Nutrient Deficiency or Not...

Tigerpaws · June 23, 2015

Hi all, I am new here, I would love your expertise on diagnosing my tomatoes!

I have 10 tomato plants, all were fine until yesterday. One of them showing signs of deficiency, just an educated guess.

We had a horrific storm on Thursday, possibly 5 inches of rain within in an hour. Hail pierced holes in a lot of the plant leaves and seemed to age the leaves of others. More hard rain on Saturday. This was all after a dry spell, temps in mid 90's for a week, this past Sunday was almost 100.

Yesterday is when I found the symptoms, the first photo will be yesterday's. The others are this morning.

I added epsom salt to the soil last night, plus sprayed all the plants with worm tea. I didn't want to do too much without knowing first the problem.

Gardeneer · June 23, 2015

One of the things that too much water (Heavy rains, watering too much) does is to rinse the soil partially and by that taking away some of the nutrients (especially nitrogen) from the reach of plants. Often this causes more Nitrogen deficiency manifested in pale foliage and yellowing lower leaves.
Having said that , after the rain stops , I would give them a good round of regular strength water soluble fertilizer. and do it again with 1/2 strength in a week or so.

ALSO> trim all those mostly leave branches as the have NO chance to revive. JMO

Gardeneer

b54red · June 23, 2015

I hate to say it because it is so familiar to me but it looks like fusarium wilt.

Bill

Tigerpaws · June 23, 2015

Thank you. Should I give a gallon or less per plant of the fertilizer?

I notice you are in Seattle, I just returned from Olympia 3 weeks ago, visiting my father. The soil is incredible, I wanted to stuff some in my suitcase.

Gardeneer · June 24, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tigerpaws

Thank you. Should I give a gallon or less per plant of the fertilizer?

I notice you are in Seattle, I just returned from Olympia 3 weeks ago, visiting my father. The soil is incredible, I wanted to stuff some in my suitcase.

Yeas. I think a gallon per plant sounds good, as the soil already must be moist.

I know GA clay and I see what you mean.

I have gardened in N.Fulton County for a number of years.
The native INORGANIC soil here is kind of greyish clay. It can get real hard too.But can be easily amended. In GA it takes a lot of amendments to dilute that red dye in the soil.
I made close to 400 sq-ft garden out of raw red clay soil. Lots of digging, double digging, adding all kinds of organic matter.
I moved out of the area in 2012.

Started all over here. But I made raised beds this time and purchased the fillings.

Good luck, Tigerpaws.

Gardeneer.

Tigerpaws · June 24, 2015

Are you from GA? Native here. Ha, I have photos of digging and digging the last raised bed. I did the digging to protect from moles and to build a self watering system.

I have more photos of more issues, I found a cocoon, marks on the stems, and blossom end rot on the tomato plant that had the yellow leaves. The older tomatoes on same plant are fine, the newer ones have the rot.

Do I need to start new threads for each category? Or can I throw it all in this post. It all has to do with the same plant and plants near. I am a newbie!

Tigerpaws · June 24, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by b54red

I hate to say it because it is so familiar to me but it looks like fusarium wilt.

Bill

Bill, thank you for your input, let's pray to mother earth, all the god's and goddesses... don't let it be Fusarium Wilt.

I assume if it is, there is no cure? They look better after fertilizing yesterday, well they are not worse.

b54red · June 25, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tigerpaws

Bill, thank you for your input, let's pray to mother earth, all the god's and goddesses... don't let it be Fusarium Wilt.

I assume if it is, there is no cure? They look better after fertilizing yesterday, well they are not worse.

I hope it isn't also because I am so familiar with the frustration of dealing with fusarium. Are most of the yellowing leaves on one stem? If they are cut that stem off as low down as possible without damaging other stems and check the cut for discoloration. Sometimes removing the worst infected stem will delay the spread of fusarium to the rest of the stems for quite a while but sometimes it doesn't help at all. If you don't want to do that keep a watch on that stem and see if it starts to wilt and if it does remove it immediately.

Good luck, Bill

Tigerpaws · June 25, 2015

Thanks, I actually already checked when removing the stems, they seem okay, though I am watching to be sure.

June 23, 2015	#2
Gardeneer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: NC - zone 8a - heat zone 7 Posts: 4,912	One of the things that too much water (Heavy rains, watering too much) does is to rinse the soil partially and by that taking away some of the nutrients (especially nitrogen) from the reach of plants. Often this causes more Nitrogen deficiency manifested in pale foliage and yellowing lower leaves. Having said that , after the rain stops , I would give them a good round of regular strength water soluble fertilizer. and do it again with 1/2 strength in a week or so. ALSO> trim all those mostly leave branches as the have NO chance to revive. JMO Gardeneer

June 23, 2015	#3
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	I hate to say it because it is so familiar to me but it looks like fusarium wilt. Bill

June 23, 2015	#4
Tigerpaws Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Cumming, GA Posts: 7	Thank you. Should I give a gallon or less per plant of the fertilizer? I notice you are in Seattle, I just returned from Olympia 3 weeks ago, visiting my father. The soil is incredible, I wanted to stuff some in my suitcase.

June 24, 2015	#6
Tigerpaws Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Cumming, GA Posts: 7	Are you from GA? Native here. Ha, I have photos of digging and digging the last raised bed. I did the digging to protect from moles and to build a self watering system. I have more photos of more issues, I found a cocoon, marks on the stems, and blossom end rot on the tomato plant that had the yellow leaves. The older tomatoes on same plant are fine, the newer ones have the rot. Do I need to start new threads for each category? Or can I throw it all in this post. It all has to do with the same plant and plants near. I am a newbie!

June 25, 2015	#9
Tigerpaws Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Cumming, GA Posts: 7	Thanks, I actually already checked when removing the stems, they seem okay, though I am watching to be sure.