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tomato problems
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Posted by marz vic (My Page) on Fri, Mar 3, 06 at 22:57
Hi, This year was really bad for my tomato's. Plants started off really well growing tall and green. Once fruit started to set the lower leaves started to brown, this gradually travelled up the entire tree until all brown and shrivelled. Still produced some tomatos but very dissapointing. Got my seeds from a friend, his tomatos were fantastic, lush plants with noce clean fruit. He said that either I put too much manure or soil ph was off.
Any advise would be appreciated?? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: tomato problems
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- Posted by finbar Central Italy (My Page) on
Sat, Mar 4, 06 at 2:21
| Hi marz. Sounds more disease-related than soil-related, but let's look at the soil first. How did you prep the soil? How fresh was any manure you used? What else did you use? Toms are also fairly tolerant pH-wise. You'd have to a decent imbalance to strike problems. The description, though, fits any number of diseases. How quickly did the process happen? Can you recall how the problem first manifested itself on the leaves? Spots? Marks? Were the stems affected? |
RE: tomato problems
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- Posted by marz vic (My Page) on
Sat, Mar 4, 06 at 17:17
| Thanks for your reply. Didn't do much in terms of soil prep. left the bed empty over winter. However, I did use a combination of chicken / sheep / cow manure a few weeks before planting but away from seedlings. The chicken manure was straight out of the coup (but dry). The problem started from ground up and mostly on leaves, but I did notice the stems go a brown colour as well. Some leaves would just dry up around the edges first then continue inwards. Other leaves would go yellow first then brown (no real spots). The whole process took about 6-8 weeks, I am still picking tomatos while the whole plant is brown/dry. I also noticed the fruit have some blotchy yellow marks on them. I've heard complaints similar to mine from friends who live here in Melbourne. |
RE: tomato problems
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| Sounds like a bit of late blight - it seems to have been happening to a lot of people. It's been one of those years I suspect. I've had mild attacks of it, on particular species - chiefly the potato leafed varieties. As the nights start to cool your toms will finish off - there's nothing wrong with those that are growinfg on the brittle stems bu don;t use hem for seed, as the blight can pass on through the seeds and destroy any volunteers. Your soil might have been a bit over-manured - try planting greens there over winter to utilise some of the manure and balance your soil. Chicken manure is best composted for about a year before using it. It's all a learning curve and no two years will be the same. |
RE: tomato problems
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The yellow blotches on the fruit almost certainly mean disease. The most common are fungal diseases like early blight. If you can, try planting the toms somewhere else for the next few seasons. If that's not possible, turn the soil to bury any fungal spores that may still be hanging around.
And mulch, mulch, mulch. |
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