Over fertilization or disease?

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Either side of the broccoli are the tomato rows. One to the left is fine, gets some afternoon shade. The right side is the romas and a black cherry, the tops (growth) is dying/wilting. I planted both rows at the same time. I put a little organic fertilizer deep in the hole and covered with dirt then planted the tomato.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How long have they been planted? Did you do the same thing with fertilizer to both sides? Did the plants come from the same place at the same time?

My first thoughts. How well were they hardened off before you planted them? Was there a difference in hardening off? Did you forget to water the ones on the right when you transplanted them if it is really recent? Are they just too dry? Or too wet? With the ones in the shade doing better I'm wondering about hardening off and them being too dry.

Some kind of disease is a possibility but you would not think it was all of them on one side and none of the others. I would not even think all on one side if it is a disease.

It's possible it's from the fertilizer but if you did the same thing to both sides, I don't think so. I've killed tomato plants before by over-fertilizing, actually with chicken poop heavy straw I used as mulch and got it too close to the plants. I meant to keep it more out in the middle between the rows. But that was only two out of several. They were established and growing when I mulched. Those two just stopped growing and the lower leaves turned yellow first.

How about a real stretch. Did a vole or mole tunnel under them and disturb the roots? I've had that happen to a couple of plants but not to a row.

Guessing that everything else is the same, I keep coming back to the shade making a difference.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i'm thinking shade or dryness too.

i have areas in my main garden that one side will be nice & drainage is good but go about 10 feet over & it seems to not drain as well so i have to be careful when planting on that side. when we've had dry spells i have to water heavily the side that drains well since it can drain off so well.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I bought them at my local colleges annual hort club plant sale. May be I should have hardened them off better, but the ones at the end of the row were mine I started and hardened off myself. It looks like something ate the leaves and tops.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I quit going to my local university hort club plant sale, which was yesterday. The people working the sale usually did not know anything about the varieties they offered and they did not advertise which varieties they would have so I could not do any research ahead of time. That's why I'd mainly go, to try new and strange things. There were even years I struggled to find out when it was. They often didn't even have that information on their web site, the date and time of the sale. One time they called something that looked like a pepper a tomato. I got it and it was a pepper, a nice pepper but still!!! I try to support local and kids but they have to cooperate a little bit.

Something eating the tops is different than them wilting/dying. I'm not exactly sure what you are saying. I have had something, I think a rabbit or rat, go down a row of tomatoes and bite off the top or a leaf, drop it, and go on to the next plant. When I called the extension office they said it could be a beetle. I dusted them with Sevin and it stopped. I don't know if the Sevin had anything to do with it or not. I still think rabbit or rat.

Are stink bugs or some other sucking pests biting the plants and wilting the parts above? It seems to be early and they usually don't bother my tomatoes (maybe because they like my eggplant better) but have you checked for flea beetles or aphids?

Sometimes a cutworm or something will cut them just below the ground. The plant generally wilts really quickly but when you pull on them they come right up. A cutworm is not going to follow a row though.

There is some logical explanation but I don't know what it is. I did clean my glasses but my screen isn't that great. I have a bit of trouble seeing detail.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I did see one top on the other row curling a bit. I'm still leaning toward the fertilizer I put in the hole. May be it wasn't deep enough and has burned the roots. I'm going to dig one up and see what the roots look like.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Here are some pitures of the tomato we dug up. It had roots and we found 2 fat worms around it. A picture of the hole and a picture of the other tomato row with the deforming tops. And last, a picture of the fertilizer which has dried chicken manure in it.

 

[thistlebloom]

I don't think it sounds like it was the fertilizer if you found worms (earthworms I'm assuming?) mixed in with the roots. Worms would be sensitive to over hot fertilizer IMO.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I'm going with 2, 4-D herbicide damage. I've had similar damage a few years in a row. We have large cow pastures behind the garden on my neighbors property. Maybe they sprayed the fence line and I had some carry over by the wind. I'm replanting next week.