Why is my tomato plant wilting and dying?

Gardadore · July 20, 2016

This does seem to be a bad year for wilt, for me at least. Today I finally gave up on my Solar Flare, which was growing in a corner of a walled garden in composted straw with potting mix and other amendments. First time I have lost any plant in that spot. This one was badly wilted and quite yellow. I pulled it and I cut off the major stems and checked them. One stem near the bottom was solid and "juicy" for lack of a better term. The others looked drier and less firm. The root system is massive and looks healthy. I see no sign of anything eating the roots. I replanted it in the ground just to experiment. Don't have much hope for it but I don't give up easily!

Then there is my Amazon Chocolate, which was the first to show wilt. That has some nice tomatoes too. It is still sitting there wilted but green with the new buds wilting away as well. So clearly no more tomatoes will set. That is at the other end of the Solar Flare row. AC has wilted for me before so wonder if it is prone to it. The tomatoes are large enough to let ripen or fry up. Still waiting to see. I may start cutting off the wilted parts down to the tomatoes. The other plant in the same bale (Cherokee Lime) still seems Ok but I fear losing it eventually too. That is loaded with tomatoes.

In my other garden KBX was the first affected. That is my favorite orange so rather heartbreaking. Now the other one in the same bale next to it is wilting (Mrs. Schlaughbaugh's Famous Strawberry and new this year.) I do wonder if that bale is the culprit as it is actually more dirt from several years of decomposing and the tomato plant next to this bale last year succumbed to wilt but was the only one in the garden that did. After this summer I will replace it all with fresh bales for next year.
So they all 4 seem to have possible different reasons for wilting but it always remains a mystery to me since there is never any logic that I can find for why certain ones are affected and not others.

Fortunately I planted over 45 different varieties so can usually depend on getting something!

July 20, 2016	#32
Gardadore Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Saylorsburg, PA Posts: 261	This does seem to be a bad year for wilt, for me at least. Today I finally gave up on my Solar Flare, which was growing in a corner of a walled garden in composted straw with potting mix and other amendments. First time I have lost any plant in that spot. This one was badly wilted and quite yellow. I pulled it and I cut off the major stems and checked them. One stem near the bottom was solid and "juicy" for lack of a better term. The others looked drier and less firm. The root system is massive and looks healthy. I see no sign of anything eating the roots. I replanted it in the ground just to experiment. Don't have much hope for it but I don't give up easily! Then there is my Amazon Chocolate, which was the first to show wilt. That has some nice tomatoes too. It is still sitting there wilted but green with the new buds wilting away as well. So clearly no more tomatoes will set. That is at the other end of the Solar Flare row. AC has wilted for me before so wonder if it is prone to it. The tomatoes are large enough to let ripen or fry up. Still waiting to see. I may start cutting off the wilted parts down to the tomatoes. The other plant in the same bale (Cherokee Lime) still seems Ok but I fear losing it eventually too. That is loaded with tomatoes. In my other garden KBX was the first affected. That is my favorite orange so rather heartbreaking. Now the other one in the same bale next to it is wilting (Mrs. Schlaughbaugh's Famous Strawberry and new this year.) I do wonder if that bale is the culprit as it is actually more dirt from several years of decomposing and the tomato plant next to this bale last year succumbed to wilt but was the only one in the garden that did. After this summer I will replace it all with fresh bales for next year. So they all 4 seem to have possible different reasons for wilting but it always remains a mystery to me since there is never any logic that I can find for why certain ones are affected and not others. Fortunately I planted over 45 different varieties so can usually depend on getting something!