Hey everyone, so I’ve grown my own tomatoes from seeds this year and a couple of my plants got withered stems/maybe root rot or a bacterial disease that caused their stems to wither. Surprisingly, some have survived and even thrived like this guy. Should I just plant this one deeper, and cover up the withering stem so it can grow more roots – as it just falls over if it’s not supported – or should I just put it out of its misery. What do yall think? Thanks in advance.
by bigfatbooger
4 Comments
That has got to be the most bizarre thing I’ve seen, it’s still alive after that? If you plant it deep it should absolutely send out more roots and I guess it could end up fine, that’s crazy. What causes the stem to go like that?
looks plenty healthy honestly, just prune some lower leaves off and bury it deeper – see what happens
This looks like damping off disease.
More than likely a pathogen in the soil.
Tomatoes also do not like having “wet feet.” So, these containers without holes for proper drainage will never be successful in growing mature and healthy tomato plants.
There is no cure or treatment for damping off disease.
You can try to save them by planting them in a proper container deeper than the thinning point. You’ll need to prune some foliage to get it deep enough. The survival rate is low and even the survivors are low production plants.
If you can plant them outside they like may have the best chance of survival.
This happened to a couple of my tomato plants. I believe it happens when a seedling doesn’t get enough light early in its life. The seedling gets stretched and then when you do give it the proper sunlight that part remains stretched while the rest above fills out. I would recommend planting your tomato’s deep, where that thinner part is completely under the soil. The damaged part will put out roots that will help to thicken that part of the plant.
Could also be a disease but since I buried my plants deep I have seen no damage to the rest of the plant and my tomatoes are doing great.