Any ideas about what may be causing this stem lesion?

Kelsey Saddoris

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

I found this lesion on the stem of my tomato plant today. I’m not sure how long its been there. The rest of the plant looks pretty good. Any thoughts about what may be causing it? Thank you in advance for any advice!

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Comments (3)

daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
3 years ago
Lower stem damage like that is unfortunately a hallmark of Southern Blight, which is a fungal disease. The fact that your lower leaves are starting to fail is consistent with that. If that's the case, it's a goner. In the field, if seen on a plant, the way you save your crop is to quickly get rid of that plant. Now, this plant appears to be in a container, and if you used commercial potting mix, such a fungal infection would be very unlikely because those mixes are usually sterile.
Kelsey Saddoris
Original Author
3 years ago
It is in a container with commercial potting mix and I used boiling water to pre-moisten it when I initially planted and transplanted, so it seems less likely, but not impossible. The failing leaves are the seed leaves. They have been like that for a couple weeks now - I think they have just finished their job.
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If this is herbicide damage, it doesn't have to have been caused by Round-up. A broadleaf weed killer (like Weed n Feed) will damage roses. This definitely looks like the symptoms of a plant trying to recover from some sort of herbicide. I've seen the same type of growth on honeysuckle and blackberry brambles that I've sprayed with Round-up. Don't use the vinegar again if it's near your roses. It may not have caused this damage, but it will definitely hurt more than the grass you want to kill. The best thing I've found to kill Bermuda is Grass B Gon by Ortho -- also sold in concentrate as Ornamec, if you have a bigger job than can be taken care of with a premix in a squirt bottle. It's a selective, grass-only herbicide, that's labeled for use around roses. It can take a week or more to work, and the grass has to be actively growing at the time, but it is safe to use around your roses. Now that the wind had died down here today, I'll be out spraying some in my own roses beds today. Connie
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CRW causing black spots on fruit & stems?
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I can only mention my own experience with CRW cages and I've made my own in the way past and never attributed anything to those cages damaging fruits and when I moved to this new area in 1999 I used some really rusty cages at one of the places I was using up here and again, never saw any damage from those cages. Sometimes fruits would be up against one of the wires and it would cause a physical dent in those fruits, but never any black spots from rubbing against the wires with fruits or stems. At some areas here where I am now I grew most of my tomatoes by sprawling and a lesser number by caging, the rusty ones, actually, that belonged to the person whose garden area I was using. Carolyn
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Damage/injury on stem, what caused it?
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Comments (7)
Sometimes we spend a lot of time stressing and worrying about the obvious. Your damage is most likely caused by rubbing against that metal basket that you have it in. There is a story about a woman who took her hamster to the vet; because for the last 3 days he just sat at the side of his cage.. didn't eat, didn't exercise. The vet put the hamster on the table and it began eating and running around; so the vet asked if anything out of the ordinary had happened in the last few days. The woman replied; "well he got out of his cage and was under the refrigerator for a couple of hours". The vet examined the hamster and found a refrigerator magnet in its cheek. The hamster had merely been stuck to the side of his metal cage because of the magnet in his cheek.
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Any idea what these stems are?
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Comments (9)
Hmm, that's interesting as well. Based on the photos we may have one of those as well. We got it at a Herons wood propagation class and I can't remember it's name. It looks just like this one. Quince? It's a shrub about 100 feet away and I haven't noticed any suckering, it seems to be a single trunked shrub. If these are those they are seedlings.
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daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
3 years ago
The bottom leaves on the far right of the bottom picture aren't seed leaves, and they look very yellow. Boiling water will disinfect the top layer of soil. Not further down. But yes, commercial potting mix is unlikely to harbor such a fungus.

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Any ideas about what may be causing this stem lesion?

Comments (3)

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

Kelsey Saddoris
Original Author

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Any ideas about what may be causing this stem lesion?

Comments (3)

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

Kelsey SaddorisOriginal Author

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

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Kelsey Saddoris
Original Author