Sorry I can't get the pic to post.
I will try again.
tomato issue

Looks like verticilliun wilt to me.

Here is your pic.
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And some pics of verticillium in a tomato plant;
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Here is a link that might be useful: Win Free Garden Stuff

Have you been covering it with the can in the photo???
CDGTXS

No, it was just sitting there, I was using it to wet my vermiculite before I planted other seeds.
I haven't been covering them with anything. How do I stop the verticillium?
And how in the heck did you get the pics to post, I tried for almost an hour last night and could not get it to post. All I kept getting were little broken pic images.
Thanks, SK

See the link below for help with the verticillium. To get the pics to post, see this link;
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/pepper/2002072150000611.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Verticillium Fact Sheet

If, as it appears in the picture, it is still in planting tray, it is probably root bound.

Sorry but the odds are this plant isn't going to make it. But I'd need alot more info before I could even begin to guess what caused the problem. Sure disease - one of the viral wilts - is a very real possibility but so are many others things.

What is it growing in? A shallow tray or in the ground? What is the soil mix? How old is the plant? Has it been exposed to frost or to lots of high, hot winds? How much and how often has it been watered? Did this happen suddenly or over a period of time? Have other plants been grown here successfully in the past? What was the source of the seed (possible contamination)? Is there any sign of pests such as aphids or whiteflies?

This is the third plant you daid - What did the root ball on the previous one look like when you pulled them? Does the death seem to be migrating from one plant to another or to all at the same time? The one in the background in the pic looks healthy. What is different about it that might be keeping it healthy? Have you considered taking one of the plants to the local county extension office for examination?

Much more info please. ;)

Dave

Again, we find a request for a diagnosis with far too little information to identify. And why on earth is that string around its neck?! This bodes poorly for sucess right there.

Dan

sammiek - I just saw your other post here (linked below) and so I see you are both new to growing tomatoes and that you are also trying to grow them in a very unusual set up - inside a large plastic wrapped frame if I understand correctly? Kind of like a greenhouse/coldframe but without any ventilation or temperature controls, right?

So there are more potential sources for your problem than I realized. It will be difficult for those of us who use more traditional methods to advise you given your set-up but sure am willing to try to help.

I also note that you have been using a lot of sprays but you don't mention what pests you were spraying: I sprayed them down with Neem and gardensafe soap and that could very well be your problem too. A light misting of the insects now an then is one thing but dousing the whole plant, especially in an enclosed space with poor air circulation and the possibility of heat build-up, is a sure way to kill the plant. It coats the leaves, plugs the leaf stoma, and the plants literally suffocate,

So I'd suggest for a start that you

(1) lay off the sprays for awhile, use them ONLY when actual pests are seen and then very lightly,

(2) increase the air circulation in the enclosure to prevent heat and CO2 build-up. Adequate air circulation is vital to plants.

(3) increase the depth of your beds a great deal to 6" minimum or 10-12" if at all possible,

(4) reduce your watering to eliminate all the damp-off type problems you are having. Even in-garden plants can develop a type of damp-off not to mention many other molds, mildews, and bacterial problems.

(5) rig a fan of some type inside the enclosure to improve air circulation even more.

Then see how things go, ok?

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: My Tomato Story post

Ok, the plant above is in a 4' x 16' garden bed, (not the container garden from my other post, and that one had the plastic taken off every day, and put back on at night, and has a thermometer in it for monitoring temps), that I filled 6 weeks ago with compost, composted steer manure, garden soil, some potting mix, vermiculite, 10-10-10 fertilizer, and a little native soil all mixed together. I have a total of 3 beds like this made. I planted out the seedlings that I grew first in peat pellets in the house in front of the window, then transplanted to Cowpots(tm). After they got big enough about 4 inches they lived outside in the shade in the day, then were taken in to the shed at night to harden off, after they were all hardened off, I planted 18 of them in my garden space. (again this is not the container garden that I had protected by plastic only at night). I then had two plants die a Aunt Ruby's German Green, and a Prudens Purple, first they looked a little wilted, and I thought maybe because of the little tiny white flying insects, so I sprayed them with Gardensafe(tm) organic insecticide which is and oil based product. I still had a lot of (I think) white fly's. So then I sprayed them with neem, and that seemed to help. Then I dug out the first two plants and looked them over, they looked like something ate the inside of the main stem. When I planted them they looked really healthy. Now one more plant started to wilt the same way. I am not sure what is going on. I am watering when the top of the soil is drying out, then I am doing the best pest control, with out spraying harsh chemicals, I am thinking of getting some Seven powder to put on them, or diatomaceous earth, but I don't know what to do at this point. I don't know if it is spreading plant to plant from the soil, I don't think so because each plant that died was in a different spot in the garden. I don't know if it is from little flying critters or not. There does seem to be a lot of regular fly's and lots of gnat type bugs in the garden but I don't know if that is a problem or not. I am just concerned that this will spread to all of my other newly planted tomatoes.
Thanks all for your help. It really means a lot to me that you take the time to help us "newbies" out.
Sammie K.

Oh yeah, the string is just a small tag looped around it, I had just put it there to denote which plant type it was, it was not on tight, just for ID purposes this is the only one I put the tag on, the rest are next to the plants.
Also the first plant to die was in the garden for about 2 weeks before it wilted up. Most other plants around it seem to be ok for now.

Then I dug out the first two plants and looked them over, they looked like something ate the inside of the main stem. When I planted them they looked really healthy. Now one more plant started to wilt the same way.

Ah. Sounds like some sort of cutworm. Many plant out their toms with a little paper cup collar to foil the little b@st&rds.

Take the newly wilted tom, rip it out. It's likely gone, it will be your test subject. Put a new blade in your box cutter. You are going to cut the stem lengthwise roughly in the center-ish. First see if you can find a little hole near soil line. Then cut the stem from the very bottom where you can't tell its a stem any more to as far up as you can go.

Is the center hollow? Do you see a little grub/caterpillar-like critter? If so, that's the problem - cutworms. Look at the rest of your toms. Do you see little holes near soil line? If so, too late.

If not, let's have some other folks chime in as to whether they think retrofitting with collars will work at this point...

Dan

Ok, will do tonight, Thanks for your help.

{{!gwi}}

Flickr Photostream.

I have cut open the plant that has died, and I did not find any worms or grubs or little wee critters inside, but it did look like something had eaten out the inside in a few spots. The plant broke off when I tried to pull it out of the ground so you can look at the different pics and see what you think.
Do you think if it is a grub problem, If I dusted the area with diatomacious earth it would help? Or would Seven Dust be a better solution? Some of my plant tops are so close to ground level I could not get foil or cups around them.
Thanks
Sammiek

(I don't know what I am doing wrong when I try to get the pics to paste, I can get the link to work, but I have followed the directions on the FAQ and still the pics are not working, I am copying, this part insert image description here . and then I am paste a copied shortcut from the flickr, but the pic still does not work. So in the meantime, you can look at the flickr link because at this point that is the only thing working for me.
Thanks again.

OK. Sounds cutwormy.

You want to carefully dig around the bases of your remaining plants about 6-8 inches out, about 1-3 inches deep and look for little grubs no longer than your thumb, often less. These worm/grub looking things are gray, gray-brown, or some shade of brown, often they have spots on their bodies, and they curl up when threatened, their heads into their bodies. If you find these, you've got cutworms. Fun. You only need 2-3-4-5 to decimate your whole tomato crop.

From now on, when you plant out your toms, use a collar made of paper-cup or pint milk carton or 6 oz yogurt cup , sticking maybe 2in into the soil and 2 in above. For now, Sevin or will not do it and you want a chemical like Diazinon or one that contains carbaryl or chlorpyrifos, and you'll be applying this for a while, likely weeks, and this might kill most of them, but not all, and they'll live out their life cycle and carry on their assault on your sanity. Diatomaceous earth won't do it either.

I also recommend contacting your County Extension office, as they likely have a fact sheet for your area, and it will have tips on it that folks have found that work best to prevent cutworm damage. Most of us with cutworms use the paper cup collar thing, or milk cartons, as they rot away.

Good luck.

Dan

Ok, Thanks, I will go out tonight and dig down and foil collar the plants I still have.
Just one more question, this is all new dirt this year, mostly from bags of garden soil, and not much from my native soils, do the cutworms come up from the ground or do they get there from flying insects?
Thanks Dan for all of your help.
Sammiek