Hello,
First of all, I am a beginner in the gardening world, so I may be
overlooking something simple here.
Anyway, I have seven tomato plants and some assorted basil, squash, and
peppers, in a 10' x 10' garden with 75% full sun. Three of the tomato plants
are showing fairly severe wilting. The other four appear perfectly healthy.
All other plants in the garden look good. I live in North Carolina, where it
has rained almost every day for the past six weeks.
The worst looking plant has one branch which appears to be perfectly fine.
All other branches on the plant are experiencing wilting (strange?). In each
case, the wilting plants do not have any obvious yellowing, spotting, or
insect problems. The squash in the garden is already fairly large and
healthy, so I suppose it could be dominating the garden at the root level.
However, if so, it is not effecting all plants uniformly.
Any ideas/solutions?
Thank you very much for your help!,
Fred Mann

I have a similar problem in northern Ohio with all the rain we had. My
tomato and pepper plants all wilted from too much rain. I put in new ones
but planted them in above the ground so far so good. So the soil is not
the greatest its clay. The dranage is very poor. There is nothing I can do
about it because its a community garden.
"Fred Mann" wrote in message
...
Hello,
First of all, I am a beginner in the gardening world, so I may be
overlooking something simple here.
Anyway, I have seven tomato plants and some assorted basil, squash, and
peppers, in a 10' x 10' garden with 75% full sun. Three of the tomato
plants
are showing fairly severe wilting. The other four appear perfectly
healthy.
All other plants in the garden look good. I live in North Carolina, where
it
has rained almost every day for the past six weeks.
The worst looking plant has one branch which appears to be perfectly fine.
All other branches on the plant are experiencing wilting (strange?). In
each
case, the wilting plants do not have any obvious yellowing, spotting, or
insect problems. The squash in the garden is already fairly large and
healthy, so I suppose it could be dominating the garden at the root level.
However, if so, it is not effecting all plants uniformly.
Any ideas/solutions?
Thank you very much for your help!,
Fred Mann

Take a look at their positioning. Are they three wilting ones
together? In one corner, along one side, least amount of sun,
draingage pipes, a downward slope, nearest to anything else? This may
be the clue you need to understand what is happening. Maybe you have
bad drainage at that spot and they are rotting at the roots. If they
do die out on you I believe their roots will be brown or black when
you have root rot. At that point you'll at least understand why.

Here in NY we just broke the all-time record for rain in the month of
June. Nearly 10 inches when our average is under 4. And we may
actually get three consecutive days of relative sunshine which hasn't
happened since May? April? I can't even recall.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
1st Year Gardener

The sick and healthy plants are not clustered in any obvious way, but I
guess that does not rule out a drainage problem. Are there any other
possibilities? Should I try some sort of fertilization?
Thanks again,
Fred Mann


"DigitalVinyl" wrote in message
...
Take a look at their positioning. Are they three wilting ones
together? In one corner, along one side, least amount of sun,
draingage pipes, a downward slope, nearest to anything else? This may
be the clue you need to understand what is happening. Maybe you have
bad drainage at that spot and they are rotting at the roots. If they
do die out on you I believe their roots will be brown or black when
you have root rot. At that point you'll at least understand why.

Here in NY we just broke the all-time record for rain in the month of
June. Nearly 10 inches when our average is under 4. And we may
actually get three consecutive days of relative sunshine which hasn't
happened since May? April? I can't even recall.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
1st Year Gardener

"Fred Mann" wrote:

The sick and healthy plants are not clustered in any obvious way, but I
guess that does not rule out a drainage problem. Are there any other
possibilities? Should I try some sort of fertilization?
Thanks again,
Fred Mann

I'm not one to offer any experienced advice. If you are seeing the
weather change that we are you may see a few days of sun this week.
That may help. We had some tomato plants that were yellowed but some
sun bounced them back. We also had some that were rather scraggly with
tiny curled green leaves. However the top growth on those have started
to look healthy--that was the first sign of recovery. On my older one
the bottom leaves browned and died but the top growth is now exploding
and stretching for the 2foot mark.

I'm never sure what to do with fertilizer. Too much you burn the plant
and hurt it. Too much nitrogen you won't get fruit. I'm also unsure of
how long certain fertilizers take to get into forms the roots will
absorb.

My reading has recommended liquid seaweed. I have an organic
concentrate (0-4-4) which gets diluted. It also has 20-30 minerals
that some other fertilizers may lack. It is recommended to use it
when plants are stressed by insects, weather, root disease or fungus.
I know the last number (#-#-4) is potassium and is essential for root
health and growth which bolsters the plant's immune system. Seaweed
can be used as a leaf sprayer or in watering.

Hope that helps.



DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
1st Year Gardener

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 03:34:51 GMT, "Joseph A. Zupko"
wrote:

I have a similar problem in northern Ohio with all the rain we had. My
tomato and pepper plants all wilted from too much rain. I put in new ones
but planted them in above the ground so far so good. So the soil is not
the greatest its clay. The dranage is very poor. There is nothing I can do
about it because its a community garden.

???

Can't you modifythe soil in your particular plot? You wouldn't be
interfering with anybody else (if I'm envisioning the area correctly).

--

Persephone