This seems like an annual pattern. My plum Tomatoes start with vigor – healthy, happy, new growth, fruiting heavily, then collapse before ripening end-June. My cherries are prolific. Summers here are hot and dry (zone 9B) with zero rain.
My setup – drip irrigation, water only when a meter reads on the low-side of moist. Amended soil, 40% shade cloth to prevent the mid-day scald, 2’ deep raised beds, vines pruned, training 3 per plant up a string trellis. Fertilized ~2x so far this season with a 4-3-4 fertilizer. Eradicated grubs by hand. These tomatoes get love. I haven’t sprayed much this year for bugs or fungi, thinking curling / yellowing bottom leaves may be heat stress or sun scald vs. fungus. This is the front plant , who gets less protection from the shade cloth. It started when we had a few days at 95+
Should I just move to, maybe, Oregon for love of a great tomato?
Any easier suggestions than uprooting the family? 😢
by Grouchy-Machine2812
16 Comments
Although I cannot fully sympathize with you as I am in zone 7A, in recent years with our heat spells, I have found enhancing the organic matter (leaf mulch or peat) in the soil improved the water retention and overall health of my plants. Yes, you are watering but is the soil retaining it and is it available to the plants?
Tomatoes like a LOT of water. I water mine every day, on really hot days twice a day.
Looks like some type of disease.
Water
Water those plants homie, the leaves are bone dry
My tie dyes do that every year. If I don’t pull the plant out it seems to spread. I tried to quit growing the tie dyes but the tomatoes are just so good I can’t stop. We get a ton of rain and humidity though so I assumed it was a fungus.
No, this is totally abnormal. It almost looks like your water meter is broken, or you’ve got voles munching on your yummy roots. Maybe it’s nematodes?
They thoisty
Is there chance something go to the roots?
Give them more water consistently. Tomatoes are water lovers and if you are waiting for a meter to tell you it’s dry then you aren’t watering them enough. Bump it up quite a bit.
Have you tried starting them sooner?
You need to water more. “The low side of moist” isn’t enough in 95 degree weather. Tomatoes want the soil to be drenched in that kind of heat. They’re thirsty.
With more watering, you’ll also need to fertilize more. Once every 1-2 weeks.
This looks just like the bacterial wilt I experienced in a hotter, more humid climate. Your soil is likely infected and contagious. You can try sanitizing the soil, but the plants already showing symptoms are probably not salvageable.
I use to water every day and my plants looked like that. 90+ degrees, with low humidity. Also using 30% shade cloth.
I changed to watering 3x per week, but deep soaking.
0.5 gal/ hour emitters, 6 inch spaced, 4 drip lines across a 4×8 bed. 1 hour per watering. Hay mulch like you have. Soil never gets dry.
Plants are very happy so far.
No curl or signs of heat stress
I’ve tried this in central TX 9b and this would happen every year. They limp along during the summer and once fall comes they will rock as long as you help them through it.
Pull it and get rid of it. If you cut it, make sure you clean your clippers and disinfect them.