Comments on: R.I.P. Tomato Plant, May 2009 – August 2009.

By: Chris and his Tomatoes

Chris and his Tomatoes — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:34:01 +0000

Oh no. I hope it’s not something I’ll experience. I already have a lot of plant deaths and near deaths in my hands.

Could it be too much water?

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:26:12 +0000

Your local extension office is awesome for these sorts of questions. You have a good photo to show them too. They should be able to pinpoint or have a few suggestions as to what went wrong. Blossom-end rot doesn’t kill tomatoes as far as I know, though maybe its existence is pointing to some general lackingness in the soil. Dunno.

My condolences on your loss. :(

By: goblinbox

goblinbox — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:30:54 +0000

Plant death! Sadness!

By: Kristen

Kristen — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:36:23 +0000

No — like I just said, I really don’t think it was late blight. There were no powdery spores or spots/lesions on the plant.

By: patricia

patricia — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:59:56 +0000

it probably is a fungus, see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/nyregion/18tomatoes.html?_r=1

By: Kristen

Kristen — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:01:51 +0000

XN: I don't think it was the blossom end rot that killed the plant. I think it was some sort of fungus or bacteria that got into the soil. Lola: OMG, I posted about the Topsy-Turvey Tomato thing ages ago and I had to TURN OFF the comments on the post because people kept finding it and posting "NUH-UH YOUR DUM AND MY TOMATOS ARE AWSUM" on it. It was demented. Kristi: I don't know if you're in the Northeastern US or not, but late blight has pretty much devastated the tomato crop for farmers around here. I don't think that's what killed my plant, but that's why there's no tomatoes around this year for a lot of people.

By: Kristi

Kristi — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:44:44 +0000

If it makes you feel any better, this years crop of tomatoes has been crappy for everyone. We have a farm share and this week we received what will likely be our ONLY tomatoes of the season, and there were only two of them and they were tiny. So…I would just blame nature on this one.

By: Lola

Lola — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:21:00 +0000

Same thing happened to my grandmother’s tomatoes – they all rotted away. (Well, there were two good ones, but a deer ate them.) She was growing them in one of those Topsy-Turvy things though…

By: Christian

Christian — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:08:05 +0000

You could submit this case to one of the university sites I linked to, I guess. Dunno if anyone would respond, though I’d think they’d be interested in a highly resistant super-strain of blossom end rot. Sorry this plant lost the will to live.