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stage_rat

Sudden Tomato Death Syndrome

stage_rat
17 years ago

I have (rather my plants have) a few different symptoms, and I can't determine the cause of any. Thus I have begun use of my new term.

One plant, put in on Saturday, looked like it damped off, only it did so 1 1/2 inch above the soil line. The stem was thinned out in that damping-off way. It was still green. By the way, the seedlings are 6-8 weeks old, and this one was rather small, at 6" tall and a rather thin stem--just less than 1/4 inch.

The plant just across from it disappeared. Yup, it's gone. The ID tag I'd put on the top of it remains, however! I have visions of a mole sucking it underground, then "ptui!" up and out comes the nametag. There's no obvious hole in that area, but it is a few feet away from known "soft ground"

Or could it be the pillbugs? I recently learned on here that they're a tomato pest. I piled all my leaves into this tomato patch last autumn, and I now have 6" of leaves/leaf mold. I figured it would be a good mulch for the maters. I have put a layer of dry leaves near the plants, trying to keep them from touching the stem, but after watering, some of them were touching. When I pulled the leaves away today to examine my other plants, there were a LOT of pillbugs, and one slug nearby. In my other patch, with much less leafage, I found far fewer pillbugs.

One last thing I hope somebody knows how to identify is leaves on seedlings that suddenly sag, wither and die, sometimes without yellowing. The top of the plant remains ok, unless it's a very small plant (like 2 -3 leaves) in which case it dies. I haven't planted the seedlings that have this, since I don't know what the problem is.

I haven't been able to ID this using the problem solvers, but I hope somene knows what's going on!

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