Tomato gurus I'm desperate

[Beekissed]

I have two more this morning..... Previously thriving plants with fruit on them, green and strong, wilted overnight. No discoloration, no curling of the leaves....look almost like they need water badly but they are getting watered just like the other plants with a slow seep hose and they are mulched well.

The rest of my plants are doing very well.....I can just see this going through all 75 plants!!!

 

[bid]

Take a look at this article Beekissed. It's a bit dated, but maybe it will help. It does talk a bit about a few diseases that develop rapidly.

http://msucares.com/newsletters/pests/infobytes/19970814.htm

 

[Farmington]

Tomatoes require a lot of air circulation, especially in this hot, humid weather. By pinching off suckers, and planting them 4 feet apart, it gives them the openness they need to "breathe". When they are crowded by other plants, and weeds, it gives molds, and fungi a wonderful environment to invade. Get some copper fungicide, and spray all of your plants whether they show symptoms, or not. Be sure to do this in the cool of the evening, not the heat of the day. When you do your watering, wet the ground, not the foliage, and do this in the morning if possible, not the evening, so the moisture doesn't sit there all night. Give them all a feeding of Tomato Tone, or Garden Tone, or some other good, slow-release fertilizer and a couple tablespoons of powdered hydrated lyme. Good luck with them!

 

[Beekissed]

Take a look at this article Beekissed. It's a bit dated, but maybe it will help. It does talk a bit about a few diseases that develop rapidly.

http://msucares.com/newsletters/pests/infobytes/19970814.htm

Thank you, Bid! I will be checking these plants at the root line to see if they resemble any of the descriptions in that article.

Farm, I've allowed adequate spacing but the funny thing is this...some of the plants that I consider too close together (teen son did those ) are the ones not affected and are doing better than all the rest.

The ones that are wilting are well spaced and have no suckers or lower leaves dragging the ground.

 

[vfem]

Since this seems to be the problems with tomatoes thread, I'll try this one on you all:

I have been raising tomatoes all my life and in this garden for 4 years and have never had this happen before. I searched in all the usual sites for info leading to this problem and have found none.

I had all healthy, thriving tomato plants that are green, blooming, growing small fruits, but two wilted and died over night. We pulled them out and put peppers in their place.

I went out this morning to find 2 and maybe 3 plants on the opposite side of the garden from the original two plants that had wilted over night as well.

These tomatoes are not in need of water and are well-mulched. We just tied them up the other day and each day they are checked. There has been no insect predation nor any yellowing or spots on the leaves prior to this happening.

Just drooped, very wilted and dying plants. The plants all around them are thriving well.

All the sites I found showed plants that has slowly wilted and died as having succumbed to fungus but mine didn't go slowly.....one day healthy, next day withered.

I'll check at the roots for some kind of grub or cut worm thing going on but I'm seriously hoping this won't affect my whole crop.

This is what happened to me with some marigolds... fine...fine... fine.... then DEAD! I couldn't believe it?! I checked everything looked fine when I ripped them out. I found that a mole was digging tunnels nearby---maybe some slight root damage or lack of nutrients because the moles moved the dirt there around too much. Funny... I have a tomato plant planted about 2 feet away from it, and that was fine.

Other then that, I mean....wow... freak of nature?

 

[ShowMe31]

I'm starting to think that the biggest part of the problem just might be where they are planted. We pretty much gave up on some of the plants and let the weeds go and were preparing to mow them when low and behold some nice nice plants (mostly romas) in there. Spent the day weeding and cleaning those up so hopefully they can get us taken care this year.

We are going to retire this area, we took note that the weeds are even struggling to grow. In my rotation next year I'm not going to put in sweet corn, seems like a lot of work for the small amount I get in return when I can get 8-12 ears for a buck at the flea market. So I'll still have the space in the lower field for the toms and cukes/zukes and squash