Sudden Death

[ButterflyGarden]

My very hearty tomato plant just withered over night! It's in a Topsy Turvy and has been getting sufficient sun and water. The rest of the tomatoes on my balcony are fine. I can't figure out what the problem is. Any ideas?

[hit or miss]

Wow! That looks to me like a severe lack of water but..... I feel for you, I hate losing plants.

[gixxerific]

With so little info it's hard to say. I can't tell form the pics but it doesn't look like disease.

I had one die myself suddenly. Than I had another wilted about half way I watered it and it is healthy and has fruit on it a week later (first one with fruit) so go figure that one out.

I wouldn't think Israel to be cold now. So over watering would not be an issue I would not think. You said they had sufficient water Here with the weather changing by the hour water is an issue.

Good luck just keep an eye on your other plants and maybe someone else will be able to help.

[soil]

I hate those upside down tomato things...

[ButterflyGarden]

Unless somehow the Tospy Turvy (this is my first try with one) is preventing all the water from getting to the plant, it is not being under watered. That was also the first thing I thought too when I first saw the plant but its for sure not the case. The place where the plant comes out of the bag seems to be getting very thin.

[TZ -OH6]

Sounds like Southern Blight


https://www.ento.okstate.edu/ddd/diseases/southernblight.htm

[ButterflyGarden]

Interesting, but there is no white on the plant the the soil is new potting soil.

[rainbowgardener]

I haven't used one, but from what I have read here, the Topsy-Turvy's can make proper watering very difficult. You keep assuring us it had plenty of water, but

*it is a very small amount of soil for a tomato (I tried growing a tomato plant in a regular container on my deck, bigger than the T-T, ended up giving up because I could not keep it watered enough, it would have needed twice a day)

*instead of the plant shading the soil to help it conserve moisture, the soil is hung up in the sun and wind to dessicate

*on top of all this the soil and the plant appear to be directly in front of a white wall which would reflect all the heat back, baking them. It slowed me down a bit that you said it happened over night. That would argue against the too hot and dry theory since it should be cooler at night. But the wall would keep reflecting heat through the night, thus continuing to desiccate the plant and not giving it time to recover.

[ButterflyGarden]

hmmm, I hear your point about the set up of the TT. My question is that I have 8 other tomato plants and 8 pepper plants in regular containers against the same stone wall. (I don't know if it matters but its not a true white, the color is hard to describe but it is made of Jerusalem stone like all the buildings here.) If the wall is reflecting heat why aren't the other plants reacting in the same way? Could it be that the TT makes the soil more vulnerable because of the material it is made out of? (Also, we have been having some unseasonably cool weather the last several days (when this happened).)

I received it as a gift from someone in America and decided to try it since the one thing everyone is short on here is space. My balcony is about 1 meter by 3 meters and serves as my garden, play area for the kids, BBQ spot (on the other side of the balcony away from the plants), and a place to sit in the evenings and try to cool down when it gets really hot. Israelis are really into using every free centimeter of space in the best way possible (you should see some of the creative furniture we have here) so the idea of hanging tomatoes and making use of the vertical space was really appealing. However, if the TT is really as fussy as it sounds than maybe it's not worth it.