Tomato plant help? Sunny windowsill tomato
5 years ago
Hi all,
I know this is KT, but I posted this on Tomato Growing forum, https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6105455/disease-window-sill-tomato-plant-leaves#n=0
but there’s not much traffic there and I’d like to keep this tom going.
INDOOR: This volunteer plum tomato seedling began growing next to a potted rosemary plant; some volunteer seed. But it was doing well, even flowered and has small fruit starting. I’ve had it growing under some lights, then a sunny window..
I know that tomatoes this size DONT like struggling to grow indoors, but I’d like to try to keep it.
The leaves are looking worse by the day. Photos below. Disease? Insects? Deficiency? Thanks for any help. FWIW, indoors, New England, Zn 5a (too cold to put it outdoors for several weeks yet).
it’s in my sink now where I gave the leaves a spraying.
Any of your green thumb gardeners have any ideas? Should I fertilize it? Neem oil? If I can just get it through another few weeks, I can send it outside.
Thanks.
That chocolate cake of Annie’s looks so good!
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Wilted tomato plant and damaged tomato
Comments (21)This is an old thread, but since I came across it while looking for something else, thought I'd put my 2 cents in for the archive. The OP's wilt problem looks to me exactly like Bacterial Wilt - green, badly-wilted leaves happening overnight with maturing fruit already on the plant. I've been struggling with it two years in a row. Online, most sources say nothing much you can do about it except pull the plant, plant elsewhere next year, plant resistant varieties, etc. Personally, I find that advice hard to live with for a variety of reasons, so I've been experimenting. What I've learned so far is that: 1)watering the soil makes things worse - the disease affects water transport in the stems so the water never makes it to the leaves, and meanwhile, the water in the soil seems to help the bacteria thrive. When I let the soil dry out some, the most badly affected stems start to die off, but the less affected stems seem okay, especially with some foliar feeding. I think part of the key to dealing with Bacterial Wilt is to allow the soil to be fairly dry and foliar feed the healthier parts of the plant when they need water. 2)Foliar feeding with milk/water mixtures (I've sometimes added some epsom salt, molasses, some fish emulsion), helps the less affected stems to strengthen up in relation to the disease. Using the above two ideas, as of yesterday, my plants were looking greatly improved. However, it's now pouring rain, so I may be back at square one by tomorrow!...See Moreplanted tomatoes april 30th. no red tomatoes
Comments (17)Good, we have a lot of input now to go by. Do your plants look "top heavy" with fruits from the middle upwards? Did you have any days over 90 and if so do you remember when? Did you have much damage from that hailstorm? Possibly the hailstorm set the plants back. Also possible you had a heatwave somewhere between then & now. If the plants seem top-heavy, it could be from being injured by the hailstorm and even a heatwave early in the season. I guess I'm pursuing 2 angles here to try to cover all the bases: early setback/injury can have slowed everything down due to less leaves for photosynthesis... sparse plant bottoms could be a sign but I asked about any heatwaves too because if they happened early the plant would have less fruit near the bottom too... but if the plants are bottom heavy, then that wouldn't be so. Regardless of the cause, fruits usually take 30-45 days or so to ripen... weather/sun will change these numbers too... I planted most of my plants June 8th thru June 16th and had ripe fruits on some by the end of July,mainly due to the heatwaves we've had. At the same time, I have sections of the plant that may have less fruitset that may actually correspond to the heatwaves. If you feel you are happy with the # of fruit per plant, (I'd guess 40-50 per plant when well watered & fertilized), then warm weather is what you need to ripen them. I still think April 30th is a little risky in zone 5... all you need are a few nights below 50 to affect a young plant... I'm in zone 6 and usually don't plant out until Memorial Day weekend. Why? because during May, there's usually some wicked weather still left to be had... like hailstorms. I think if planted a week or two later, you would have avoided the hailstorm, which may be what caused the most injury and set the plant back, but of course you still need sun & photosynthesis from leaves to ripen tomatoes!...See MoreCherry Tomato taking over other tomato plants
Comments (17)I haven't grown sungold, but the cherry I grew when I lived in Z7 (Sweet 100s I think), and that monster grew up the 6 foot cage, then down the other side of the 6 foot cage, and then 6 feet out along the line before I said ENOUGH and just cut off the vine. Cherry tomatoes can be voracious little suckers! I'll have to try sungold next year though. My son would love it. I grew yellow pear this year, but its really suffering disease pressure....See MoreRecently Planted tomato plant PROBLEMS.. please help
Comments (9)The blueing/dark color on the leaves indicate to me that the plants are not getting/uptaking nutrients adequately . In my opinion 9C (=48F) was not and is not cold for tomato plants PROVDED you hardened them off , for several days, prior to planting. The second issue is the soil temperatures. In order for the plants to be able to uptake nutrients, a minimum soil temperature is required . 50 -55F ? ( = 12 C) should be ok. Again, in the hardening off process the roots also are introduced to cool temperatures gradually, so when they are placed in cool soil ( 10 -12C) they won't get a shock.. MY Recent Experience: On 4/8, 9, 10/15 I planted bunch of tomato plants, some with protection some withoiut. In the following week we had lows going down to 38F ( =3.5 C) .few nights. I have seen no ill effects. BUT before planting out I did check the soil temperature. It average around 52F. So far our average lows have been 42-43F. My plants are normal, though they are growing very slowly. I have seen buds on several of them. I think your plants should rebound. I would water them with lukewarm water (~ 26-27C). When I want to water mine, i fill watering cans and let the warm up in the sun for several hours. Warmer water will raise soil temperature and help dissolve the nutrients better for the plants uptake. JMO Sey...See More- 5 years ago
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agopetalique thanked carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10- 5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
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Richard (Vero Beach, Florida)