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honu_gw

What happened to the leaves?

honu
18 years ago

In late June, my Patio had healthy foliage and blossoms were forming.


Then I was away most of July and part of August, but expected to find lots of tomatoes upon returning. Instead, I found that all the leaves and blossoms had died. However, there are new nice green leaves emerging from the lower stem that look healthy, so I'm very confused. The brown things visible on the new lower leaves are just pieces of potting soil/compost.

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The plants were watered automatically every other morning either by soaker hose or drip irrigator. They are in pots ranging from 5 - 10 gal, with new organic (Gardener & Bloome) potting soil mixed w/ cinder to improve drainage. I applied organic slow release fertilizer (4-6-4)(see link below) according to package directions and added compost.

I only showed photos of my Patio, but all my other container tomatoes similarly had most or all of the leaves die while I was gone. (These include tomatoes developed by the University of Hawaii as well as others like Cherokee purple, Yellow Brandywine, Marianna's Peace, Druzba, Carbon, Yellow Pear, and others.)

Our July-Aug daytime high temperatures have ranged from high 80s to 91. I don't know how much rain we had while I was gone, but typically July and Aug are very sunny, with occasional light rain.

I'm very confused and wonder if this was caused by disease, nutrient problem, or watering problem.

Should I pull out all these plants, even with the new nice green growth, or should I let them continue to grow? If the latter is advised, what can I do to bring them back to health?

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic-Gro fertilizer description

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