I've had a lot of success over the years with tomatoes.
5 years ago we moved to a new house.
The first crop of tomatoes got what we thought was blight.
We read that blight can take 3-5 years to clear up in your soil, and best practice was to rotate and not grow in the same spot.
So each season, I use brand new soil in a different location.
This past season I grew them in completely new raised beds with new soil that had never had tomatoes.
By July, the lower branches on each plant started to die. The tops were green and healthy and still making flowers and tomatoes. I aggressively trimmed the dead branches but the upper branches still were producing tomatoes so I let them go.
The sungolds still made massive amounts of tomatoes. The Cherokee Purple and Black Krim were far less productive. We got tomatoes off of each, but far less than we've had in the past.
I do get hornworms every year. After the first year when they picked 2 entire plants clean before we found them, we aggressively look for them and pull them off as quickly as we find them.
This year I again moved to a different area of the garden, and planted in new soil. I want to prevent whatever has been happening to them. I planted 15 babies that I hope have a productive season.
Based on these pictures, can anyone help me diagnose what went wrong last season?
Blight or another fungus?
Over or under watering?
Lack of fertilizer?
by denvergardener
16 Comments
Oh no, that’s heartbreaking to look at 😢
Looks like healthy green growth on the top? Just prune off the lower branches as they finish their job. Totally normal for the stem to turn brown as the plant grows taller and taller. If you get to it before it’s too woody, you can carefully bend the stem to drop it all down and return all the brown stem, it will send new roots and you’ll be back to a more manageable sized plant.
I don’t know why, but the same thing happened to me last year. First year gardening, brand new raised bed.
What fertilizers are you using? Are you keeping them well-watered? Your plants kind of look the way mine do when they outgrow their pots.
To prevent downy mildew you need to treat with copper products once every 7-10 days
Mine got destroyed last summer by wilt disease ( my best guess ), and I didn’t even bother starting any seeds for this summer. I’m thinking about trying for a fall crop to avoid the heat and humidity. Anyway, I’m just commenting to offer you moral support. Don’t give up!
Ease off the fertilizer and don’t prune.
“Denver”..this isn’t Downey Mildew, it’s late blight. Both are fungi and can’t be cured only managed. Liquid Copper is one product, Daconil is a better more effective choice, it’s used by many commercial growers like my dad. One of the issues are the tomato varieties you’re attempting to grow, open pollinated and heirlooms like Cherokee Purple have no disease resistance in their genetics unlike many of the newer hybrids. If you want to continue growing these varieties, I’d suggest pruning to promote better airflow and more distance between each plant at transplant. Another product available that we use is Captan, it’s sprayed twice a month on all our peppers and tomatoes.
Plant borage for the horn worms, pruning away lower branches aggressively, more space between your plants, like a row a basil separating them. Try a mix of indeterminate and determinate tomatoes. A later sowing with some determinate tomatoes will miss early blight. Mulch to prevent soil splash back on your plants. Thin the foliage regularly to provide good air flow. Don’t plant all your tomatoes in one spot, spread them through your garden, pests love monoculture. That’s a lot I know, but it will help. I did straw bale gardening last year in a spot in my plot that I am working on fixing poor soil in, they went all summer, no blight, they didn’t grow in soil, so no issues there. A lot of work to avoid blossom end rot.
I have had great success using this stuff: [https://bonide.com/product/revitalize-bio-fungicide-conc/](https://bonide.com/product/revitalize-bio-fungicide-conc/) Tried it the first time last year, and had no issues with blight, at all. I don’t usually get early blight, which is what I think you have, but did usually get late blight towards fall. Plants went the distance after using this a few times at the beginning of the season.
Honestly that’s how I remember tomato plants as a kid in the garden.i think they look fine and I think they get hot and I think they like it…
That’s what I think anyway.
Sungolds are a very hardy and resistant variety. Cherokee Purple and Black Krim are not. The Johnny’s site has excellent details about which varieties are resistant to what. So next year, get seeds of varieties that are resistant.
I prune my indeterminates to 1 or 2 main stems and use plant Velcro to tie to 10 ft. Bamboo stakes I bought on Amazon. The year before I used 6 ft powder coated rods and my plants grew too tall. It was difficult, but we were able to remove those and replace with the taller bamboo mid summer. Keeping them pruned is key so they don’t get out of hand. I still get plenty of tomatoes and really large size. I will say that some varieties object to the pruning by rolling their leaves, like Black Krim and Cherokee Purple but most are fine. Pruning gives you a nice organized garden. Fruit is easy to find and pick. Also since there is more airflow there is less disease and not as much foliage to fed and watered so to it goes to the fruit. The only downside is there is less shade and that might be the issue with the black varieties that roll their leaves.
https://preview.redd.it/amz4v3t19x1f1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20d485ddabc8e066b60fdf331a61e2ece9100d30
You can solarize your beds with wet soil# a black tarp and a week of hot temps go kill blight in soil.
Hard to tell. Might be some type of viral disease considering the damage.
How hot of a summer did you deal with? Do you deal with summer rains? The main thing is to do preventative measures, such as spraying an organic fungicide at the beginning of the season, before any diseases have set in.
Here’s a great video about spraying your tomatoes:
https://youtu.be/URHUUAzqfR0