charminbilly2

Tomato plants shedding blossoms

HELP!! My Better Boy hybrids have started curling, then yellowing on lower leaves. New blossoms are dropping off and not setting fruit. Plants are caged inside concrete reinforcing mesh and have grown to 6' and continuing growing. It has been extremely hot and dry this summer in NW Indiana. Plants are given approx 3 gallons water every other day.I am presently harvesting fruit. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

opabinia51
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3 gallons of water every other day might be a bit excessive in watering. Check the soil with a chopstick before watering. Stick the chopstick into the soil (all the way) and pull it out. If there is dirt stuck on the stick, you should probably not water until the next day.

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Grey
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This also may or may not be your problem, but are you using city water on your plants? Mine REEKS of bleach so until I get my rain barrels set up, I've been keeping some water in buckets so the chemicals go away a bit.

The Helpful Gardener
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Sounds fungal to me, likely splah up from those bottom leaves has climbed into the blooms...

Happened to one of my Brandywines this year as well; I removed infected leaves immediately (as well as burnt blooms and any other infected looking parts) and while it looked nude for a bit (especially down bottom) it cleaned itself up and is setting good fruit as we speak.

It need not always be about spraying and dusting (although I also sprayed diluted milk on all my tomatoes when the problem first started). Simple cleanliness and maintenance goes a long way in keeping really big problems at bay...

opabinia51
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Milk? That's a neat idea. What is the premise behind spraying milk on the plants? I would guess that it would feed the beneficial population of microbes and what not that are already on the leaves.

charminbilly2

Thank all of you for your replies.

opabinia51
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Posts: 4659
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
Location: Victoria, BC

You're welcome. You may wish to activate your user name. There are some perks such as getting private messages and being able to send them out. Though, we tend to like to post relevent gardening information where everyone can see it.



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