Disease killed my tomato plant...

I just saw the guy from Squawk box talk about that this morning. Seems all of the rains or something brought on some disease or mold, and there is nothing you can do? Wish I knew more, maybe someone will have way to fight it.

It rain doesn’t here. It’s my fault. I over water. :(

@simone54 Maybe the guy on TV was wrong, I mean he is a financial guy. Maybe there is some sort of blight going around that has nothing to do with the water? Did you try to google it? The guy this morning said that it is a problem for the big tomato growers this year.

I’m a mur-didley-urderer!

It’s not (necessarily) your fault!

Tomato plants need to be rotated every few years or you have the chance of blight. Remove the infected leaves and plant the tomatoes somewhere else next year. You’ll receive a small yield this year but it’s better than nothing. I’ve got the same problem!

@petethepothead That seems to be a little different then what is happening to mine but I am from South Jersey and it would make me very sad if we didn’t have tomatoes for the summer.

I’ve heard it’s been a tough gardening year this year in North America, with all the rain and interesting temperatures. Shame to hear your plant was a victim of it.

Taking a picture and sharing it with us will make it easier to identify the disease, and this should be done so that you can do research and find out how to prevent its spread to any other plants and possibly save any dying ones.

Being only a novice gardener myself, I would agree with others that you likely have late blight, which is described in pete’s link. Here’s some information about it. You may be able to save it if you remove the infected leaves, I’m not sure if any chemical could help at this point but maybe it’s worth going to a gardening store and asking someone about it.

@jonsblond is correct but it extends past tomatoes. Every non-permanant planted item should be rotated, you should never grow the same things over and over in the same spot, for this will make a great home for the pathogens and bugs who prey on that certain plant and eventually you will be met with a devastating loss. Since many of the bugs do not transfer from veggie to veggie, you rotate the crop so that the old ones die and the new crop’s ones are fostered, then rotate to kill those, etc. This is called crop rotation. There’s an example of a (more professional farm style, but still good to know) 7 stage crop rotation in the book “A Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It”, of which my copy has been lent out. I’ll have to come back and post it once it’s returned.

Since seeing the news reports about late blight, I’ve been watching my plants obsessively. For the first time in my life, I’ve managed to grow huge plants with tons of tomatoes. It would fit with my past gardening experience for something drastic to go wrong at this point.

@simone54 Make sure the affected leaves (or entire plants) that you remove are thrown out. Don’t compost them or the fungus could continue to spread. Good luck with your tomatoes! Now I’m going out to stare at mine again.