My tomato plants are dying, one by one.?
Question:Hello everyone,
Recently, our tomato plants started dying before fruiting. They are all doing VERY WELL, big, and super green. Most of them have flowered already. Then, one by one, the leaves start curling up (but still remaining stiff and green), then the plant mysteriously starts shrinking to about 1/4 of it's original size, then dies. There are no bugs, no fungus, nothing. They are getting enough water, but not too much. They seem to be dying in a line. The leaves do not turn yellow or anything before the plant dies. We are on the CA Central Coast, and our weather is very mild. It's been about 75, and sunny throughout the days. We do have sandy soil (pretty much pure sand), and I'm not sure if it has something to do with that or not. All of our other veggies are doing great. Could somebody please help?!
Thanks so much, it is greatly appreciated :)
Answers:
I believe your plants might have contracted a disease, known (appropriately) as tomato leaf curl. It is viral, and carried from infected plants by several species of flies. Unfortunately, there's not really any control except to plant resistent species of tomatoes. Once the plants have it, they're pretty much toast.
Sorry for the bad news. If I were you, I would get new tomato plants from a different variety (and hopefully from a different grower) and plant them in a different location. Covering the seedlings with fine mesh may help exclude the carriers.
Good luck.
I am in Pasadena and quite tired of watering sand too. If they are under-watered, they would be turning yellow at the bottom before drying up completely. Mine are 6' tall and over the top of their cages, even in this poor excuse for dirt. So that can't be it.
Are they growing in shade? Are you watering in the early morning before you go to work? Have you been planting in the same spot for several years (nematodes). My mother's never ripened but looked good right up to their death.
I would ask at a garden center like Armstrong or OSH since Lowe's and Home Depot have gone to hiring high school kids without any horticultural experience.
Sounds like wilt. You need to rotate, and buy resistant varieties. It is caused by a virus in the soil. Either verticilium or fusarium. It can also affect other plants of the nightshade family, peppers, potatoes, ect.
Lack of sunshine to make them ripen.
get some mushroom compost sounds like you have not got enough fertilizer,get some peatmoss as-well tomatoes like hot soil they realy love the mushroom compost
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