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View Full Version : Gardening help please!



TheVBs
07-12-2012, 09:00 PM
About a week ago, during the worst of the heat wave, one of our tomato plants went all limp. We increased the watering and covered the bed with mulch. It would perk back up, and limp out again. Now, it looks worse than ever. We weren't sure if we over watered it, so we gave it a couple days break. I don't know if we can save it. I would really welcome any tips or suggestions anyone has. Or, if someone can tell us where our mistake was, if it was something preventable, I would really appreciate that too! :mickey:

Katzateer
07-12-2012, 09:17 PM
Maybe try some miracle grow but not sure if that will help if the heat killed it.

Good luck. I really don't think you can overwater a tomato plant - they just soak it up and grow more

Maybe the mulch wasn't good for it- a small amount to keep weeds out is good but a lot may not be

dnickels
07-13-2012, 09:15 AM
For what it's worth, growing any tomatoes other than cherry tomatoes in Florida during the summer is extremely difficult because of the heat so it's possible that a prolonged heat wave could have the same impact on tomatoes further north.

Janmac
07-13-2012, 06:19 PM
I'm thinking that plant is toast. There are several things that can cause the plant to look this way - like a fungus in the soil, or a virus, as well as some bugs, either in the stem or in the roots.

Might be best to write that one off, and get it out of your garden in case is has something you don't want the rest of your tomato plants to get.

Jan

MNNHFLTX
07-13-2012, 07:12 PM
I agree with Jan--very difficult to grow tomatoes at this time of year in Florida (or here in Texas, for that matter). It just gets too hot and stresses the plant out, leading to all kinds of potential problems. Best to plant your tomatoes in late winter/early spring, as soon as the freeze danger is past.

We have had tomato plants with very similar symptoms as your own and it ended up being nematodes. There's no easy fix for this problem as the nematodes (or it could have been a fungus problem) exist in the soil and only die off when their food source is exhausted. You might want to try growing some tomato plants in large pots next time and see if that helps.

(Post-note--just realized that I was assuming you live in Florida, as mentioned in one of the other posts. If you don't, disregard my comments about early planting.)

TheVBs
07-17-2012, 09:33 AM
Sorry, I should have said, we're in Michigan. I've never lost a tomato plant before. We've given it some extra shade and are continuing to water it. It now looks only mostly dead. Don't know if it can recover or not. Actually I haven't looked at it this morning. I did contact the place we bought it from and they asked if I could take a picture to send them so they can make some suggestions. Fingers crossed!