Tomato plants dying from top down

5 years ago

I'm trying to diagnose what happened to my tomato plants last summer- my budget is limited, so I was hoping to be able to reuse supplies and incorporate some of the old potting mix this year if I can. I initially thought it was a disease, but I made my own 5-1-1 container mix so there could have been some kind of nutrient deficiency or imbalance (I think I used too much fertilizer at the initial planting). The leaves developed dead spots around the edges, starting from the top of the plants- some entire branches at the top died before lower leaves were affected. The tomatoes themselves weren't really affected as far as I can tell, though. It looks a lot like pictures of potassium deficient plants to me, but apparently that starts at the bottom?

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daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

Nope. This isn't an nutrient deficiency or over-fertilization. Some fungus/blight. Loads around. For me, plants start to succumb to it when they are loaded with fruit. What to do about it? Fungicide. And reuse soil and pots with care. If you can manage it, I'd oven-sterilize your soil, and clean your pots with bleach.

A little unusual in that fungus infections usually propagate from bottom to top. But it could work differently in containers. The fungus may have originated in surrounding soil, and not from the soil in the pot.

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Comments (13)

Embothrium
5 years ago
Look up late blight of tomato and see if it fits.
Allison thanked Embothrium
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edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Fungal. Looks like Septoria Leaf Spot. It's happening to me right now, and usually happens about fruiting time. If you catch it early, remove affected foliage, and spray throughly with Daconil. You might save the plant(s), but you have to act fast. In my case the whole plant has it top to bottom, but oddly, mostly on the backside away from the sun.

Here's mine:

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=47451
Allison thanked edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
dirtguy50 SW MO z6a
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Allison, maybe I missed it but where are you located? With out that information, any responses are not worth much. What mix are you using in the pots, how do you determine when to water and/or fertilize, plus much more information. If you aren't confused...you should be. Maybe I am the one confused. LOL
Allison thanked dirtguy50 SW MO z6a
daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I don't think soil mix, watering, or fertilization is an issue here. The plants pictured here are loaded with fruit. They WERE healthy.
Allison thanked daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
Allison
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank you, this is all extremely helpful!! I think it looked the most like early blight, but knowing it was fungal is enough to go on for prevention this year. I think I'm going to start over with new mix, clean the pots with bleach, and start using Daconil early. The bamboo stakes were outside all winter but seem like they would be hard to disinfect- should I just get rid of those?

Oops, thought my location was on here! Boston, MA- though these pictures are from mid-late August last summer.
Jean
5 years ago
They were short of water. 5-1-1 drains exceedingly weel. Lots of plant in a pot need frequent irrigation.

Yellowing may be due to nitrogen washed out of pot with irrigations -- common in containers.
Allison thanked Jean
gorbelly
5 years ago
Yeah, that looks more like drought stress to me as well.
Allison thanked gorbelly
Embothrium
5 years ago
You might want to take your pictures to your nearest USDA Cooperative Extension branch office and see what they suggest.
Allison thanked Embothrium
gorbelly
5 years ago
How quickly did your plants die?
Allison thanked gorbelly
Allison
Original Author
5 years ago
Sorry for my absence- way too busy this year. Wow, drought stress does look a lot like it. I guess I went too far in the opposite direction with drainage... now that I think about it, it got worse after I was away and relying on a drip hose on a timer for a little while, too.

They died relatively slowly- I don't think I actually pulled them out until October, at which point they looked extremely sad but still weren't 100% dead.

I was going to just use new bagged potting mix this year, mostly due to time but also to keep things from drying out too much (mostly using fabric pots now), but after planting half my transplants it's alarming how compacted it looks. I think mixing it evenly with pink bark mulch should give me roughly 5-1-1-ish proportions, and then I'll just keep a closer eye on the watering?
daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
5 years ago
The fact that your plants were loaded with fruit doesn't sound much like drought stress, unless you stopped watering them suddenly. Those plants were pretty happy.
Allison thanked daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
gorbelly
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
"Drought stress" = stress from lack of water that could be transient. It doesn't have to mean actual extended drought conditions. If I'm late watering my plants and they wilt, they'll show signs of the stress in brown and yellow spots on the leaves a couple of days afterward, even though the plant largely recovers. It won't have been long enough to affect fruit, but the foliage will suffer.
Allison thanked gorbelly