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Tomato Pests & Diseases

tomatoes dying one by one

9 years ago

I transplanted my tomatoes to 4 inch pots last week. I used 1 part soilless, 1 part compost and 1 part garden soil for the soil. Added fish emulsion and kelp to them according to their respective instructions. Now I'm getting plants that look like the attached picture and eventually die. The stem appears to be constricted near the seedling leaves. Anybody know what's going on and, fingers crossed, if it can be fixed?

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Comments (6)

Wes Rutelonis
Original Author
9 years ago
I'm now aware that the soil was a bad idea and may have caused damping-off. Any other ideas?
User
9 years ago
I think soil would be the largest potential culprit. Not sure about others, but here's what I would do. Buy a good quality potting mix, I love Fafard products, but there are lots of good ones. Clip the cotyledons and re-plant the seedling deep. Only water when the mix is dry and the plant starts to wilt just a little bit. You should see the leaves droop pretty soon after the soil goes dry. Also seedlings don't need as much nutrition and adding full strength fertilizer is not beneficial yet. If you fertilize only use fish emulsion at 1/2 or 1/4 strength.
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Well, the sides of the pot don't seem to be black as far down as I could check by pushing back the soil next to the pot. I also didn't mention that leaves are turning black, just a few each day - not en mass. But I will try rooting them in pearlite. Just pearlite and water covered with plastic? Thanks!
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You mean you can't tell from the pictures which plant is which and what's wrong. . ? DUH. . my bad.. .open palmed smack just delivered to my forehead. The plant on the left is sungold. The plant on the right is a pink oxheart. At the very top of the oxheart, the branches are visibly drooping. Actually, the lower branches are also droopy. Both plants were extremely leggy and are now branching out like crazy. I have no fear that if they survive they will be monsters. THe Sungold already has several trusses loaded with fruit. The oxheart has me worried. It drooped once before due to lack of water. This is not case now. I will double check the drainage today and give it a dose of fertilizer. Mr.Potatohead: The long winter was driving me crazy and I needed to plant something. Hence the leggy plants in containers in my house until I could take 'em outside. Perhaps not good for the plants, but it kept me sane. My other maters are doing just fine (back beds). THis is my first summer in this house and I wasn't sure that the yard would be in a condition to plant. It was full of uprooted trees and rocks etc. My DH installed my raised beds as a Mother's day gift. . .ain't he sweet. . The large yard you see in the original post (and to the left in the pic above) is my septic bed that we seeded with grass. Some quack must have swapped my grass seed for weeds. Because that sure as sugar ain't grass!
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grubby_AZ Tucson Z9
9 years ago
I agree a lot with that. If you want to use materials that are guaranteed to have hordes of fungi in them, like compost and outdoor dirt, at least sterilize it first (dampness and lots of heat). Dirt isn't an automatic seedling killer; after all people plant seeds directly in the ground, but when you have problems it's often helpful to cut back on the possible suspects, and (in its own way) indoor sprouting can be very hostile to seedlings.
gumby_ct
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I use hydrogen peroxide mixed in water in a spray bottle to spray the soil - it seems to kill the damping off disease.
jean001a
9 years ago
won't work if damping off already active
gumby_ct
9 years ago
No sure won't. I thought I mentioned that but musta been another thread.

It is a good idea to always use a spray bottle when starting seeds. Just remember to also mix in some peroxide.

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