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Gardening in Oz

Dying tomato bush

11 years ago

I'm posting to see if you folks can help me with one of my tomato bushes, the poor thing was doing wonderfully (it's 1.5m tall and has a fair amount of fruit on it) until about a week ago when it started to have issues.
I've attached a photo so that you can see how it looks. Basically about 30% of the leaves has withered and dried up. There is still a fair amount of healthy looking green on it though. This plant is situated in a row with 4 others, one of which is starting to show similar issues.

I keep it fairly well watered, the soil never totally dries up as it is mulched and gets a deep water every 3 or so days. The soil is mostly organic compost and broken down Lucerne.

I give them a little worm tea from my worm farm about once a fortnight, but never too much.

What do you guys think? It's such a shame as the plant was doing so well!!

Cheers,

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Comments (5)

funnelweb
11 years ago
Could be a bit of over watering; what's the drainage like? Any sogginess? Also, how decomposed was (is) the compost and Lucerne? And sunshine: tomatoes, like roses, like around 8 hours a day.
B.
glenn-brisbane
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for the follow up. The soil doesn't get too wet, it dries pretty quickly. The lucerne and compost are pretty decomposed now, the bed is about 3 months old.

They are getting sun from around 7am until 2pm, which should be enough I thought.

Not sure if it makes a difference but I check the tomatos on it last night and they all have blossom end rot too! :(
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funnelweb
11 years ago
Blossom-end rot! It's a deficiency disease that effects the fruit. To quote my reference: 'Lack of calcium for the growing fruit causes the blossom end of the tomato to be brown and sunken. It's a complex situation and is also known to be associated with stress caused by irregular watering. To control, add sufficient lime and superphosphate to the soil before planting out. Do not use high quantities of fertiliser containing sodium, potassium and ammonium. Good soil drainage is important but the soil should not be allowed to dry out."
For those reasons I always to prefer to grow vegies etc., in the open garden. Mother nature takes care of the checks and balances.
B.
keithgh
11 years ago
I am on the coast south of Melb, I only have space for 2 tomato plants in the same spot every year, which is a massive NONO.

What I have always done is plant a tomato seedling into large pots using a good quality potting mix.

Dig a deep hole and bury the pots leaving a few inches above the soil line.

Watering twice a week using the old water from the fish tank.

I have cut bigger holes in the pots for added drainage, no ferts used as the old fish tank water is full on nutrients from the fish waste.

Keith
tropicbreezent
11 years ago
It could be nematodes, they'll reduce a healthy tomato rapidly like that. They infect the roots and the first sign is wilting in the heat of the day with some recovery when it's cooler. As more of the roots are damaged the plant goes down hill until it dies. That's why some people only grow tomatos in pots - to keep them away from the ground where you get nematodes.

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