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  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
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  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
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    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
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    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
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    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
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Amanda's Blog

Amanda's Garden Consulting Company

THE TROUBLE WITH TOMATOES & DECONTAMINATING SOIL.

8/8/2017

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By the time August rolls around, tomato plants start showing their weaknesses. Their health depends on the weather, how much water they receive, soil drainage and soil health. The variety of tomato is also extremely important as some are  more prone to certain ailments than others. Check those plant labels when buying tomato plants as they should denote the type of tomato: vine (indeterminate) or bush (determinate), when the tomatoes are produced (early, mid, late season), as well as disease resistance. Letters after the name denote disease resistance: the tomato Quick Pick VFFT. It's resistant to Verticillium Wilt (V), both strains of Fusarium Wilt (FF), Tobacco Mosaic virus (T) and Alternaria or Crown Wilt (A). 

Late Blight

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Picture
If your tomato plants are not looking healthy, they could be suffering from a disease called Late Blight (Phytophthora infestans), which also affects potatoes. This disease has been around for a while as it was responsible for the infamous Irish potato famine in the 1800’s.

Late blight is quite common this time of year. The obvious symptoms appear first on the lower, older leaves. Foliage develops large, brown blotches that soon turn droop, turn a light tan and become crispy. On the stems it appears as brown splotches. The tomato fruit develop dark brown circular spots that become mushy.

​As the disease progresses, a white fungal growth appears on affected areas. This disease works quickly and soon entire plants succumb. The best thing to do is to pull out and discard infected plants and certainly don’t compost them.

Fog and morning dew promotes this disease, which we can do little about, however it is prudent not to get the foliage wet when watering. To prevent this disease, water in the morning, rotate crops, especially between tomatoes and potatoes crops. Wait at least a couple of years, preferably four, to ensure there is no cross contamination. 

Cracked tomatoes

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​Uneven watering is the reason why cracks appear in tomato fruit. Dry soil followed by a thorough soaking makes the tomato fruit to grow too fast; too fast for its own skin. Thin skinned tomato varieties are especially prone to this condition. Try to keep the soil evenly moist. Container grown tomatoes benefit greatly from having a large drainage tray underneath them. A 3 inch layer of mulch on top of the soil, even ones in containers, helps to keep soil moisture more constant. 

Blossom-end rot

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Blossom-End Rot appears on the bottom end of the tomatoes. It becomes flattened or sunken, brown and leathery. This is not a disease, but a lack of calcium in the soil. The two main reasons why the plant cannot absorb calcium are inconsistent watering and soil that’s too acidic.

Inconsistent watering, especially drought, prevents the distribution of calcium throughout the plant. Tomato plants grown in containers often suffer this malady as keeping the soil consistently moist is tricky during the heat of the summer.

Soil that is too acidic also prevents calcium absorption. Tomatoes prefer a pH of 6.2 to 6.8. Add dolomite lime to increase soil pH and as an added bonus, the lime also contains calcium. Work the lime into the soil, following the manufacturer’s instructions, then water well. Crushed eggshells mixed into the soil is also a great idea. Add them to your compost bin and apply the finished compost to your veggie beds and containers yearly.

To prevent this condition check soil pH in spring and apply dolomite or dolopril lime according to direction. Apply a mulch, keep soil evenly moist, avoid soil from drying out, avoid high nitrogen fertilizers as it ties up the calcium in the soil and avoid hoeing close to roots. If growing in pots, make sure the container is larger enough that it doesn’t dry out repeatedly and include a good sized drainage tray.

Verticillium Wilt

Picture
Picture
Wilting tomato plants may not be thirsty; they may be infected with the fungal disease, verticillium wilt. A good indication that the wilting is due to this disease and not a lack of water is moist soil (duh). Often only one side of the plant is affected and the plants recover at night.
 
Look for yellow blotches on the lower leaves that may curl inwards. As the disease progresses, the leaf veins turn brown followed by dead spots. This fungi prevents water from translocating throughout the plant and contains a toxin that kills and starves plant tissues as it spreads. Plants not only wilt and discolour, they become stunted and fruit, if any, are small, yellow and don’t develop. A good indication of this disease is inside the stem. If it has a dark centre when severed,  it is verticillium wilt.
​
Tomatoes are not the only vegetable prone to this disease. All members of the tomato family are vulnerable: potatoes, peppers and eggplants (aubergines). Once a plant is infected toss it in the garbage as there is no control.
 
Since this fungi enters the plant through the roots from contaminated soil, remove plants as soon as they become infected. Remove all the plant parts from the area so they don’t re-contaminate the soil. Don’t put them in the compost. Rotate your crops. Don’t plant tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and/or peppers in the same bed for at least 4 years! This is why I had to make another veggie bed, just so I could rotate my crops more efficiently.
 
​Plant tomatoes in well-drained soil and don’t overwater as this encourages this disease. Just one day of saturated soil will incur infection especially if combined with cool soil: 13°C (55° F).

 
Plant resistant varieties. When purchasing tomato seeds and tomato plants look for the initial V at the end of the tomato’s name: Tomato - New Yorker (V). This indicates that the variety is resistant to verticillium wilt. That doesn’t mean it will not become infected if it is grown in contaminated soil. And, if all else fails, solarize the soil.

Decontaminating soil with Solarization 

Soil contaminated with fungi, diseases, insects and weeds cause lots of heartaches for gardeners everywhere. Using the sun to 'bake' the soil is a non chemical, organic approach to kill soil nasties. Just till or dig the bed, rake level, water, level again ensuring a smooth surface. Place a sheet of clear plastic overtop and secure with pegs or soil from another non-contaminated bed. This is best done in the summer to heat the soil adequately. Keep them soil covered for at least 6 weeks.

Remove the plastic and add some goodies to replenish the soil since solarization kills practically everything. Add a few inches of compost, SeaSoil and/or composted manure to replenish what was lost. Mix it in to the top 6 inches and water. Wait a few days to a week to plant. 
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    Archives

    Here are some of my previous blog postings. They cover a wide range of topics from bugs to my botanical excursions and conventions. Click on whichever interests you on the titles below for easy navigation. 
    • ​Building a French Kitchen (Potager) Garden
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Tomato Taming
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvests
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Plant Rusts
    • Dunbar Garden Club Garden Tour 2020
    • Rose Bloom Balling
    • ​Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses Do Exist.. Really!​
    • Easy Vegetable Garden Trellis 
    • Tomato Seedlings to Plants
    • Video: How to Divide Dahlias 
    • Video: How to Plant a Tree
    • Video: How to Prune a Grapevine in Winter
    • Damping Off - A Seedling Killer!
    • Lawns: ​Seeding, Sowing, Renovating
    • Lawn Grub Control
    • Tuberous Begonias 101
    • Dahlias 101
    • Pruning in Winter
    • Pruning & Training Grape Vines in Winter
    • Insects & Diseases Control with Dormant Spray
    • Dealing With Drought
    • Heritage Vancouver 7th Annual Garden Tour
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Pruning Shrubs into Trees
    • 10 Steps to Festive Planter
    • Christmas Tree Selection 
    • Collecting & Saving Seeds
    • Heritage Vancouver 6th Garden Tour
    • The Dunbar Garden Tour 2018
    • Dart's Hill, A Garden Park
    • VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visit
    • Tall Kale Tales
    • Northwest Flower & Garden Show, Seattle
    • Pruning in Winter
    • Pruning & Training Grape Vines in Winter
    • Insects & Diseases Control with Dormant Spray
    • Why Christmas cactus Don't Blossom
    • A Quickie Festive Swag
    • Putting the Garden to Bed
    • How to Drain Soggy Soil
    • A Visit to the Arizona - Sonora Desert
    • Banana, Palm Tree Winter Protection
    • Lasagna Gardening, Sheet Mulching
    • Saving Geraniums, Coleus, Bougainvilleas & Other Tender Plants 
    • Spiders Everywhere - Oh My!
    • Tomato Troubles & Soil Solarization
    • Trees That Drip That Sticky Stuff
    • Balcony Bliss
    • June Bugs - One Huge Beetle! 
    • A Summer's Day Harvest
    • The Dunbar Garden Club Private Tour
    • Leaky Birdbaths and Slug Free Strawberries
    • Oops... Wrong Plant, Wrong Place
    • I Had An Ugly Lawn...​
    • ​How to Make a Christmas Elf
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • To subscribe to my blog click here. 

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Photo used under Creative Commons from vwcampin
  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
  • Lawn Basics
    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
    • Lawn Alternatives
    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
  • Propagation
    • Growing Seeds Outdoors
    • Growing Seeds Indoors
    • Taking Cuttings
    • Seed & Plant Catalogues
  • How to Garden Topics
    • Fall Garden Chores
    • Planting Know-How
    • Soil Building
    • Watering Tips & Techniques
    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
  • Container Growing
    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
  • Plant of the Month
    • Spring Flowering Bulbs
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Dahlias
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pink Dawn Bodnant Viburnum
    • Poinsettias
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Ornamental Kale
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
    • Snowberry
    • Snowdrops
    • Star Magnolia
    • Strawberry Tree, Pacific Madrone
    • Stewartia
    • Torch Lily, Kniphofia uvaria
    • Tree Peonies
    • Tuberous Begonias
    • Virginia Creeper
    • Weigela
    • Winterhazel, Corylopsis
    • Winter Camellia, C. sasanqua
    • Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens
    • Witch Hazel
    • Wood Anemones
    • Yews
  • Garden Tour Blogs
  • Monthly Flower Arrangements
  • Website Index
  • Subscribe
  • Need Help?
  • Garden Club Events