I can’t find the “let’s talk about tomatoes” thread.

Something is eating my toms :-( They’re falling off the plant, about a day before I’d pick them, but they’re all squishy and horrid. I’ve noticed some insects about – they look like overgrown (waaay overgrown) mosquitos. Could they be damaging the fruit? Its all very disappointing :(

My plants, BTW, look pretty ratty. I’ve potashed them fairly regularly; but they have had excessive water recently with all the rain. They look so poorly its tempting just to pull them out and start again, even though there’s still green fruit on them.

Ideas. Please. If there’s anything I want from my veggie patch its nice, fresh, juicy tomatoes.

Sounds to me like an ecological imbalance (nothing to eat the bugs)…the recent rain could be creating humid conditions that are stressing the plants????

Are there maggots in them? Fruit Fly love toms.

Bubba Louie made my first comment

it is most likely that your problem is fruit fly

are the wings sticking out sideways?

is the abdomen striped like a bee? faintly

does it appear to be laying eggs in the greenish ready to ripen fruit?

if so gather the lot up now the whole lot.. and put it in a plastic bag in the FULL sun on a place like concrete for a day or two.. then look underneath.. kill any maggots that have made their way through the plastic and drop the lot in a bucket or three., pour metho on them.. before you put in bin to make sure.

Then I am afraid that if the infestation has been dropping magotty fruit on the ground you will have to swallow your pride and do some spraying or trust in your luck that you have a healthy bird and ant population.

Re fruit fly – no maggots and the insects I’ve noticed are big (a good 3/4 inch wing span) but with a really fine body. Like mossie under a microscope.

My plants are pretty poorly. Today I trimmed off all the dead/dying branches. They seem to be dying from the outside in. Eventually the stems are so shrivelled they drop off. However, it seems to be only the older growth that’s affected; all the new growth looks very healthy.

I’m wondering if the excessive rain has caused fungus problems. November was the wettest on record, so it wouldn’t be surprising. I’ve cut off all fruit except for really recent stuff. Even the green fruit was soft and bruised looking. I didn’t notice any insects in the fruit; just have noticed this overgrown mossies hanging about the fruit during the day.

If it wasn’t for the lovely healthy looking new growth I would have just ripped the plants out completely, but I thought I’d check them in a week or so to see what’s happening.

Just found this site:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/tomatoproblemsolver/index.html

Seems that my problem is likely to be water induced fungus. I love home grown toms, but I refuse to complain about the rain. So I might have to just chalk it up to experience.

The site mentions use of fungacides. Any organic ideas?

SueBk said:

Re fruit fly – no maggots and the insects I’ve noticed are big (a good 3/4 inch wing span) but with a really fine body. Like mossie under a microscope.

My plants are pretty poorly. Today I trimmed off all the dead/dying branches. They seem to be dying from the outside in. Eventually the stems are so shrivelled they drop off. However, it seems to be only the older growth that’s affected; all the new growth looks very healthy.

I’m wondering if the excessive rain has caused fungus problems. November was the wettest on record, so it wouldn’t be surprising. I’ve cut off all fruit except for really recent stuff. Even the green fruit was soft and bruised looking. I didn’t notice any insects in the fruit; just have noticed this overgrown mossies hanging about the fruit during the day.

If it wasn’t for the lovely healthy looking new growth I would have just ripped the plants out completely, but I thought I’d check them in a week or so to see what’s happening.

cut away the dead shyte.. get rid of it..

concentrate on the new and trust your eye for the good.. but don’t water until they start to look like they need it..

You can’t really help what falls from the sky but you can try to manage what is on the ground. ;)

Work on soil struc ture and drainage..

All fungus/virus that affect toms .. do so due to weakening of resistance.

there are many factors you cannot avoid.

The one that does help is experience in the same location.

^ the above is for both now and next time..

but for now re: <fungacides.> chamomile tea is good ;) as for now .. do any thing you can to help drain your soil and get some air into it.