This year’s tomatoes are looking sad and I’m not sure what went wrong. They were off to a great start, but then started developing spots on the leaves, drooping and wilting shortly after we put them in the ground. Not sure what we did wrong. This is also our first year trying a tarp to reduce late blight, but that can’t be the reason, right?
Can you spot the issue?
Davekinney0u812
Looks like sun scald on the first leaves & should recover. Not sure where you’re located & how hot it gets but that black tarp might throw off too much heat up to the plants as well as down to the roots. I think that tarp will help with preventing soil from splashing up on the leaves & causing leaf spot but not sure how much it will help with late blight as that tends to be more of an airborne & environmental thing, I believe.
I would suggest putting some wheat straw down on top of the tarp to keep things cool. I don’t use a tarp to control weeds but I put down about 6″ (which compacts to about 3″) of wheat straw to control weeds & keep the soil cool – which helps the natural biology of the soil do what it does – & what it does plays an important part in growing healthy plants. I get the odd weed but they’re super easy to pull out.
2 Comments
Hello, fellow tomato lovers!
This year’s tomatoes are looking sad and I’m not sure what went wrong. They were off to a great start, but then started developing spots on the leaves, drooping and wilting shortly after we put them in the ground. Not sure what we did wrong. This is also our first year trying a tarp to reduce late blight, but that can’t be the reason, right?
Can you spot the issue?
Looks like sun scald on the first leaves & should recover. Not sure where you’re located & how hot it gets but that black tarp might throw off too much heat up to the plants as well as down to the roots. I think that tarp will help with preventing soil from splashing up on the leaves & causing leaf spot but not sure how much it will help with late blight as that tends to be more of an airborne & environmental thing, I believe.
I would suggest putting some wheat straw down on top of the tarp to keep things cool. I don’t use a tarp to control weeds but I put down about 6″ (which compacts to about 3″) of wheat straw to control weeds & keep the soil cool – which helps the natural biology of the soil do what it does – & what it does plays an important part in growing healthy plants. I get the odd weed but they’re super easy to pull out.