All of my tomato plants are coming down with this problem.
What is it?

What can I do to get rid of it?


I don't know how to put a picture in here.

How do you do it?

Mary Lou

Can you at least describe the problem?

Since the picture does not exist on a public server I guess I can't get it here.

The leaves are turning yellow and dying.

I have been using corn meal juice spiced with some powdered milk weekly as a soil drench.

I have fed them cottonseed meal, bone meal, green sand weekly.

I have sprayed them with compost tea.

I have even done a "tomato-get-well" dance.

Mary Lou

I love that dance.

Were they looking good before all the rain started? It could be just too much rain and now they have a little fungal issue. Don't panic. I assume they are in a bed with really good drainage and they get plenty of sun?

Also, take a super close look at the leaves and make sure you don't see any signs of a pest.

BTW - the way I post a link to my images:

go to a free website like www.ofoto.com and upload the images. It's simple and free. BE SURE and click on the box that says "do not require my friends to log in, to see this album" or something like that.

once you've got your images in an album, click on "share your album" and send it to yourself. Then go to your email and open the message you just sent to yourself. You'll see a long URL listed that you can copy and paste on this website.

Hope that was clear..

Quit using all those soil amendments weekly; you are overdoing it. Use sprays like the cornmeal juice, garlic juice sprays, milk, etc. It sounds like you are overstimulating the soil but not protecting the plant. The soil is too wet with all the rain & you are making it worse by drenching the soil.

Thanks to SandiH I found a public server to upload the picture to.

You can see it at:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=7ee ... &y=-r57vs7

Since Central Texas is not known for well draining soil, I have a raised bed with sandy loam that I planted some tomato plants in. Another circular bed about 18 inches high made from bricks that contains only 1 tomato plant (the picture). I have other tomato plants in large pots. They all have the crud.

There were a few yellow leaves before the rain.

I have found a little worm or two crunching a few leaves but I don't think they were causing this problem. I dispatched them...

One of the plants looks like it is not going to survive. All the rest are getting worse everyday.

Any ideas?

Craig,

The raised bed is made of stacked concrete blocks. No mortar. Water runs out if it gets too wet. And yes, I piled the sandy loam on top of the local clay. I did not break up the interface between the two soils. Two tomato plants are planted in this bed (5 X 12) along with corn, onions.

The picture is of the plant in the circular bed; stacked bricks about 4 feet in diameter 18 inches high.

Five other plants are in large pots. They sit on 2 boards so as to not block the drain. Two of these I bought as plants from the nursery. The other 3 are from seed that I started.

The plants in the large bed and the circular bed are doing better than the plants in the pots; larger and less sick.

Even before they got sick I realized that either they need a larger area for their roots or they need access to the ground. (Experiments are educational). Now, to get a really big pot...


I don't think any of them are getting water logged as 1 person suggested.

What is moldboard plowing?

Do you have any ideas on how to break up the interface between the local clay and the sandy loam that I hauled in? I am planning another raised bed and if this is the problem I would like to fix it.

Please do not tell me to just add ammendments to the local clay till I have it turned into a decent garden: I am 71 years old. I did the "add ammendments" to my garden in Southern Calif. for 30 years and had a good garden when I left there... sigh

Mary Lou

I have the same problem with the leaves on my tomatoes turning yellow with brown splotches. I sprayed them with Garret Juice, garlic pepper tea, and potassium bicarbonate.

Any ideas? They are loaded with tomatoes and I dont' want to lose the plants.

Kathy

Well, mine started doing the same thing the other day. I sorayed it w/ Bioform and Potassium Bicarb. I plan on doing that every 3 or 4 days if it doesn't rain. I'm hoping that once the rain is gone for the summer, this fungal-related problem will clear up.

Will they live and come out again? I had this last year so I treated my soil with corn gluten meal hoping it would kill the fungus. Any other suggestions?

Kathy

Here is a picture of the damage. I am just sick about this. I have 28 tomato plants and don't want to lose them all.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Kathy

They just don't like all of this rain and wet foliage. If they aren't draining, that is another strike against them.

Some years are just like this. Be patient, they're bound to be leggy and all leaves also, due to the rain. I didn't get a garden put in yet, the tiller was in the shop a lot longer than I planned. I'll be doing the bed prep for a fall garden. If your plants die off, you may need to think along those lines also.

Good luck!

Northwesterner

Well, After bugging all the nurseries around here back in June I got a reading on my tomato problem: SPIDER MITES! I bought one of those little sprayers for $20. at Home Depot and sprayed the heck out of the plants every week with liquid seaweed to kill the spider mites; and did a soil drench with corn meal juice laced with powderded milk as a fungal and end rot prevention.

So far so good! I am lucky in that they are all in raised beds and any extra water from all the rain just runs out.

The plants have made a comeback and I am eating tomatoes again.

So much to learn...

Mary Lou

Now that I have the spider mite problem identified and under control I have found 2 bigger bugs on my tomatoes. You can see pictures of them here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?=7eeb ... 0&y=leburx

Any ideas on how to control these guys??