help me

[tessa]

what is it???





i can't seem to find anything resembling this in my searches. any ideas anyone?

it's been wet and cold here lately...but has just warmed up in the last two days...and *poof*...this appears.
it's my stump of the world! i've been growing stump for 2 years and still have not got to taste one. it only just set a fruit finally 2 days ago. i hope it lives to ripen it.

[Spatzbear]

That doesn't look good. Sorry, can't help. Maybe it's just been the cold that did that? Hope it recovers and you get to taste some tomatoes. Good luck!

[tessa]

spatz!
long time no 'see'.
how's things over your way? getting some rain?

no.
i agree.
it's not looking good.
and here i was having my best year yet.

[Worth1]

Don't worry so much as to what it is and cut off all effected parts and see what happens.

Is it really that red?

Worth

[tessa]

it is really that red!

i've cut them worth.
i'm watching.
gosh.
i'm on the edge of my seat!

[ContainerTed]

Tessa, I had this on my Golden Jubilee this year. Nobody could nail down what it was, and pruning alone let it come back again and again. Finally, I sprayed heavily with Daconil and that fixed it. Didn't seem to affect the fruit size or the taste.

[carolyn137]

Tessa, is it just one plant out of many that show those symptoms or are all the plants you're growing showing it?

Have you ever seen it before in your garden on any other kinds of plants , either vegetable or flower?

If it weren't so red, as you say it is, I'd offer up some suggestions, but I've never read about or seen RED patches like that?

Depending on your answers, I will say that the only time I've seen anything like that was when one person had rusty red patches and it turned out it was from well water. But then ALL the plants were affected.

[tessa]

well...that's interesting, carolyn, because i water with bore water. it's iron rich...and it stains the sidewalks and driveway.

but that said...i've always watered with bore water and this has never happened before.
this particular plant is in a group of four. all four are growing in my homemade compost. this is the first year every that i've used this compost, so that could also be a source of trouble.
one of the other plants in this cluster is displaying early blight:



the other two don't look particularly well. they are pale and one has purple veins...but we have had unseasonably cold weather and a lot of rain. the tomatoes are suffering from that...the root veg are revelling.

here is a new symptom i found last night when trimming dead leaves off this plant:



this is the stalk of leaves affected in this way.
is it a useful new clue?

ted...i am hoping that keeping them trim will also be all that is required! did you still get a good yield from that plant?

[ContainerTed]

ted...i am hoping that keeping them trim will also be all that is required! did you still get a good yield from that plant?[/quote]

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Yes, Tessa. In fact, I noticed NO difference in the quality or the quantity of the fruit. I still can't put a name on what it was, but I had four plants in one 18 gallon tub and whatever this thing was only chose this one plant to infest. The fact that it disappeared after the Daconil could possibly be coincidental, but my gut feeling was that the Daconil cured the problem. That would at least suggest that it might be some kind of fungus or fungus based entity. However, having said that, it flies in the face of the fact that only one of the four plants (which were in contact with each other) was affected. It's a mind bending problem.

I noticed that your plant and mine both exhibited a "rugose-like" crinkled look to portions of the leaves. I'm not sure if that's significant, but it is not normal for the Golden Jubilee plants I had.

If it is the same or a similar thing, your red color could be the iron rich water. My water supply here turns out to be super high quality with no excess minerals and is rated as naturally very soft.

If my mother was still living, she would have said the Russians were putting something in the air. She always blamed them when no other answer was at hand.

Well, if it ain't the Russians, it must be something the flying saucers are dumping.

[tessa]

LOL ted.
well...oz kinda *is* out in it's own orbit. could be the aliens!
oh wait...here...*i'm* the alien. so it could be me!!!

you grew 4 plants in that tub?
wow.
maybe i should be growing more than one plant per tub?

[ContainerTed]

Yeah, 4 plants. It was the leftovers from some I started from seed and like a lot of folks, I couldn't bring myself to kill them. So, I threw them in one tub to see if they could make it. I watered them daily and rotated the tub a quarter turn each day. That tub produced more than 60 tomatoes that collectively weighed a bit over 38 lbs (17 Kg).

[tessa]

four in one tub, you say...