I planted a tomato recently and it is my very first time. I was really pleased with it's progess until this evening. Just a couple of days ago it started flowering and I was just thinking of making spaghetti bologness with it! It looks tired! ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) I nearly went into a panic attack when I saw the plant limping and wanted to cut off all the affected leaves. No maybe I should just spray it with something ...... ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) The leaves is so limpy just like as though it had lost all it's juices ... could it be attacked by vegan vampires? HELP!! Anyway I inspect it for bugs but I couldn't see any, maybe I did not look hard enough with my glasses on and a magnifying glass. Could something is attacking it's roots like a beetle grub? No I have not done anything yet just keeping my fingers crossed until I can get some advice on what is the probable cause and remedies.
KK, put some shade over it for a few days and make sure it is not dry. If it is not dry don't water it, either. Just keep an eye on it for now. Hopefully you don't have a virus in it. How hot is it there? Heatstress sometimes causes the plant to wilt down some. good luck!
HELP!! It was very healthy yesterday .... OH! Poor Baby! I agree shade and lots of water. Did you fill the hole with water before you put his little feet in there????? Barb in Pa.
yep as carolyn says, check how the soil is if its too dry water, if its too wet could be just as bad. try to water in the morning. once the leaves come back and they should give it a bit of feed.
Thanks Carolyn, I am not a good shade person because I am kind of a lazy doing that. Anyway today nature help me out cause it was a heavy overcast day with the sun playing peek-a-boo so it was quite a cool day today. Normally the temperature nowadays is about 30°C~32°C because it is the raining season. Heavy Cloud Cover ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) As for the water part, I am very confident that the ground is just moist enough even after a heavy downpour. You are right, it is heat stress because it was more perky this morning. Thanks for helping to take a load off. Waretrop, no I did not fill the hole with water before I put it's little twinkies in it but I make sure that it is really moist. Everything was great until yesterday. It drizzle a little yesterday and the sun was really piercing after that .... I guess that was when it started. Thanks for your valuable opinion and I am working on that. Thanks Danjensen, I will definitely give it a treat once it pull through. Today based on the invaluable information I got from Carolyn, Waretrop and Danjensen, I started a rehalibation program for my poor tom. At 7:30 am it looks much more perky than it was yesterday so confirmed that it was heat stress. At 7:30am ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) But the damaged was already done by the extreme piercing sun yesterday after the light shower. Casualty ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Some of the leaves did not recover and I guess they are done for. If they are really done for I guess I'll have to remove them tomorrow. I gave it it's usual morning drink and was quite happy to see that it seems to have recovered. The weather was quite cool today with heavy cloud cover but no rain. The sun only comes out occasionally and it was soft. At about 11:00am, I decided to check on it after our weekly marketing trip to the supermart and I was surprised to find it limpy again. Limpy at 11:00am ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) The weather was cool and the sun was occassional hmmm..... decided to put a mist spray to further help it recover. 1:00pm, Slightly Better? ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Well at 1:00 pm it looks slightly better and I gave it another mist spray and a small drink. I check on it every 2 hours and gave it a mist spray in place of the shade. It was not a sunny day and by evening it looks like it did not get any worse. Let's hope tomorrow it would be it old self again!
just another thought you might want to check is how windy the spot is you have it planted. If your getting wind blowing over the pant that could be helping to remove the water from the leaves. another thing you might want to check is have you picked out the suckers on your main stem? these will produce a lot of leaves which will suck water from the main stem. pinching them out will help keep the water in the main leaves. good luck with your toms
Thanks Danjensen, picking the suckers from the main stem is a great idea and that will be in my to do list today. The plant is not located in a windy area so I guess it is not the wind doing. Today weather is kind of a hot and sunny and I am not pampering it no more. I want to know it it can grow normally in this weather condition or not .... if it is not meant not to be be then it is not meant to be. Once I can get a conclusion, I guess I'll try some of those hybrid seeds from the seed supplier.
Hiyah KK-- Sorry to hear about your limp toms. You know, I grow my toms under glass and sometimes the temps in the greenhouse reach 40-50°C in there (even with windows painted white and dooe and a couple of windows out. My point is that some times, i must water the toms more than once a day. The sun and heat can make leaves loose an enormous amount of water. Something that I wanted to comment on-- T%^he third piccie up from the bottom. The caption was, "casualty". I see a large leaf with brown and yellow spots there. The leaf I am speaking of is all the way over to the left of the picture. I see brown, crispy-looking spots as well as some yellowish ones. You know mate, I don't like the looks of that. I would suggest that you remove that leaf, because the spots resemble Phytoththora...and also Septoria is a possible cause. I am hoping that you do not have the former, because it can be lethal to your plant...the second you can deal with more easily. Is this the only leaf that is looking this way? Good luck, KK. p.s. When you remove the leaf(s) do it on a dry, sunny day, not a rainy or moist one.
Sounds like your watering is maybe not getting deep enough and is drying out too quickly. That plus heat and high humidity can cause this reaction. Its kind of like steaming them. Try watering deeply then leave it alone a while. The top of the ground is not what you need to concentrate on,, its the deeper root system. Just get an old umbrella and shade it some during the hottest part of the day.
Hi Sojerd, thanks for your observation. Yes I did noticed that your toms were planted in a green house and the temperature at times is higher the temperature we have here. This is the actual confusing part for me until yesterday evening. It was growing beautifully and it just start to deteriorate with no apparent reason which got me real confused. As for the leaf in question, yes it is the only leaf that is like that. Anyway yesterday evening I had yanked out the whole plant to do a post mortem on it and found the real cause of why the plant was drying up. Thanks Mart, the thing is that it was doing fine come shine or rain and it seems to just gave up. Yesterday was another beautiful cool day but it remained limpy and so I decided to yank it out carefully to determine the cause. Looks like it is over! ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) This is how the plant looks like yesterday evening even though it had been a beautiful cool day so I decided to dig it up to examine the roots for damages. It slumped immediately! ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Onced I removed the cage, it slumped to this position immediately. It is strange to see a plant slumped to this position immediately when the support was removed, I expected the upper parts to droop first. The roots were fine. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Anyway I proceeded to loosening up the earth to uproot the plant for a root inspection. The roots were nice and healthy but while holding on the the stem to flush the roots, I felt a cracked line close to the base of the stem. Damaged Area. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) I gave the bend test at the point where I felt the crack line and the result clearly shows that the main stem is damaged. Doing the same bend test on the other parts of the stems did cause it to break up like the area where it was damaged. So now the caused is confirmed that the cause is a damaged main stem, I am ready to start again but the question is now what causes the damage? Hmmm .......
KK, so sorry the tomato plant didn't make it, but at least you have learned a lot about tomato growing in the process. The cracked stem could be due to wind damage, excess leafy growth (top heavy before the main stem catches up with the foliage), or an animal. Wind damage can be prevented by putting a shield (cardboard, shade cloth, even part of an old sheet stretched between two poles) on side of the prevailing wind. Excess foliage can be removed by suckering or even topping the plant. Animal damage is unlikely, but I've had rabbits and coyotes run through the garden and break off limbs or flatten young plants. I won't describe the havoc two hens can cause! Do try again. That plant looked like it was going to give you tomatoes before it broke.
KK, I had a row of 25 plants this summer and 2 of them developed a fungal disease inside of the main stem (and died). I don't think it was that there was any previous damage to the stem, but they were, perhaps, a weak or less resistant plant than the rest of them to an attack from mother nature. Give it another try and keep us informed. Tomatoes also can be planted very deep when you transplant them. We use a narrow bladed shovel and drop our toms in to the first set or perhaps even 2nd set of leaves if they are tall enough. the stem will develop roots where ever it touches soil. It's too bad, your plant was looking great.
i agree with carolyn it looks like it wasn't planted deep enough looking at the root ball. Did exactly the same my first year. I was amazed at how deep you can plant them, and the amount of roots it puts out from the main stem. also are you direct sowing or transplanting? at least the good news is its not the climate and you should be able to grow more toms.
I sure learn alot from this lone plant Marlingardener and I am sure there is lots more to learn. My next attempt is coming real soon that is when we have fresh tomatos from the supermart. With more confidence now I am going for at least more than one plant. Thanks for the tips and I am sure to keep it in mine during my next planting. Carolyn, I will be sure to plant them as deep as I can for my next set of toms. Thanks. Thanks Danjensen, yes the good news is indeed not the climate. I transplanted them and thinned it out to a single plant remaining. My next planting will also be transplant and I'll make sure they are planted as deep as possible.
