Brandywine Tomato (dying from top)

11 years ago

This is my first year growing an heirloom tomato (actually any tomato). I live in Central VA, we've had a hot, dry and humid summer so far. I have 12 Brandywine and 12 Yellow Pear tomato plants. All of the Yellow Pear plants are doing very well and are loaded with fruit. The Brandywine on the other hand are struggling. When I first transplanted them, it took a couple weeks for them to adjust and start growing. Throughout June they seemed to be doing well, even started blooming. But only a few fruit set. I have removed 2 small green tomatoes from 2 of the plants because I think they have BER. The other green tomatoes (on the other plants) seem to be okay, the bottoms are split, but otherwise healthy.

So, you can imagine how surprised I was to go check on things today (I didn't have time yesterday) and find one of my plants very sick! The leaves on top have yellowed and the stem has died. Looking at other leaves on the plant that are beginning to turn yellow, they have dark spots on the edges.

Is this a disease? Or a sign of poor soil (nutrient deficiency)?

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Comments (8)

edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
11 years ago
Not sure what it is, but if it happened in one day, I would be inclined to remove the plant. Sounds like you are doing well in your first year of growing tomatoes, and I'd hate to see the rest of the healthy plants get sick too. Maybe someone else can add additional suggestions. No sense messing around with one plant when you have 23 others at risk.
2ajsmama
11 years ago
Did those stems get damaged? See how they're shriveled and girdled? The one you can see looks like it has a nick in it. Makes me wonder if it's just mechanical damage. But if other leaves are yellowing it may be something else - can you post pix of those leaves?
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My first thought looking at the leaves of your tomatoes was that they needed watering, or maybe they have been overwatered. Do you check the moisture of the growing medium 3-5 inches below the surface? Watering in a container is much different from watering a plant in the ground. Do you have one of those saucers that usually go with that kind of pot? If so when you water your plant, wait about 30 minutes and then drain that saucer. If you leave water standing in it, you are depriving the tomatoes of air for the roots and they will drown. GardenWebber sprouts_honor (Jennifer from Cleveland) had a wonderful suggestion on how to tell whether or not you need to water your tomatoes, and I quote here: "Get a wooden dowel rod (or two) and sink it in the ground near a plant or two and leave it. Pull it out when you think you need to water. If the top is dry and the bottom is a little damp, it's time to water. If it looks dark and feels saturated, wait to water. I use this technique with potted plants that don't like being over watered and it's helpful with in ground plants too." Also when you water a plant in a container, the process tends to wash away the nutrients in the growing medium so they will need to be fed frequently. Many container growers use a water soluble balanced fertilizer such as 8-8-8 or 10-10-10, diluted to 1/3 or 1/4 recommended label strength and use it to water every 10 days to two weeks. Good luck with your tomatoes. Betsy
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Assuming we are talking about Sudduths Brandywine, I have some experience with getting good production out of these plants - I've been growing it for 5 years in a row now. Even though Brandywine is a late variety, I tend to get it along side a lot of my mid-season tomatoes. I generally harden my plants off fairly early and then plant them out as soon as I think they are safe from frosts and the nighttime temps are (generally) around 50 degrees. I find that Brandywines seem to not only tolerate the cold, but they almost enjoy the cooler temps - In cooler, wet springs, I've had good fruit set on Brandywine when others were stagnating. One thing for certain is that they hate humidity and heat (80-90s and above). I already have a few brandywines with fruit set which were put out on May 1st, and I'll get a good couple more no doubt in the next few weeks, but it seems that every year, right around July / August, flowers will stop setting. Other plants continue to produce, some like NAR keep producing at the same rate without a hitch, but Brandywine will always trail off during the summer heat. As soon as temperatures go back down a little, it picks up where it left off... The shame of it is that a lot of these tomatoes won't ripen before the frost, but I do get a few more out of the deal. If you want to give it a try next year, you could try what I do and plant them out early and be prepared to protect them - keeping in mind how they don't like the heat of summer. As an aside, I read a post on pruning the other day and it got me thinking. In a lot of varieties, you can prune suckers here and there and probably not impact your yield too much; Brandywine doesn't seem to be one of those varieties. If you take into account that you might only get 1 or 2 set fruits per flower truss (maybe 3, but I don't tend to see that), pruning seems to severely hurt your yields, much more so than other varieties. The plants are a little finicky about setting blooms, so you're going to want as many blooms as you can get - best way to accomplish this is to let as much of the suckers grow as you can.
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Brandywine often has problems setting fruit and so what you're seeing is Blossom Drop, and there's A FAQ about it at the top of the page. There's a couple of things you can do and one is to shake the plants a couple of times a day or you can take a broom and gently whack the plants a couple of times a day.( smile)There's no nnsed to do manual pollination or use electric tooth brushes or the like. Blossom Set was devised to be used in areas where it's too cool for good pollenization, and it does nada when temps are OK for polenization and that's also mentioned in the FAQ I just referred you to. Besides, Blossom Set induces what's called parthenocarpy and you don't want that, trust me. And having lived in Denver for quite a few years and growing tomatoes while there, and since all your other varieties are setting fruits fine, the perp is the Brandywine. Carolyn
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"Somewhere I read of using an electric toothbrush to help with pollination." Yes, the buzzing can help pollinate the flowers, but only if the temps are right. Brandywine (pink) can be a little finicky with setting flowers, but the majority of the problems happen in high heat / high humidity. I tend to get a fairly good harvest out of my brandywines, but I think that has to do with the fact that I start my seed very early and plant early. Brandywine will set fruit in cooler temps and with rainy weather (this happens through in April / May in my zone), but fruit set suffers in higher heat and humidity. For example, I planted out my brandywines on April 5th, they set a bunch of fruit in the beginning starting in the middle of May. Then in June we had a heatwave start to spike temps in the 90-100s range. There was no decent fruit set during that time. Then we had a week or two of not as hot weather, and fruit set resumed. If you look at my plants you'll see the signs of this, there's a bunch of fruit low on the plant, then it's a little sparser in the middle and now has a bunch of fruit on top. I've gotten two ripe brandywines so far, my first on July 10th. If you live in an area with hot growing seasons, I highly recommend trying to put our your brandywines as early as possible - to the point of using walls o' water and other such protection, you'll probably get more out of them.
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LillardsFord
Original Author
11 years ago
It may have been damaged. We had a big storm come through over the weekend and I've caught our dog running through the garden on occasion too.
Other leaves are turning yellow, at the bottom, on a few other plants. I think that's because of the dry heat we've been having (several 100+ days). But this one is the only one with yellow leaves at the top/growing end; another leaf from the same plant is starting to yellow with dark spots near the outer edges.
2ajsmama
11 years ago
I'd thin out the leaves at the bottom if they're really thick and you may want to spray a fungicide. But just pull off those withered ones at the top - no need to pull the plant, it looks to me like they were broken. The stem (as far as I can see in 1st pic) looks OK. How is the plant overall (maybe another pic??)?
LillardsFord
Original Author
11 years ago
Okay -- here is a picture of the whole plant. The top is dying. I removed the yellow leaves from the top last night, as well as the dead stems. I'm going to fertalize it too (it's time anyway), in case it's a dificiency - our soil is not good.

{{!gwi}}
2ajsmama
11 years ago
Can't see the picture. BW is an indeterminate, so just lop off the dying part if the middle looks good, the suckers will continue to grow and produce.
LillardsFord
Original Author
11 years ago
Hopefullly this picture will work. :)
edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
11 years ago
IMO they look under fed, and possibly not getting enough sunlight. Plants get spindly reaching for light. Don't be afraid to use the fertilizer. Frankly, I under fertilized my plants for years for fear of over fertilizing. After I saw a youtube video showing how much fertilizer goes into those swc things, I significantly increased my application rate, and had very good results.

Brandywine Tomato (dying from top)

Comments (8)

edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28

2ajsmama

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Brandywine Tomato (dying from top)

Comments (8)

edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28

2ajsmama

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