The garden has been sorely neglected this last few weeks and the brown black thumb has taken advantage of my distraction and taken over. Whatever is attacking the tomatoes, it’s won. These photos are from last week. The ‘maters look even more pathetic this week. The stems are just black and rotten and when they break the bigger ones are just hollowed out. Oh well, there’s always next year.
All that brown..yikes!
The cherry tomato looks like it might be the last to succumb unless I manage to save it this week. It’s still loaded with fruit.
The Roma is dying and, when you don’t get out to pick them, the tomatoes rot on the vine. What a waste. Sigh.
The Celebrities were still producing despite their illness.
The basil in the same pot is fine but the tomato is just sad.
The basil bolts and I pinch and it grows and it bolts and I prune and it grows and it bolts….
The Thai peppers are doing fine. The bells are somewhere in between; not as healthy as this but not as bad as the tomato. I just haven’t been out there to pick them before they start to rot on the plant.
The rosemary, thyme and oregano are doing well.
Lavender!
I am sooo sorry about your tomatoes! I totally feel for you!
Karen, your tomatoes look like they have a bacterial disease happening. Are you over watering the plants?
You need to keep them moist, but the bacteria spreads on the plants if they are planted in an area that has a lot of dampness. Also, when you water, water only at the soil level, not the entire plant. You don’t want the leaves getting wet or the bacteria spreads.
If the plants are crowded in the pot, this also makes it so that the leaves are not getting enough air to circulate them to keep them at the proper dryness level. Meaning, not dry and wilted, but not always damp or wet.
Other than this or blight, I don’t know another thing about tomato plant diseases. This doesn’t look like blight though. The bacterial disease usually has those brown spots surrounded by yellow, which it looks like is happening.
But the blackening and hollowing out of the stems might mean something else entirely. I don’t know anything about that.
As for the basil, I go out daily and pick the larger leaves form the base of the plant, and keep the tops completely pinched back from any seeding just before it starts. This helps to get them to become fuller. Sometimes I pick the basil every other day, even when I don’t need it, and just keep it wrapped in damp paper towels in a ziploc in the fridge. But it is a constant.
My one happy report in my garden is my cilantro. Last year it kept going to seed. This year I’ve been babying that plant daily and it’s kept up with a constant supply of cilantro for me.
No tomatoes for us yet, but there are lots of buds.
Not overwatering on purpose, just lots and lots of rain in FL this time of year. I’ve definitely learned my lesson about overcrowding this year and won’t make that mistake next time around! I’m going to cut my losses on the tomatoes and try my best to find time to keep the herbs healthy.