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Vegetable Gardening

My indoor tomato plant is wilting

11 years ago

I stared my indoor tomato plant from seeds..I put them on a paper towel, moistened it and sat it in the window that gets the most light..they germinated pretty quickly-under 10 days. I planted them and they started growing pretty quickly but were attached by small flying black bugs. I quickly emptied the box afraid the bugs would get to my other plants. I was able to salvage three and I thought things were fine...each stalk stands about about 2 feet tall, have plenty leaves and lots of flower buds and yellow flowers started showing up over the last few weeks. I was soooo happy until I noticed that the bugs had returned (likely from some of my other plants that I started at the same time-cucumbers, sweet potatoes, cabbage, greens and onions). I looked up a 'natural" insecticide mixture (garlic/cayenne/jalapeno peppers and a teaspoon of soap) I sprayed all the plants...it seemed to have lessened the bug issue (I still had a few crawling around on the dirt mainly) but the last few days the leaves started wilt, the fuzzy hair that was on the stalks has disappeared and I'm afraid its dying. I am attempting to upload pics I took over the last several weeks.

I just transplanted them again into a larger pot (roots were all tangled together) with new soil. any suggestions

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Comments (3)

foolishpleasure
11 years ago
It seems you have fungus problem. Use some fungicide unless you are organic you can use copper.
Ohiofem 6a/5b Southwest Ohio
11 years ago
The bugs are most likely fungus gnats. Before using fungicides, try treating them with BT. Get some mosquito dunks and put a small chunk in a gallon of water and use that to water your plants. BT is a safe, organic pesticide that will kill their larva. The gnats thrive in soggy soil, so the other thing you need to do is cut back on watering. Soil that is mostly peat will provide the perfect environment for fungus gnats. They won't really hurt your plants, though. But soggy, peat-based soil will invite all sorts of problems.

Of course the real question is why you are growing tomatoes indoors? Those plants would do much better outside.
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sunnibel7 Md 7
11 years ago
Just repotted them, untangling their roots in the process? Transplant shock would be my guess. But some tomato plants seem to have their leaves head downward like that naturally. Either way, keep them from getting too wet, since drowning the roots will not help them. It's a natural inclination to want to keep watering when they look limp, but don't do it unless the soil is actually dry. Cheers!

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