Not sure what happened, 2 days ago it looked fine, yesterday it looked a bit droopy and today it's looking even worse. I have 5 total plants in this bed and the other 4 look great, any ideas on what could be the issue?
by LakeSucker
21 Comments
mediocre_remnants
It could be something like voles or moles eating the roots. When a plant wilts this quickly when others are doing fine it usually means root damage. The plant just can’t take up enough water and it wilts.
In my area this usually only happens with seedlings… there are many times where I’ve seen a young plant wilted, pulled it out of the ground, and it just came out easily with no roots attached.
fooajk
I’m having the same problem. But my tomatoes are in containers.
bigoussy
I put earth worms in my planter and my tomatoes look great, they are now blooming and look very healthy. I also put eggs shells in the soil and banana water.
ZzLavergne
Mine did that, my first time growing and I thought they constantly needed water, come to find out, I literally drowned them, this might not be your case, but it does happen.
Spiritual_Nose_6647
I had a similar thing happen. It was due to cutworms. I dug around the top two inches of soil and found dozens (40) cutworm larvae and a few pupae. I also discovered that birds really like them!
Illustrious-Win-8714
I would say dig it up and check if something is eating the roots. I’m 90% sure that is the issue, and at this point you dont have much to lose as it seems it will die if you leave it there. On the other hand, its a tomato plant. Technically those things can come back from even a semi truck rolling over them. If you dont find any obvious issue or bugs, maybe try to carefully wash the roots to remove anything that could be causing issues and try planting it somewhere else, a bit deeper so it has a chance to make additional roots along the stem. Keep the soil moist (dont drown it), it will look rough for a few days but it should come back.
South-Chapter-5178
Did you attempt to self pollinate? Asking because that happened to me once when I tried self pollinating- but it was a potted balcony tomato in Japan so lots of variables
littlefishsticks
I accidentally was drowning one of my tomatoes, once I dug it up and put it in dry soil it was able to be revived. Stick your finger into the soil near the base and see how moist the soil is (or isn’t) and maybe you can tell if the same thing is happening here. You can check my post history, mine looked just like this with no other signs of disease and all the plant around it looked fine
Reddit_Talent_Coach
That tomato plant is just like me.
redditcreditcardz
Man, do I feel that. Some days I just wanna lay limp too
CodenameZoya
This happened to one of mine basically overnight. I think something ate the roots.
Epicsensi-
too much dog pee. you really put some fruit bearing plants on the apron?
the other one looks great, but I wouldn’t eat anything off em if I were u..
ChineseFireball
I had two plants do this after a heavy storm. They eventually bounced back and they’re both producing fruit. One of them lost about half its leaves during the ordeal because it got so hot. I never bothered to check the roots but I’d say carefully check your roots for issues otherwise just keep up with some light watering and hope for the best.
dashortkid89
do you have grubs? something could be eating the roots. you can dig around and see. if you can remove the thing, the tomato plant may recover. i had to move my plants 4 times the first year due to pests and such.
Own-Holiday-6212
He done pooted- out. 🙂↕️
LakeSucker
Combed through everyone’s comments and I’ll check out the roots in the morning, they didn’t look damaged at the base of the stem earlier but I’ll definitely give them a second look.
Overwatering was my first thought because we’ve had a lot of consistent rain so the bed hasn’t been drying out much in between storms, just weird that it is only affecting that one plant. Might pop some “breathing holes” in the mulch around to try and get the soil to evaporate more water.
And the dog pee, I personally find delicious. Adds a tang to homemade sauces that you can’t really replicate with anything else.
substandardpoodle
Replant it!! Dig a little 3” deep trench and lay it down, cover it up and tamp the soil down firmly and water it. And water the leaves. A tomato plant is basically just a giant root.
GetToTheChomper
If soil moisture or damaged roots aren’t the problem, this is very likely wilt – a disease caused by soil borne pathogens. If you cut through one of the main stems on the plant and see brown in the vascular tissue, that’s a telltale sign.
If it is wilt, it could end up killing the other tomatoes in that bed eventually, though some tomato varieties are resistant to wilts. Unfortunately, the disease can stay in your soil for a long time, so do some research, you may need to rethink how you plant things in the future.
TwoAlert3448
Given that it’s curbside did a ton of dogs pee on it? If so pH test and amend. Tomatoes don’t like acid and dog pee is acidic.
And anyone whose ever eaten chicken or pork has no room to be squeamish about pee watered tomatoes. Hope you can save it OP!
nodiggitydogs
Did you feed it plant food right before this happened
MindbankAOK
Under watered or over fertilized is my first guess. If it is some nefarious burrowing creature I would leave it as a decoy for my other plants.
21 Comments
It could be something like voles or moles eating the roots. When a plant wilts this quickly when others are doing fine it usually means root damage. The plant just can’t take up enough water and it wilts.
In my area this usually only happens with seedlings… there are many times where I’ve seen a young plant wilted, pulled it out of the ground, and it just came out easily with no roots attached.
I’m having the same problem. But my tomatoes are in containers.
I put earth worms in my planter and my tomatoes look great, they are now blooming and look very healthy.
I also put eggs shells in the soil and banana water.
Mine did that, my first time growing and I thought they constantly needed water, come to find out, I literally drowned them, this might not be your case, but it does happen.
I had a similar thing happen. It was due to cutworms. I dug around the top two inches of soil and found dozens (40) cutworm larvae and a few pupae. I also discovered that birds really like them!
I would say dig it up and check if something is eating the roots. I’m 90% sure that is the issue, and at this point you dont have much to lose as it seems it will die if you leave it there. On the other hand, its a tomato plant. Technically those things can come back from even a semi truck rolling over them. If you dont find any obvious issue or bugs, maybe try to carefully wash the roots to remove anything that could be causing issues and try planting it somewhere else, a bit deeper so it has a chance to make additional roots along the stem. Keep the soil moist (dont drown it), it will look rough for a few days but it should come back.
Did you attempt to self pollinate? Asking because that happened to me once when I tried self pollinating- but it was a potted balcony tomato in Japan so lots of variables
I accidentally was drowning one of my tomatoes, once I dug it up and put it in dry soil it was able to be revived. Stick your finger into the soil near the base and see how moist the soil is (or isn’t) and maybe you can tell if the same thing is happening here. You can check my post history, mine looked just like this with no other signs of disease and all the plant around it looked fine
That tomato plant is just like me.
Man, do I feel that. Some days I just wanna lay limp too
This happened to one of mine basically overnight. I think something ate the roots.
too much dog pee. you really put some fruit bearing plants on the apron?
the other one looks great, but I wouldn’t eat anything off em if I were u..
I had two plants do this after a heavy storm. They eventually bounced back and they’re both producing fruit. One of them lost about half its leaves during the ordeal because it got so hot. I never bothered to check the roots but I’d say carefully check your roots for issues otherwise just keep up with some light watering and hope for the best.
do you have grubs? something could be eating the roots. you can dig around and see. if you can remove the thing, the tomato plant may recover. i had to move my plants 4 times the first year due to pests and such.
He done pooted- out. 🙂↕️
Combed through everyone’s comments and I’ll check out the roots in the morning, they didn’t look damaged at the base of the stem earlier but I’ll definitely give them a second look.
Overwatering was my first thought because we’ve had a lot of consistent rain so the bed hasn’t been drying out much in between storms, just weird that it is only affecting that one plant. Might pop some “breathing holes” in the mulch around to try and get the soil to evaporate more water.
And the dog pee, I personally find delicious. Adds a tang to homemade sauces that you can’t really replicate with anything else.
Replant it!! Dig a little 3” deep trench and lay it down, cover it up and tamp the soil down firmly and water it. And water the leaves. A tomato plant is basically just a giant root.
If soil moisture or damaged roots aren’t the problem, this is very likely wilt – a disease caused by soil borne pathogens. If you cut through one of the main stems on the plant and see brown in the vascular tissue, that’s a telltale sign.
If it is wilt, it could end up killing the other tomatoes in that bed eventually, though some tomato varieties are resistant to wilts. Unfortunately, the disease can stay in your soil for a long time, so do some research, you may need to rethink how you plant things in the future.
Given that it’s curbside did a ton of dogs pee on it? If so pH test and amend. Tomatoes don’t like acid and dog pee is acidic.
And anyone whose ever eaten chicken or pork has no room to be squeamish about pee watered tomatoes. Hope you can save it OP!
Did you feed it plant food right before this happened
Under watered or over fertilized is my first guess. If it is some nefarious burrowing creature I would leave it as a decoy for my other plants.