I planted one Barry's Crazy Cherry plant on Feb 4. About a month later, I went out to check on it and found it dying. I am wondering what happened.
Yes, we had a freeze event, but Barry had warmth and a cover and took only a small amount of foliar damage. That was weeks ago and it was growing and healthy after that. It even put on a couple of fruit and a couple of new flower clusters. Then it just keeled over the other day.
There were no signs of digging in the bed and I didn't see any chew marks on the stem.
It had plenty of water but not too much. The other plants (mostly flowers) in that bed are not looking unhappy or stressed. It got identical treatment to the bed in the background and those tomatoes are doing great. It does get a tiny bit less sun but not enough to kill the plant over 24 hours like this.
I don't think it's a soil issue because again, I have multiple other beds in the same area built in the same way and filled from the same soil, given the same fertilizer at planting, etc.
Why did it die?! Usually if I lose plants it's right after transplanting.
by ObsessiveAboutCats
10 Comments
Also note it has a raised bed mostly to itself: about 2 feet wide, 5 feet long and 3 feet tall. It has tons of space and it was still a pretty small plant.
Sometimes transplants don’t take due to being root bound or a moisture difference between the bed soil and the original root ball…. Just a thought.
Looks like maybe stem rot in the picture? Possibly pythium. It’s possible this variety is more prone to over watering issues. You could try digging up the root ball and see if there’s crown rot.
How loose is the soil? If you dig a finger in, is it sopping wet? Have you got a moisture meter?
need to make a bacteria tea. it will break down nutrients for the plant to absorb better. when i started using a tea i never had this problem again. use tea every watering and after it rains.
If it’s snapped there at the bottom, could chop it up and make a few plants from it. Just put it in a cup of dirt. I put them in a tray of water out of direct sun and just keep water in the tray until they’re perky.
When a tomato plant that is well established, like this one, dies very fast, like almost overnight in your case, the first cause that comes to mind is Bacterial Wilt. Most other tomato diseases develop more slowly. Unfortunately, there’s no effective treatment. There are, however, tests you can do yourself to see if that is the correct diagnosis. Here’s link that describes them. Sorry for your loss.
[https://www.clemson.edu/public/regulatory/plant-problem/fact-sheets/bac-wilt-tomato.html](https://www.clemson.edu/public/regulatory/plant-problem/fact-sheets/bac-wilt-tomato.html)
So it was left for a month? On its own?
If you had a freeze event, then I’m assuming you planted it too soon. I think you answered your own question. The temps were too low for it survive and it eventually succumbed to it. Have the overnight lows been averaging around 55 degrees, since you planted it?
The bottom of the stem got infected and rotted away. You can clearly see it being brown and dried up. This sometimes happens and there is no way of saving the plant. Remove it and desinfect the hole it grew in with boiling water