tomato stems going black please help

leefarley · Mon Aug 10, 2009 9:47 am

I just started to grow tomato plants in a home made green house. Its been going great but now I have found some of my tomato plant stems and only some leaves going dark green/black and I'm not sure why this is. I have about ten growing but only 2-3 has gone this way can some one help me please.

kimbledawn · Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:33 am

I'm Sure that someone with much more knowledge than myself will respond but I think that your plants have some type or blight or other disease. I would pull those plants before they infect the others.

One of my pepper plants had a fungus, and looked terrible and I thought that I could save it, When I finally pulled it I had to pull three others and it had infected all the plants in that bed and the bed besides it. Most of my plants were filled with new flowers and buds and they lost them all and most of their leaves. I still have my other plants but I don't know if they will recover before the end of the season.

I hope you get it under control.

The Helpful Gardener · Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:56 pm

lee, the bad news is this year that is likely [url=https://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3102.html]late blight[/url], get it out of the house (disposing of the plants by burning or bagged in the trash). I have dumped one but kept the rest clean by disposing early, and a blackening stem was my first sign...

HG

leefarley · Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:34 am

the only thing I cant work out is there still growing more and more flowers on them would it not affect them or do you think I may have some thing else

kimbledawn · Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:44 am

I have read on this forum that sometimes when a plant is stressed/ dying it tries to seed, so any fruit will ripen prematurely and buds will flower etc to quickly produce as many seeds as possible before it dies. I don't know much, this is my first year gardening, but I have had many of the pest and diseases mentioned here. I still have a garden because of info gained here and other places on the internet.

I would say if you have plants not infected, you still have a chance for a good crop, if you let your whole green house get infected it could be very bad, not only this year but next year also.

leefarley · Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:32 am

so how does it start and why does it happen am I doing something wrong and will it happen again if I start again as some of them are starting to get it as well but only small amount a bit here and there

The Helpful Gardener · Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:22 pm

That's the evil of late blight my friend; you did nothing wrong. It's airborne and prolific and it spreads like wildfire and once it is in the stem it's a goner. Ditch it fast and you might save the others... otherwise

In a greenhouse situation you are moving air through even passively by heating (if you ain't already running a fan, sucking in air for cooling) and it will move around as it spores again. Cut your losses and discard. Start preventitive measures with milk, fish compost tea; hey, I will be trying some nettle tea as fertilizer tomorrow that is also supposed to act as a fungicide, but after chucking one I was sure about, I am staying clean. It can be done...

HG