:15
| You don't say what the roots look like when you pull them out. I have similar results, turns out my problem is double barrelled, Corky Root Rot and Verticillium wilt. Last year I tried growing just one Big beef in a container, no soil out of the garden. Best ever, ended up over 6 feet tall and loaded with fruit, no signs of any wilts. This coming season I'm setting up "Alaska Grow buckets" for my greenhouse, garden soil free. Then I'm going to try grafting to Root Rot resistant stock for the regular garden. I'm determined to grow Toms this year after 5 years of trying to find the answer to poor growth. Wish me luck. |
Here is a link that might be useful: You might find this useful
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- Posted by suncitylinda 9A (My Page) on Thu, Feb 13, 14 at 12:44
| Hope it is a better year for you! Having had Tomato Russet Mites, I don't think they are the problem, at least not primary. Maybe spider mites. When things start to go bad, multiple things can and do happen. I ALWAYS grow at least a few hybrids with strong disease resistance, Like Big Beef. |
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| I'm going out on a limb here, which in my case, is covered in snow! It kills me to read people are experiencing 100 degree weather! Anyways, I noticed that your plants are close to your wall which is white. I'm wondering if it's due to excessive heat reflected from the house onto the plants. I also have a section of garden that borders my house, also white stucco, and have witness some burning from the heat when the plants are touching the walls. It's just one variable amongst many possibilities. |
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| Too little too late, folks; Those tomatoes are history now (June 2013) But the OP never reported back as what happened finally. |
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