dazzjazz
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Joined: Fri Dec 09, 2016 7:26 pm

Somewhat clueless with tomatoes

Hi,

I'm having trouble with my tomato plants. I have two different varieties of cherry tomatoes.
These were planted about 2 months ago into well fertilised soil and get ample water, with some fish fertiliser once in awhile.
The main stem and older leaves seem to be dying, while the rest of the plant is doing well and fruiting.
Please have a look at the two photos attached and comment.

Thanks

Darren

PS I'm in Australia.
IMG_3531.jpg
IMG_3530.jpg

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

Hello! How nice to see green, growing garden when we are heading into winter here in the north.

Looking at your photos, I'm thinking it's a little hard to tell what might be going on. But I would start by going ahead and cutting off the browned and dried up leaves (entire leaf stems). If the branch/stalk stems are still alive, then new side shoots may grow, but if those are also dried up, then they can be cut off as well.

Don't worry about cutting them -- Cherry tomatoes will do fine if pruned to 4-6 main vines per plant and tied up to trellis or other support. This will get the fruits up off the ground, too. The foliage will do better with improved air circulation.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Older leaves do die and fungal diseases usually start at the bottom. Eventually the tomatoes are going to be mostly legs with a green only at the top. It looks like you had a very short trellis and most of the vines are sprawling. Tomatoes will do that. Try a
taller trellis (7ft CRW cage, or prune tomatoes on a string line). It keeps it neater longer.

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jal_ut
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Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

In this high dry and cool climate I need the 80 day tomatoes. (So called because they are supposed to produce a harvest in 80 days) They may be called 80 day tomato but here they take closer to 90 days. I have tried those longer day tomatoes which get the very large fruit. However, they usually get frozen with a bunch of little green tomatoes on them.

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jal_ut
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I don't trellis tomatoes. I lay newspaper on the ground around them and cover it with a mulch of grass clippings and let them sprawl.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

You can do that in a dry climate, but Australia can be semi tropical and humid in the North and while it is semi desert in the middle and temperate in the south. So, because it is a large continent we really need Darren to tell us what part he is from. Australia's seasons and climate is opposite of the Northern hemisphere.

If he lives in Northern Australia where it is more tropical, then it is better to trellis up and allow more space between the vines for air movement. There is a fence in the background and plants should be planted away from that to maximize light and air. Not enough light and poor air movement increases problems with fungal diseases and decreases fruit production. You can let vines sprawl if you have enough space in the tropics and if it is the dry season.

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jal_ut
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Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

Australia? Can you get Stock Fencing or Feedlot Panels? These are usually 16 feet long and 4 feet tall. Built from heavy wire. A couple of steel posts will be needed to hold them erect. These would be good tomato supports.

tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/feedlot-panel-combo-16-ft-l-x-52-in-h-3610341?cm_mmc=feed-_-GoogleShopping-_-Product-_-3610341&gclid=CI7rpZLchdECFQe2wAodEhgFBg



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