I have a 6ft cherry(?) tomato plant that, although covered in fruit at
various stages of ripeness, all of it's leaves have died. This plant
receives a deep soaking with a sprinkler set low right next to the stem &
allowed to spray water for about 15 mins twice a week. It also has a mulch
of rotted grass clippings & horse manure. The plant receives full sun
throughout most of the day. I live in Perth & the soil is the usual grey
sand. Any ideas what is happening to the plant? Is it dying? It was always
supposed to be a temporary plant & I suppose I shouldn't be disappointed
since it self-seeded, but it's still a bit of a let-down since I get a
thrill out of plants self-seeding in my garden since it generally means that
birds visit it. I used to get all kinds of plants self-seeding in my old
garden, one in particular looked like a bacon & egg plant, but I'm not so
sure was... Anyway, back to the tomatoes, any ideas?

--
Wanda
aka Willow
The missing and definitely not to be taken seriously under any circumstances
garden gnome
http://www.2000cn.com.au/~willow

~~faeries are able to fly because they take themselves lightly~

On Fri, 20 Dec 2002 20:32:51 +0800, "Willow"
wrote:

I have a 6ft cherry(?) tomato plant that, although covered in fruit at
various stages of ripeness, all of it's leaves have died. This plant
receives a deep soaking with a sprinkler set low right next to the stem &
allowed to spray water for about 15 mins twice a week. It also has a mulch
of rotted grass clippings & horse manure. The plant receives full sun
throughout most of the day. I live in Perth & the soil is the usual grey
sand. Any ideas what is happening to the plant? Is it dying? It was always
supposed to be a temporary plant & I suppose I shouldn't be disappointed
since it self-seeded, but it's still a bit of a let-down since I get a
thrill out of plants self-seeding in my garden since it generally means that
birds visit it. I used to get all kinds of plants self-seeding in my old
garden, one in particular looked like a bacon & egg plant, but I'm not so
sure was... Anyway, back to the tomatoes, any ideas?

I'd certainly like a bacon and egg plant! Can't help you with your
tomato woes though..


Tom Elliott
remove `mapsitna' from email address to reply by email.

can i just have a bacon plant i already have chickens....but more seriously
the tomatoes should still ripen even as the plant dies, thats what ny wild
tomatoes do anyway
"Tom Elliott" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 20 Dec 2002 20:32:51 +0800, "Willow"
wrote:

I have a 6ft cherry(?) tomato plant that, although covered in fruit at
various stages of ripeness, all of it's leaves have died. This plant
receives a deep soaking with a sprinkler set low right next to the stem &
allowed to spray water for about 15 mins twice a week. It also has a
mulch
of rotted grass clippings & horse manure. The plant receives full sun
throughout most of the day. I live in Perth & the soil is the usual grey
sand. Any ideas what is happening to the plant? Is it dying? It was
always
supposed to be a temporary plant & I suppose I shouldn't be disappointed
since it self-seeded, but it's still a bit of a let-down since I get a
thrill out of plants self-seeding in my garden since it generally means
that
birds visit it. I used to get all kinds of plants self-seeding in my old
garden, one in particular looked like a bacon & egg plant, but I'm not so
sure was... Anyway, back to the tomatoes, any ideas?

I'd certainly like a bacon and egg plant! Can't help you with your
tomato woes though..


Tom Elliott
remove `mapsitna' from email address to reply by email.

"Willow" writes:
I have a 6ft cherry(?) tomato plant that, although covered in fruit at
various stages of ripeness, all of it's leaves have died. This plant
receives a deep soaking with a sprinkler set low right next to the stem &
allowed to spray water for about 15 mins twice a week. It also has a mulch
of rotted grass clippings & horse manure. The plant receives full sun
throughout most of the day. I live in Perth & the soil is the usual grey
sand. Any ideas what is happening to the plant? Is it dying? It was always
supposed to be a temporary plant & I suppose I shouldn't be disappointed
since it self-seeded, but it's still a bit of a let-down since I get a

Willow, the Sydney radio gardening programs have been swamped by people
echoing an identical tragic tale. The disease started on the lower leaves
and progressed relentlessly upwards, right? There has not been a
definitive response, but it seems that the dreaded soil splash fungus
could be to blame--when you watered the plants soil got splashed onto the
leaves and carried with it fungal spores. Spraying with a fungicide can
be tried, but the solution would have been to prevent soil from coming
into contact with the leaves by trimming dragging leaves off and [my
suggestion follows ...] always hosing by gently injecting a trickle of
water into the soil without a sprinkler. Perhaps sheets of newspaper
spread around the plant could cover the soil and mulch, and you could
poke the hose under the paper to water the plant?

I'd have thought the fast maturing time of the cherry tomato would have
allowed it to outpace most diseases that we know eventually take hold of
the longer growing big-size-fruiters like Gross Lisse, etc., but you must
have a particularly virulent fungus there. ;-(

It seems that tomato dust is still necessary, though I would like to hear
of anyone successfully using the bicarbsoda+milk+water mix as a fungicide
spray on their tomatoes.
--
John Savage (for email, replace "ks" with "k" and delete "n")

"Willow" writes:
Ouch! Thanks for the information John. Do you know if the fungus affects
citrus at all? The lemon's leaves are about a 1m off the ground, but the
leaves of the mandarin are very close.

I'd guess not. I have a lemon whose lower branches sweep down onto the
ground. They seem perfectly healthy. I can't bring myself to prune them
off because these branches fruit well, too. I do have a lot of straw
under the tree, so the leaves rest on that, rather than moist soil: it's
moist because the tree needs a lot of watering, the surface of our sandy
soil drys out quickly in the heat, and citrus are very shallow rooted.
Perhaps you could layer newspapers under your tree, conceal them with a
layer of straw or something, and poke the hose into a couple of holes to
get water to the roots? I have heard conflicting things about using news-
papers around the garden, that they stop rain getting to the roots. But
if rain falls on the newspaper, and doesn't get to the roots, where does
it go to??? I can see that a light sprinkle might not get through, but
once the paper is soaked through, further rainfall must get through.

There could be a drawback to having leafy branches right down to ground
level: reduced air circulation. So anyone living in a humid climate and
having problem with mould might be advised to thin out the branches and
encourage air to circulate under and through the tree. Also, just because
the leaves seem uneffected by contact with the soil, I'm hesitant to
believe that the same would go for any fruit resting on the soil; I'd at
least layer plenty of dry coarse straw for the fruit to rest on.
--
John Savage (for email, replace "ks" with "k" and delete "n")