Cherry Tomato leaves drying up around the edges and browning

[jerseyguy1996]

Good Morning. This is my first time posting to this forum. This is also my first time with a vegetable garden in New Jersey although I have had vegetable gardens in Texas where I am originally from. My cherry tomato plants are putting out flowers and tomatos like crazy (my first tomato was ripe just this morning). However, overall the plants (3 of them) look pretty unhealthy. They are putting out tons of growth at the tops but everything below the new growth looks scraggly and the leaves are brown and crispy around the edges. Any ideas what this may be? Pictures are below.

[img]https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4705515975_f54f6aea92_b.jpg[/img]


[img]https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4706158790_ea385e71d5_b.jpg[/img]

[Lunacy]

I can't help you Jerseyguy, but I have a cherry tomato plant that is doing the same thing. Mine is in a Topsy Turvy upside down container so I thought it could be the water since it runs down the stem. I will be very interested in the replys you get from the guys who know.

Good luck, good gardening.

[pizzarrhea]

I'm a newb when it comes to gardening but from what I know, that kinda looks like early blight.

[LindsayArthurRTR]

Have your plants wilted badly lately. I've had lots of blight problems, especially with the climate here, and in my experiences it doesn't look like that. I have had tomatoes look like yours. Where only the leaf margins are affected. That has only happened to me when the plants became very wilted, then revived.

My blight infected plants usually turn yellow. I mean the whole affected branch, not the whole plant, usually starting from the bottom branches up.

[gaberdeen]

Maybe it"s a Jersey thing. I just pulled up one of my cherry tomato plants this morning. Looked exactly the same as yours. I need to get some straw mulch down tomorrow, too much dirt splashing up on the leaves when I water. I also went out and bought some micro drip irrigation to put in tomorrow. Hopefully this will help. Good luck.

[TZ -OH6]

Look up tomato bacterial canker and see if it fits your plants.

[jerseyguy1996]

It definately doesn't look like any images of tomato bacterial canker. The leaves never really dry up completely. Just the edges. It is still putting out flowers and fruit. I think I may have made a mistake of watering too much. I am from texas where it will get so hot that one day of missed watering could dry out your entire garden. So my habit is to water any day that there is no rain. I try to water around the base of the plants with a hose and spray nozzel. I was going to try to water less but of course last night everything got soaked from a heavy storm that passed through. Hopefully it will pick up if I let the soil dry out a little. Thanks for everyones replys. On another note.....all of my other tomato plants look perfectly healthy.

[gixxerific]

Even when it gets hot, almost especially when it get's hot. You should hold off on the watering for a few day's at a time. Doing this will FORCE the roots of any plant to delve deeper to find the moisture it so needs. If you water every day the roots won't do this they will stay in upper reaches of the soil. Which in turn can hurt the plant in the long run since the roots are closer to the surface when the heat get's a cranking.

The general rule is an inch a week, an inch is quite a bit of water though. Another general rule is to poke you finger in the soil if is is dry a few inches down it needs water.

When you water don't just give them a little bit but soak them good so the water penetrates deep and the roots follow.

All that being said watering is one of my worst problems. I am working on it though. I sometimes water everyday but that is not good for them. Also if your plants are wilting they are either getting too much or not enough water. So if it has been raining it's butt off like and they are wilting leave them go. If it has been dry and they are wilting soak them to no end they will spring right back.

This might not have anything to do with your problem but a little info can't hurt.

Good luck.

[engineeredgarden]

Watering is perhaps the biggest issue with people's tomatoes each year. Gixx is dead on with his recommendations.....

EG

[garden5]

Looking at some of the spots on the leaves, it may be early blight.

[cynthia_h]

Here is a fact sheet on early blight, complete with photos. I see no evidence that that is the problem with your plants:

https://www.potatodiseases.org/earlyblight.html

Have you followed up on TZ-OH6's suggestion? Or have the plants themselves given any further indications as to what may be going on?

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

Major setback for Vergil yesterday...somehow, he's managed to develop a septic (!) left "wrist." So now he has two non-functioning legs: back right, front left. He's on all kinds of meds.... but at last he was able to sleep last night and is still sleeping at 7:30 this morning.

[Cirtes]

I get this an a few plants every year. I do not know the exact cause but I beleive it is a bacterial infection.

I did a compost tea this year and in my lazyness I let the tea sit for a couple weeks before applying to ~ a dozen plants. 11 out of 12 plants did the edge of leaf necrosis thing including my Cherokee Purple. Druzba was the only one to ignore it.

All plants recovered and are doing well now.

As soon as the temps went up and moisture down, the dissease subsided.

What I did in an attempt to help:

Applied ~ 1 inch of fine sifted composted steer manuer to cover the bed.
Dropped in a half dozen red worms at base of each plant.
Went 100% drip irrigation. (was doing to do this anyway to eliminate splash infections).
Mulched with ~2 inches of cedar bark.

Did it help? Can't say for sure. For all I know the plants could have recovered on their own. But in the end, all recovered and are producing well.

Good Luck!

[missmckee83]

[url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/51375593@N08/4718326172/[/url]

I think I am having a similar problem. Could be wrong of course. I linked a photo of my tomatoes above (hopefully works). The tomato on the left is a cherry tomato and the right is a beefsteak.

They have been outside for a week now, I grew them indoors from seed. There was a heavy storm this week with lots of rain and wind. I normally water my garden about every 2 days since it is soooo hot. I check the soil first to see how dry it is. Water does seem to sit in these two pots a lot which worries me. I try to empty off as much as poss but it smells pretty bad actually. Could be because of the bloodmeal fertiliser that I used when first potted them.

Basically this is the first time I have ever grown tomatoes. I don't know if I have overwatered them, underwatered, if they have a disease its a pest or what. Or is this normal??

I also planted some of these two plants in wooden boxes that seem to be happier but they were planted out a week beforehand. I did my best to harden everyone off before going outside. Took about 2 weeks to do so. Btw I am in VA so very hot everyday with thunderstorms all the time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you.

[Cirtes]

Missmckee,

You need to zoom in on a single leaf with symptoms to get any advice. Too far away to tell.

They do look under stress.

[missmckee83]

Missmckee,

You need to zoom in on a single leaf with symptoms to get any advice. Too far away to tell.

They do look under stress.

I just went and took some more pictures and include the links here:

[url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/51375593@N08/4722898652/[/url]

[url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/51375593@N08/4722897932/[/url]

[url]https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1200/4722244243_238f567c6a_m.jpg[/url]

[url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/51375593@N08/4722896780/[/url]

Any help would be much appreciated!!

[jerseyguy1996]

So I stopped watering my tomatoes a few days ago and so far I haven't seen any change. Still putting out lots of growth on top but as quickly as the new growth comes in, the edges start to turn brown and crispy. Very few leaves have completely dried out and the plant still seems to be putting out new flowers. It just looks really ragged. Hopefully a little more time without the watering will help. Could this be a fungus and is there a fungicide that could help?

[Cirtes]

I just went and took some more pictures and include the links here:

[url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/51375593@N08/4722898652/[/url]

[url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/51375593@N08/4722897932/[/url]

[url]https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1200/4722244243_238f567c6a_m.jpg[/url]

[url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/51375593@N08/4722896780/[/url]

Any help would be much appreciated!!

Missmckee, looks like early blight. The last picture shows a ring-lesion with what appears to be yellowing around a necrotic spot. This is typical of early blight which is a fungal infection.

Treatments like Neem Oil or Seranade can be used for control. There are also less organic fungicides available.

Again, the pictures are not clear so my suggestion of cause is less than certain.

[jerseyguy1996]

I took a drastic step over the weekend and clipped off all of the affected branches which was about 80% of the leaves. Based on the ease with which some of them came off (without even clipping) I would say that the plant was already ahead of me with the idea. My thought was that if it was a fungus perhaps I can get ahead of it and try to prevent the spread. So far the plant seems to not have minded the major trimming and all fruit is still intact and ripening at a usual pace. A few of my plum tomotoes had some end rot so I pulled off the affected fruit and purchased some organic fertilizer that was high in calcium. Hopefully this will clean some of this up.