Chateau Joe
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:33 am
Location: Northern NY

My tomatos are dying

I have had this problem where my tomatos start dying from the bottom up but never this soon. I get one crop of tomatoes and then the entire plant turns brown. What can I do to stop this?

[url]https://www.realtree.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12091&d=1341412976[/url]

[url]https://www.realtree.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12090&d=1341412874[/url]

Jeffross1968
Senior Member
Posts: 119
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:00 pm
Location: Western NC Zone 6b

Having the exact same problem. Last year, all I grew were determinate store bought varieties. This year I bought some heirloom varieties and started by seed. I had an amazing year last year, but this year, all my tomato plants look like mine, and I'm afraid I won't be getting much out of them...

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Heirloom varieties don't have all the disease resistance bred into them that hybrids do.

The tomato plants pictured have some kind of fungal disease. Since the leaves are so far gone (and I'm no expert on diagnosing different diseases) I don't know if it is a blight or wilt or septoria, but they are all fungal diseases with basically the same treatment.

Remove all the infected leaves and then spray the whole plant, especially the underside of all the leaves and the soil around it, with some plant anti-fungal.

Plant anti-fungals include a milk solution (type it into the Search the Forum feature for instructions), baking powder solution,

1 tablespoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon of liquid soap (not detergent)
1 gallon of water

hydrogen peroxide sprayed straight from the bottle

or organic commercial products such as Neem Oil and Serenade.

Pick one and try it, don't try mixing stuff, they can counteract each other. Re-apply or try a different one after a week or after it rains.

Chateau Joe
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:33 am
Location: Northern NY

Thank you!

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applestar
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Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

This type of disease is often spread by soil splashing up while watering. It's a good idea to put down mulch to prevent this.

My favorite method is to skim/hoe the weeds around the plant and then first put down a layer of good compost (compost contains beneficial microorganisms and friendly fungi that will either compete with oractualy kill the malicious microorganisms in the soil), then cover with grass clippings, any weeds that were cut or pulled, etc. until the compost layer is protected from the sun. After that just keep adding "mulching" material whenever you weed. :wink:



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