Vegetable - Tomato (page 1)
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  (April) A couple of years ago my wife and I went back to our family heritage and put in a small vegetable and flower garden in our back yard. It has been and is wonderful therapy for us. Plus we really enjoy the fresh veggies. Therein lies the problem. For the last two years we have grown everything successfully except tomatoes, which is one of our favorites. I get good young plants, get them started and they grow great. They start putting on blooms and then tomatoes and then they start dying. The vines die but the green tomatoes stay green. But no more blooms. The plant just gets brown and dies. I did some research on this. What I found is that it was some kind of fungus killing the tomato plants. I cannot find anything to put in the garden to kill the fungus. The only info. I found said you have to "steam" clean the soil to get rid of it. What can I put in the garden to get rid of the fungus so we can plant our tomato plants? If there isn't any treatment I guess I'll have to put the tomatoes somewhere else. But, I tried that and the fungus has spread to the new plot. Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.

  It sounds like you have one of the tomato wilts, which is a soil borne disease which can be tough to eradicate. Don't plant in the same spot for three years unless you sterilize it. Plant in virgin soil, and lightly wrap the stem of your tomatoes with aluminum foil--about a three inch strip--half in the ground and half out of the ground. This can buffer the stem from the splashing soil, which is how the disease enters the plant. Mulch the plants after planting too. Look for varieties that have a VF following their name. This means they are resistant to Verticillium and fusarium wilt. In the area where the disease has already hit, this summer during July and August, solarize the soil. Till it deeply and completely saturate it with water. Then cover with clear plastic and tightly pin it down. This should generate enough heat to kill out the disease organisms. Be sure you don't keep spreading the problems with your tiller or shovels--clean them well. If you get the problem again, despite this, take a plant sample to your county extension office, and the disease lab can accurately test which problem you have.

  (June) I have a tomato plant in a pot in by backyard. A friend gave it to me when it was still a tiny plant , and now it's about 3 feet tall. It has several tomatoes beginning to grow but I just noticed today that the leaves are starting to turn brown. The pot I have it in is sort of small but it drains well. I used some miracle grow in a gallon of water and watered it last week and then I did it again this week. Is Miracle Grow killing my plant?

  Water soluble fertilizers like Miracle Gro should not harm the plant as long as you are mixing it according to label instructions. If you mix it too strongly, it can burn the leaves. I would consider moving the plant to a larger container, if you feel you can do so without losing your tomatoes. Large plants in small pots will need watering two to three times a day when the temperatures heat up. And tomatoes need at least 6 hours of sunlight -- so that makes it even hotter. To make it easier on yourself, consider at least a five gallon pot. Regular fertilization is necessary since frequent watering leaches out the nutrients.

  (June) I have planted tomatoes in the same bed two years in a row. My plants bloom and the blooms stay on the vines until they die, but no tomatoes ever appear. I have something like 10 trees in my back yard, so my tomatoes only get around 2 or 3 hours of sun from the west a day.

  Tomatoes need a minimum of six hours a day to produce a tomato-more sunlight would be even better. I am surprised you even see a bloom with only two to three hours of sunlight. Consider limbing up a few trees, or moving your tomatoes to a different location.

  (June) My tomato plants are not producing. They came up and are now about 3 feet tall. They produced many flowers which fell off without any fruit being produced. This occurred a couple of weeks ago when we had our first heavy rain. I had noticed a few small tomatoes but they have disappeared. We had many black birds around also at that time. Is it possible they ate them?

  If you had small fruits and they are gone, something ate them -- birds or squirrels, etc. Some people have complained of poor pollination this year. Lack of fruit set in full sun plants can occur with too much nitrogen, hotter than normal days or cooler than normal nights. I think the heavy rains can also be a part of the problem. Tomato flowers are only viable one day and if it rains the whole day, that can interfere with fruit set. We will probably be asking for rain in a month, but for now, I wish it would slow down a bit!

  (July) Here in Hot Springs our tomato plants are five feet high but have only 3 to 5 small fruit. Why?

  Are the plants blooming? Tomatoes need a minimum of six hours of sunlight a day to set fruit. The plants will grow quite nicely in less light, but fruit set will be limited. The flowers on tomatoes are self-fruitful -- you don't need bees to pollinate them. When temperatures get extremely hot -- daytime temps above 90 and nighttime temps staying above 70, some varieties will slow down in their fruit set as well. Keep them mulched, watered and lightly fertilized. Once the temperatures cool off, you should see a rebound in fruiting, provided they get ample sunlight.

  (July) I am having a problem with my tomatoes. The leaves on my tomatoes are turning yellow near the ground. I think they may have a fungus and understand it may be controlled by applying a fungicide. I am assuming the fungus is probably in the ground. How do I kill the fungus in the soil?

  There are numerous tomato diseases that can cause yellowing beginning on the bottom and working their way up. Often, once it has started, applying fungicides may be a futile effort. There are numerous schools of thought about fungicide sprays for tomato blight. If it is a problem every year, you may want to start the season using a preventative treatment. Maneb or Daconil (Bravo) are two products that can be used. It is usually easier to prevent problems versus curing them. You will still be able to harvest a good crop of tomatoes for months with the blight. You are correct that the disease is soil-born. For that reason we do recommend crop rotation -- not planting in the same spot for at least 3 years. If the plants totally die out, you can also solarize the soil. In July and August, remove the plants and vegetation, till the soil then wet it thoroughly. Cover with clear plastic and leave the plastic covering in place for a minimum of six weeks. This should generate enough heat to kill out the disease organisms, as well as weed seeds.

  (July) In your article in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, you said you could root the tomato suckers for late tomatoes. How do I do that? Do I just stick the suckers in the ground or do I place them in water?

  Take the suckers and root them in soil, not water. You will need to mulch and monitor water needs if you do it in the ground, or you can pot them up for closer care until they are rooted. Then plant them in the garden. Moisture will be critical to root them, but don't drown them either.

  (August) I have two problems with my tomatoes. First, around the 1st of June, the plants began to turn brown at the bottom and worked up to the top, second, for the last two weeks as the tomatoes ripened, they split open and are not edible. They were heavily fertilized during their first month of planting and get plenty of water. The plants are seven feet tall and about five feet across and have been and still are loaded with tomatoes. We have had an excellent crop but they are the largest plants that I have ever seen. I might add that they are in a rose bed and are exposed to Funginex spray. Any idea as to why they are splitting and why they turned brown?

  Your tomatoes have two physiological problems, not diseases. The first one is blossom end rot. It is a calcium deficiency, caused by fluctuation of moisture levels. We often see a huge amount of blossom end rot when we have a heavy rain following a dry period. The best you can do for this problem is to add a little lime to the planting soil and mulch the plants to help keep the soil as uniformly moist as possible. Don’t overdo it with fertility. The problem you are now having with cracking is also a moisture problem. When tomatoes reach a mature fruit size, the outer skin begins to thicken. If they get a lot of water after this stage, they try to grow some more, and the outer skin cracks. Try to keep moisture levels as constant as possible -- avoid huge swings -- from dry to wet. It doesn't hurt the fruit to eat it after cracking, but it can cause the fruits to decay more quickly. Some varieties are more susceptible to cracking than others -- especially the larger fruited varieties. I am concerned with their exposure to Funginex, because unless you have a new product that specifically lists edibles, Funginex is only labeled for ornamentals. You should not be spraying anything edible unless the pesticide is labeled for their use. Remember, the label is the law. Try to separate edibles from ornamentals that need spraying.

  (August) I planted Early Girl, Better Boy, and Roma tomatoes this season. Within the last month they have had their leaves and stems turn brown and dry up. It starts on the bottom leaves and moves up the plant. I had the same problem last year so I planted in a different location this year. In the fall they start to come back and I get a few more tomatoes before frost. Can you help identify this problem and the solution?

  There are numerous tomato diseases that cause this "firing" up from the bottom. Septoria leaf spot, early blight and late blight can all cause this. Rotation is a good thing, but the diseases can still occur. Some tomato growers start a preventative spray program at planting, using a fungicide such as Daconil or Maneb. Others simply harvest as long as they can. You can also replant with new plants, or take suckers from your existing plants to get tomato plants to carry you through frost.

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