[dawninspain]

Several of our tomato plants have shrivelled up and died seemingly overnight - the only thing we have done recently is to dress the ground around the plants with an organic feed which we have done other years with no ill effects. Photos below:







This is the analysis of the feed:


We have scraped away the remainder of the dressing and watered well this morning but some of the lower leaves on the larger plants seem to be going to the same way.

What could be the problem, was it the feed? Is there anything we can do - I don't want to loose all our plants.

Dawn

[WG.]

I'm no tomato expert, Dawn, but if it did happen as quickly as that, I'd be suspecting root disturbance or attack.   Any chance you could carefully dig up the worst affected plant to see if the roots look okay?

Incidentally I loved the analysis on the compost ... "Humidity 35%"  :!:

[SkipRat]

Tend to agree with WG, did you fork the dressing in or just spread around plants?

[dawninspain]

Hello - I dug up a plant and the roots seem fine. When you snap the stem it looks green and healthy inside. The dressing was spread around carefully not dug in.

I am wondering if I planted them deep enough and the weather hotting up here recently has stressed the plants beyond what they can tolerate.

I hope we don't lose anymore......

[WG.]

Can you arrange any kind of a soil-filled collar around each plant.  Maybe something like a supermarket polythene carrier bag?   Slit / cut out the bottom, slide down over the plant, fill with at least 4" of extra soil / compost.   The plant will put out extra roots from the buried stem + also the bag will tend to hold water until it percolates down to the roots.

Or even raise the soil level by drawing it up around the stems.

[Aunt Sally]

Good idea WG. I've used ring culture for tomatoes effectively.  

I pictures look like drought stress to me.  When were they planted ?  

When planting any container grown plant it is imperative that the soil in the pot is soaked thoroughly prior to planting.  A dry soil ball once planted will be almost impossible to wet properly afterwards.  Causing plants to wilt and die even if watered.

[hermon]

i never knew why you had to water plants before planting them out i thought it was so the roots kept hold of the soil and it was easy to get out the pot! :roll:  i sometimes didn't water them before hand i now will all the time!!

[Philip]

I realise that watering tomatoes is crucial but can I over-water? I have a new greenhouse with 10 tomato plants in it and when we get those roasting days, the poor plants must be hurting in all that heat. The soil is fairly sandy so I water regularly but am concerned that I am giving them to much

Philip