A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 Dying Tomato plant leaves

I'm wondering what can be done to stop my tomato plants from slowly dying. The leaves at first began dying close to the ground and now have on up the plant and the blooms also. I appreciate any info on how this can be stopped.

Hello Sweetpeas!
Welcome to the Garden Helpers Forum,
All really nice gardeners here,
and happy to help.

I have some questions for you........

You said your tomato flowers are dying as well as the lower leaves...
Do you have any tomatoes that have started to come into fruit??
Like to be able to compare them too???
And what are your growing conditions,
what the fertilizers, etc.

Thanks for the extra info!!
Weezie

Thanks Weezie;good to be here. The tomatoes are half to 3/4 full size (some smaller), and plentiful on the vines. Since the dying has moved up the plants, the smaller ones appear to be begining to die. So far,all I've used is Miracle grow occasionally. I've only been gardening a couple years now, so I would and do appreciate any insight. I've already picked up on some things reading the posts. Again, thanks for the welcome,hopefully, there's something that can be done to remedy my problem.

Here are some possibles I got from the IL extension site:

Verticillium and fusarium wilts are soilborne diseases that cause yellowing of the leaves, wilting and premature death of plants. These diseases persist in gardens where susceptible plants are grown. Once they build up, the only practical control is the use of resistant (VF) varieties.

Early blight is characterized by dead brown spots that usually start on the lower leaves and spread up the plant. Upon close inspection, you can see concentric rings within the spots. Although early blight is most severe on the leaves, it sometimes occurs on the stems and can cause severe defoliation. Certain varieties (Roma and Supersonic) are more tolerant of early blight than others.

Septoria leafspot is characterized by numerous small black spots on the leaves. The centers of these spots later turn white and tiny black dots appear in the white centers. The disease starts on the bottom leaves and may become severe in wet weather.

Hey Big Boy!!
How's the tomatoes growing???
Did you havest any of the white and purple?How's the corn doing???

You know I was thinking of all those at first when she was discribing the tomatoes, but I've never heard of the flowers (blooms) being affected by those??????

Sweetpeas,
Can you tell us if you have any mulch down under the tomatoes, so the dirt doesn't fly back up onto the tomato plant at watering time or when it's raining????

Let us know!!
Weezie

I appreciate the info you all! It appears to be either the diseases or the blight you mentioned Bigboy. There is one other thing that I used that I failed to mention earlier;Topsoil. The soil in my garden is a sandy type(grows melons well)and the tomatoe plants were growing but not producing any fruit, so I thought the top soil might help. Is it possible those diseases mentioned may have been in that soil?

Yep!!!!
Soil has it in there, and when the water splashes up on to the plant, there in hence,
starts the problem.
If you can keep the dirt from splashing on the plant, it keeps it ahead of the game.
I put down landscape fabric this year and an experiment with juice jugs into the dirt to water the plant. Cuts down on the disease splashing!!!
What kinds of tomatoes did you grow???
Weezie
P.S. Try some acid fertilizer for the tomatoes, or a high middle number for the fertilizers. (I personally use Shultz 10~60~10, middle number is for blooms and roots) Tomatoes love acid though...