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zeldaah's avatar

Tomato plant unhappy, why?

Asked by zeldaah (26points) July 13th, 2008

Tomato plants – all doing well but one!
Question Details: I have five tomato plants and all of them are doing really well except one—they were all growing well and vigorously, and all seemed healthy. When they got to about four feet tall, they started producing flowers and then green fruit. About that time, say, last week, one of them started to look sun-stressed and wilty. Then it started turning yellow. All the others look great, and the sick one is right in the middle. It’s been at least a week and it’s still going downhill. I can’t imagine it could be over or underwatered, since the others are fine. Any ideas?

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16 Answers

gailcalled's avatar

Gardening is an art and not a science. Be grateful that you have four healthy plants. That should give you a good yield. Same size pots? Same soil? Same amount of fertilizer.
Any green leaves left? If so, cut off all yellowed foliage. If it is kaput, plant basil and other herbs or flowers for cutting.

Truthfully, I have no idea. My two peonies, both bought at the same time and planted the same way next to each other are odd twins. One is a foot taller and twice as wide and has double the amount of blooms. Every spring I am surprised, both happily and sadly..My sis and I live four miles apart. My soil sustains acid-loving plants – hers’ alkaline.

PupnTaco's avatar

Could be root rot, could be a deficiency in the soil, or maybe that variety has different sun/water/fertilizer/soil requirements.

gailcalled's avatar

I am growing gorgeous tomato plants from tomatoes. I squeezed seeds out of store-bought cherry tomatoes in late May and planted them in large pots w. my compost. I water them. They are flourishing. Tough love?

marinelife's avatar

Check to make sure a tomato borer has not gotten into the stalk. If it has you need to take action to make sure your other plants don’t get it.

PupnTaco's avatar

@ Gail: that’s great. I’ve heard some commercial produce is irradiated to prevent seeds from sprouting or growing reliable to variety.

gailcalled's avatar

I’ll let you know when they are ripe. So far they look and smell like tomatoes. PnT; don’t you have a very long growing season?

PupnTaco's avatar

Yes, we can usually put seeds in the ground in March/April and we’re still getting tomatoes until end of October/beginning of November.

gailcalled's avatar

How many Argentinian ants does it take to carry off a Beefsteak tomato?

Knotmyday's avatar

@Gail: Assuming that the average ant weighs approximately .0003 grams, (and they can lift 20 times their weight) each ant can lift .006 grams. Therefore, if my calculations are correct it would take 37,800 ants to lift one half-pound (226.796185 gram) delicious beefsteak tomato.

gailcalled's avatar

Knot:That is the paradigm of the perfect answer (hilarious, accurate and needing no editing)

gooch's avatar

I would not wory about saving the stressed plant. I would remove it before it makes the others sick. It probally will not make fruit anyway due to the enery is is using to fight disease.

gailcalled's avatar

It must be catching. One of my formerly healthy tomato plants, already bearing little bunches of green grape tomatoes, has its leaves curling in. My sister said to try a little compost, daily watering and more sun. If it doesn’t perk up soon, I would yank it but there is ALL that fruit.

zeldaah's avatar

Mine had fruit, too! But I took another look at it and saw all kinds of other bad signs (yellowing, curling, browning, and spots on the trunk) and I yanked it, pronto. It was a yellow pear tomato, and I don’t even care for those that much anyway. If it was the Sungold, I’d be really broken up about it.

gailcalled's avatar

If I didn’t consider my pot gardens therapy, I would go straight to the many farm stands in the neighborhood. At least, I have given up trying to grow blueberries – caviar for the deer.

My sister has a huge raspberry patch. It is fenced and netted and I am allowed to come over and pick a cup or two. She is like the little red hen, doing all the work, and I get to reap the benefits.

@Zeldaah; did you notice any borers or insects on roots or on plant below soil line?

marinelife's avatar

@gc You are growing pot? A new source of understanding into your wise answers and rapier wit. :)

gailcalled's avatar

That does explain it.

I did just buy a catnip plant for Milo, carefully dried one leaf and crumbled it this AM. on rug. He romped around and then collapsed under coffee table, looking very much like Manet’s Odalisque but without the rose behind ear. I OTOH look like la bonne à tout faire.

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