Growing Tomatoes Small Spaces / Urban Gardening

Indoor heirloom tomato disease ID - Thank you for helping!

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

Hello Houzz community! Thanks for taking the time! I'm having trouble IDing a disease (or maybe bacterial issue?) affecting my indoor heirloom tomato. I've been scouring the internet for days looking at EDU sites trying to ID, and even recruited my boyfriend for a few hours to help me search, but we keep coming up empty handed. Pics are attached - it is characterized by leaf spotting (but no visible mold or insects... just cell death) resulting in dry curling and loss of foliage. New growth is also deformed. I've been moisture-monitoring closely, so I don't expect over- or under- watering, and none of my other indoor plants (herbs and houseplants) have been affected, just the tomato. It is an heirloom, Black Krim or Cherokee Purple (the person who gifted it to me couldn't remember which), and I potted it in FoxFarm Ocean Forest Potting Soil, which seems to be good stuff - ph balanced and nutritious. I live on the Gulf Coast of Florida (zone 9B) and have the plant in a southwest-facing window, so it receives a full day of shine. I had treated it twice with a neem oil dilution in case it was a fungal problem, but now I'm so confused I don't know what to do! :) Would love to save the plant if I can - I love my green buddies! Thank you so much for any advice!!

New growth - curled and leaves missing/damaged:

Foliage dries up and falls off, like this poor flower on the left:

Leaves starting to spot, resulting in dry curl and death:

Thank you again!!!

Featured Answer

edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28

5 years ago

Is it only on one plant? How old is the plant? The plant looks fairly large. What size pot is it in? Are you trying to harvest tomatoes indoor, or plant it outside? Are you organic? Maybe try some Daconil. Can you post a photo of the whole plant.

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Comments (7)

daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Neem is mostly a pesticide. As in, for bugs. Not a very effective fungicide. And most fungicides are preventative. Once the fungal disease has set in, they don't do much.

Be careful about overwatering, especially if the pot has poor drainage. That's a recipe for root rot.

Potting soil isn't "nutritious", unless they've added fertilizer. Most don't. This plant is large enough that any fertilizer is probably gone if you haven't added any.
cp10hk thanked daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
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lgteacher
5 years ago
Try contacting your local Master Gardener program. Some tomato problems in Florida are different than what we have here in California. It looks more like a bacterial problem than an insect problem. Tomato diseases

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cp10hk thanked lgteacher
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
5 years ago
Not sure it is any specific single problem. The poor thing looks desperately etiolated and spindly. Ready to fall prey to any passing fungal spore. To be brutally honest I'd chuck it and start again.
cp10hk thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
5 years ago
OP has vanished.
cp10hk thanked edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
cp10hk
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Thank you everyone for your thoughts!! I immediately put some of your advice into action and things are getting better. I wish I could reply to all of your messages individually, but it seems like the forum doesn't have that function(?) so I am including everyone here:

edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, SE GA: I'll check out the Daconil, thank you for the recommendation! To answer your questions - yes, it is only one plant, about 3 months old, and I repotted it from a 6" pot I started it in as a seedling to a 12" pot a few weeks ago - it had a nice little growth spurt after that! I planned to keep it indoors. I'm attaching a new pic to the bottom of this thread - it's coming along a little better now, thank you!

daninthedirt (USDA 8a, HZ10, Cent TX, Sunset z30): Thanks for keeping me straight on the Neem! I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, but now I know. I'll be careful about overwatering too - right now I'm watering every morning if the soil feels dry, I'll skip a day if it seems like it still has moisture left. The pot has a drainage hole and pan too (although I never water it to the point where it floods out the bottom), and I put some rocks in the bottom of the pot, but I'm all ears if you think something else would help. To answer your statement about the fertilizer - the potting mix I purchased came pre-loaded with fish/guano/castings/etc, but I also have fish emulsion on-hand for when it needs a re-up. I'll look up a feeding schedule to be sure. Thank you for your guidance!

lgteacher: Thanks for the tip about the master gardener program! I looked into it - I have an extension office in my county so I'll definitely check it out!

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK: I appreciate the brutal honesty, thank you! I've been wondering the same thing - it has been struggling ever since I got it, it's just so hard to end the poor thing - I may give it a few more weeks but I will prepare myself for the worst, haha, I agree that starting over could be best. Thank you for the advice!

edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, SE GA: Thank you! Does OP = open pollination? I didn't realize that could have such a quick effect, but I will do some research to try to learn more. Thank you for the advice!

Current pic - not looking the best, but possibly better than before?
Kg Tg Zone 6b IL
5 years ago
I realize this is a few weeks old, but I know exactly what the problem is. Fox Farms Ocean is considered to hot for small plants and seedlings. If you must use it use half that and half happy frog. Happy Frog is much better in that line until plants are older and more established. You can google it and see all the young plants burned from this product.