Hi All,
I have some tomato plants (in pots as usual for me) and they are just starting to bear tomatoes but the mid section of each plant is going yellow and wilting – dying I assume. Any flower in that area dies yet above and below is fine ( maybe a little leaf curling but generally ok). The leaves in the dying area are yellow but the veins are green. the stalks they are on are drooping. The plants are in 20cm pots and have been doing well untill fruiting was imminent. They are bailey’s premium potting mix and have spent most of their growing time being fed and half strength seasol/powerfeed each week – like all my plants. This last weekend I gave them a full strength seasol but no powerfeed in the chance they need stimulus but not immediate food.

Again I don’t have much to contribute to this forum cause I don’t know much but I value all your ideas.

Is there a nutrient prob here? In the exact same environment my cherry tomatoes (heard they just grow well anyway), mini mama capsicums, srawbs etc are doing so well but I am now well aware that each type of plant is different so any help would be good. Cheers

the mid section of each plant is going yellow and wilting – dying I assume. Any flower in that area dies yet above and below is fine ( maybe a little leaf curling but generally ok). The leaves in the dying area are yellow but the veins are green. the stalks they are on are drooping.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sounds pretty weird to me Pete.
Remove a damaged stalk and see if there is a browning off inside it.
This may suggest a bacterial wilt.
Tomatoes will often get blight diseases which cause them to die off from the ground up, but to die off from the centre is odd. (Unless the growth below the affected area is younger, newer growth).
Can you put up a few fotos?

Longy said:

the mid section of each plant is going yellow and wilting – dying I assume. Any flower in that area dies yet above and below is fine ( maybe a little leaf curling but generally ok). The leaves in the dying area are yellow but the veins are green. the stalks they are on are drooping.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sounds pretty weird to me Pete.
Remove a damaged stalk and see if there is a browning off inside it.
This may suggest a bacterial wilt.
Tomatoes will often get blight diseases which cause them to die off from the ground up, but to die off from the centre is odd. (Unless the growth below the affected area is younger, newer growth).
Can you put up a few fotos?

Thanks Longy,
I will put up some photos tomorrow – but now having looked into it, below the affected area is indeed newer growth – in fact with a new (I assume) main stem going off at about 45 degrees with new vigorous growth. What does that mean. With the flowers above the new growth just dying I gather I wont get any tomatoes from there. I did say the pots were 20cm but they are a little bigger at 25cm. Don’t know whether that makes any diff?

I have bisected a damaged stalk and it is completely green inside.
On this stalk the very end leaf is just dying but maybe interestingly I originally sent that the veins of the dying leaves are green but they certainly are now brown.

Do tomatoes actually go ok in pots? Could it be the plants are putting all their energy into fruiting but they just don’t have the nutrients? Sorry just guessing.

pete said:

Longy said:

the mid section of each plant is going yellow and wilting – dying I assume. Any flower in that area dies yet above and below is fine ( maybe a little leaf curling but generally ok). The leaves in the dying area are yellow but the veins are green. the stalks they are on are drooping.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sounds pretty weird to me Pete.
Remove a damaged stalk and see if there is a browning off inside it.
This may suggest a bacterial wilt.
Tomatoes will often get blight diseases which cause them to die off from the ground up, but to die off from the centre is odd. (Unless the growth below the affected area is younger, newer growth).
Can you put up a few fotos?

Thanks Longy,
I will put up some photos tomorrow – but now having looked into it, below the affected area is indeed newer growth – in fact with a new (I assume) main stem going off at about 45 degrees with new vigorous growth. What does that mean. With the flowers above the new growth just dying I gather I wont get any tomatoes from there. I did say the pots were 20cm but they are a little bigger at 25cm. Don’t know whether that makes any diff?

I have bisected a damaged stalk and it is completely green inside.
On this stalk the very end leaf is just dying but maybe interestingly I originally sent that the veins of the dying leaves are green but they certainly are now brown.

Do tomatoes actually go ok in pots? Could it be the plants are putting all their energy into fruiting but they just don’t have the nutrients? Sorry just guessing.

Did you try looking through that tomato problems site I put up last evening, Pete?

G’day Pete. in light of your observations, i reckon you have blight in your tommies.
It’s fairly normal in lots of cases. The point is to grow plants healthy enough to outgrow the disease and give a crop, before the blight catches up.
Good circulation, keeping the leaves dy, mulching the soil, all help with the problem but once it is in an area it is there for keeps i reckon.
Tomatoes are OK in pots, mimimum about a 15 litre pot.
Or just fold down the sides of a 65litre bag of potting mix and grow them in that.

I’ll leave you two with the tomato discussion. Check you sometime later.

Firstly so sorry for late reply but I have had some major incidents happen in my life in the last couple of weeks. None so bad that I am not here now or that the tax dept has told me I own an extra 40 grand but stressing enough to have gone off line for a little bit – so I would like to get back to what I think is/was wrong with those tomatoes.

I did some study of the problem and I have seen photos of what Russets mites do and that is what has caused the dying back of the lower/ mid leaves. These plants were given to me from a person with a big down south WA farm and they also gave plants to others I know. We all had the same problem and so it all points to the same issue.

Another prob that developed even though the plants were still growing is that the plants developed blossom end rot. I had been watering regularly and fertilising but I used power feed which doesn’t apparently supply enough calcium to a tomato plant. The additional problem is that in a pot you need a good nitrogen/calcium ratio which was not met by that fertiliser.

Bottom line is that the poor plants were dying while bearing tomatoes with blossom end rot – so I just had to throw them out.

Damn shame and a waste but I wont be taking gifts of tomato plants from that farm again and yes I have mentioned to them that I suspect they have a mite problem. I will learn from this and get some good toms next year.

That’s the spirit, it takes nine falls from a horse before you can declare yourself a rider.

pete said:

Firstly so sorry for late reply but I have had some major incidents happen in my life in the last couple of weeks. None so bad that I am not here now or that the tax dept has told me I own an extra 40 grand but stressing enough to have gone off line for a little bit – so I would like to get back to what I think is/was wrong with those tomatoes.

I did some study of the problem and I have seen photos of what Russets mites do and that is what has caused the dying back of the lower/ mid leaves. These plants were given to me from a person with a big down south WA farm and they also gave plants to others I know. We all had the same problem and so it all points to the same issue.

Another prob that developed even though the plants were still growing is that the plants developed blossom end rot. I had been watering regularly and fertilising but I used power feed which doesn’t apparently supply enough calcium to a tomato plant. The additional problem is that in a pot you need a good nitrogen/calcium ratio which was not met by that fertiliser.

Bottom line is that the poor plants were dying while bearing tomatoes with blossom end rot – so I just had to throw them out.

Damn shame and a waste but I wont be taking gifts of tomato plants from that farm again and yes I have mentioned to them that I suspect they have a mite problem. I will learn from this and get some good toms next year.

It seems to me that the people with the best tomatoes grow them from seed they collect.

>it takes nine falls from a horse before you can declare yourself a rider.
Thank heavens that’s for horse riders not motorbike riders. You’d be pretty determined to have 9 bike falls..

You’d be pretty determined to have 9 bike falls..
>

or a bad learner.

>or a bad learner.

Yeah. I hadn’t ridden since 1993, yet now I ride the most powerful production motorbike sold in Australia.

If I can do that (and I’m not very coordinated at all) you’d have to be a slow learner to fall off that many times I reckon..

CollieWA said:

>it takes nine falls from a horse before you can declare yourself a rider.
Thank heavens that’s for horse riders not motorbike riders. You’d be pretty determined to have 9 bike falls..

those that race them are pretty determined from my observation…

CollieWA said:

>it takes nine falls from a horse before you can declare yourself a rider.
Thank heavens that’s for horse riders not motorbike riders. You’d be pretty determined to have 9 bike falls..

tomatoes collie – tomatoes.
start a bike topic will ya.
…and stop pirating unsuspecting poor vege topics LOL.

pepe said:

CollieWA said:

>it takes nine falls from a horse before you can declare yourself a rider.
Thank heavens that’s for horse riders not motorbike riders. You’d be pretty determined to have 9 bike falls..

tomatoes collie – tomatoes.
start a bike topic will ya.
…and stop pirating unsuspecting poor vege topics LOL.

Oh I dunno, Most people give up growing tomatoes after nine failures

Oh I dunno, Most people give up growing tomatoes after nine failures
———
well i haven’t – mainly because i get some tomatoes each time. i spose if they were a total wipeout i may have stopped trying but each time i have had limited success.

(and no injuries to me – unlike what happens to those hijackers when they fall.)

pepe said:

CollieWA said:

>it takes nine falls from a horse before you can declare yourself a rider.
Thank heavens that’s for horse riders not motorbike riders. You’d be pretty determined to have 9 bike falls..

tomatoes collie – tomatoes.
start a bike topic will ya.
…and stop pirating unsuspecting poor vege topics LOL.

Getting back to tomatoes. I think we might refrain from planting any ATM. The self sown ones do far better and I can’t understand why. They come up in the most God forsaken soil and they thrive. Plant them in the prepared vegie bed and they struggle. We always seem to be eating tomatoes that we never had to water or fertilise. go figure!

pepe said:

CollieWA said:

>it takes nine falls from a horse before you can declare yourself a rider.
Thank heavens that’s for horse riders not motorbike riders. You’d be pretty determined to have 9 bike falls..

tomatoes collie – tomatoes.
start a bike topic will ya.
…and stop pirating unsuspecting poor vege topics LOL.

sorry collie – that sounded rude – wasn’t intended
how’s the bike riding?

sorry collie – that sounded rude – wasn’t intended
how’s the bike riding?

==

No offence taken.

Brilliant. Out today, very warm day. Lurvely.

Made the mistake of opening it up in a dip in the road today to overtake a car. Aaaalllmmmmoooossssstttt touched 200. Wooooooo up… 8^)

pomolo said:

pepe said:

CollieWA said:

>it takes nine falls from a horse before you can declare yourself a rider.
Thank heavens that’s for horse riders not motorbike riders. You’d be pretty determined to have 9 bike falls..

tomatoes collie – tomatoes.
start a bike topic will ya.
…and stop pirating unsuspecting poor vege topics LOL.

Getting back to tomatoes. I think we might refrain from planting any ATM. The self sown ones do far better and I can’t understand why. They come up in the most God forsaken soil and they thrive. Plant them in the prepared vegie bed and they struggle. We always seem to be eating tomatoes that we never had to water or fertilise. go figure!

it is because these seeds were in the right place at the right time and with the correct amount of water and light etc.

it is often the seeds which have survived composting. Which means they are with fresh compost. ;)