I'll check those things, thanks. What's weird is that all of the other pots I have out there (one with green peppers, one with basil, and a mixed pot of thyme, rosemary, and parsley) have all gone gangbusters since the rain; just the tomatoes that seem to be suffering. I guess I'll try holding off on watering them as much over the next couple of days since it's supposed to be clear here all weekend.
With wilting, first thing I'd think of is not enough water. But then you said it's been raining so I tend to think it's not too little water. The next thing I think of is that it's too much water then, and maybe the roots have rotted, and as a result the water isn't making it into the plant due to the damaged roots. It it's not water related at all, it could be fungus. Sometimes ground fungus gets splashed up into the plant due to rain/watering and can cause wilting. Likewise, it might just be a fungus present in the soil that is causing the problem. If it's roots rotting off, I think you're screwed. If it's a wilt-causing fungus, and it's gone this far, you still may be screwed, but it might get better with some fungicide... so my line of thinking is that spray the fuck out of it with fungicide and see what happens. Good luck.
I'm honestly not even sure. It was an extra seedling my neighbor had and gave me. It's not as big as a beefsteak; maybe a better boy?
Looks like TVI's 18" Lattice planter... and the pre-done holes should provide plenty of drainage to prevent root rot even with a few days of heavy rain so long as it wasn't previously damaged by a burn or drought. Drought seems pretty unlikely being that the damage is primarily towards the base of the plant. I can't zoom in on the images to see how the leaves are curling but you didn't by chance recently treat the lawn did you? If the damaged foliage is really gnarled it's usually a pretty good indicator of 2-4d damage. If you recently sprayed the lawn the slightest drift of that shit will fuck up tomatoes in a hurry even if it wasn't enough to damage anything else.
No, no spraying of the yard any time recently, so it's not that either. At this point I'm just going to chalk it up as a loss and harvest what little fruit I can from the plant and try again next year. At least the rest of my other plants are still thriving. Speaking of which, anybody have any suggestions on what to do with a shit-ton of thyme and basil?
Sorry your plant died. I would hate not knowing why. I use a little thyme in many recipes but not a lot at once. It dries nicely though. Just hang upside down. Basil is good in sauces, on pizza, on paninis, in pesto, in thai food. Theres a recipe called Thai Basil Turkey I make often, there's many versions online. I make mine with ground turkey, onions, green beans, seasoned with fish sauce, a fuckton of fresh basil (thai basil is best but regular italian types are good too), a fuckton of fresh garlic, and a chili sauce like Sambal oelek, sometimes lime juice. Served over rice or make cabbage wraps (skip the green beans or chop small for easier stuffing).
I may not have been tending my tomato plants as well as I should have. For reference, the box planks are 12” wide.
I got lazy this year about keeping the suckers down. Lazed for about 2 weeks right when they were taking off then went on vacation for another 2. Came back and it was a jungle Ive had to hack around. I had intentionally tried not pruning suckers last year as some claim you ultimately get the same yield but in smaller tomatoes, skipping on the time pruning being the big benefit. I got my plants in little late last year too and it was well under the amount from the year before volume wsie. I found the rash of much smaller tomatoes a lot less rewarding. Pruning suckers gives you the YUGE envious tomatoes you post on social media. I just topped mine hoping to spur the set tomatoes to bulk up. I keep forgetting to get a shade cloth to put over the patch. Would help fruit set when I inevitably plant late.
Yeah, we had frost until REALLY late this year, so it was not a good start... and stuff is now reddening up so I'm not too worried, but we have only had a few small cherry tomatoes so far. My gut says in about 2 weeks we'll be drowning in them.
that looks about like mine. I've determined that A) I planted too late, B) and too close together, and C) we have a REALLY fucking hot summer, so D) I'm just gonna let them do whatever the fuck they wanna do and see what nature produces. My peppers have gone crazy, as well as the okra and tomatoes. Cucumbers, zucchini and squash got what I think was root rot so I cut back the watering, pulled them and put new seeds in. If they come up then that's just bonus. At this point our grocery stores are all back to normal, something I didn't expect would happen so soon when I first started the garden and hence why I did it.
I yanked everything out of the beds yesterday. Everything that did bear, the veggies were too dry to eat, so they went to the birds to pick at. I got a couple heirloom pumpkins to harvest though, so I'll get some seeds out of them for another day, if nothing else. I may put in some lettuce, or just say "screw it" and dream of next year. We'll see.
Nett, looking like a great year there, man! Most things here are worn down by the heat. Still plenty of small tomatoes, grape and cherry varieties will keep on making fruit. Pulled a few Brandywine vines out. Ran out of things to do with the cucumbers, have a million turning yellow on the stand. Giving those and okra away as fast as I can! Made a metric ton of salsa and pepper jelly. Joined the fermenting group on FB, lots of great posts there....might ferment some hot sauce. A couple of success stories. A few years back I grew a solid vine squash, the tronboncino https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tromboncino_(squash). I spoke of it in this thread, but basically I was trying to outsmart the squash vine borers that destroy yellow squash on the regular here. So this year, I only had 6 seeds left. I planted them, five vines came up. Holy shit! They now span about 20 feet. I eat them small, like yellow squash, but left one to get big so that I could replenish my seed. Pic below (ruler is 12 inches). Watermelon. NEVER any luck here, the squirrels are so bold about eating them. This year, grew the melons right up near the house, which seemed to give them pause. Cut the first great melon last night for dessert. Pic below.
Here is the whole jungle like mess. Only thing I replanted for fall were more sugar snaps, which are up and growing. In all, a good year.
Thanks.. it hasn't been without some martyrs. 7 out of 8 of my cucumber plants have died off... root rot I think. I probably overwatered them, by a lot. I've dialed back the watering to once every 3 days and the one remaining plant seems to be doing OK... no signs of leaf wilt or other indications of death. Bastard. Finally had my first big tomato ripen up enough to pick. A squirrel had thoughtfully opted to pick it for me, and leave it, partially eaten, in the corner of the raised bed, in order to show me just how good it looked. Time to update the varmint removal plan.
Well, here in the American Deep South, summer is beginning to wind down. I have already pulled a few tomato plants and am letting the parsley go to the Monarch caterpillars. The Tabasco peppers are just coming in, and I'm very excited about those. But, I want to do a fall planting. I've never done one before. Have any of you all done a fall garden? Genuinely curious as to what varieties you all have tried that have worked out and the ones that haven't. I've been hoarding some beet, turnip, and bunching onion seeds, but would love some more suggestions.