Lots of green tomatoes plants look terrible

[Goldie321]

My tomato plants were looking fantastic until last week. Guess the West Central Florida summer heat is finally getting to them. I water daily and make sure my containers are at least damp all the time, but leaves are dying and look like a fungus may have gotten to them with all the brown spots. I've sprayed with Safeguard Neem Oil Extract regularly, and it was doing a great job - until now. Hoping to get all these tomatoes ripe before the plants call it quits. I can can pickled green tomatoes but would like to have some crushed for sauce as well.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by Goldie321

My tomato plants were looking fantastic until last week. Guess the West Central Florida summer heat is finally getting to them. I water daily and make sure my containers are at least damp all the time, but leaves are dying and look like a fungus may have gotten to them with all the brown spots. I've sprayed with Safeguard Neem Oil Extract regularly, and it was doing a great job - until now. Hoping to get all these tomatoes ripe before the plants call it quits. I can can pickled green tomatoes but would like to have some crushed for sauce as well.

Why not try the milk spray? Works well on fungus problems.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=36791

[Goldie321]

Originally Posted by beeman

Why not try the milk spray? Works well on fungus problems.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=36791

Is that plain milk?? 1 part milk to 10 parts water? What about getting it on the tomatoes - impossible not to. Guess it's worth a try.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by Goldie321

Is that plain milk?? 1 part milk to 10 parts water? What about getting it on the tomatoes - impossible not to. Guess it's worth a try.

I had one plant, a Roma, which didn't want to grow, looked sickly, sprayed it down to run off with 1-10 milk.
It stopped the fungus and now the plant is catching up with the others and flowering.
I am favouring milk instead of chemicals now.
Wondering if it would work on insects?

[Goldie321]

Trimmed the dead and dying stuff, then sprayed everything. About how long till you noticed improvement? If it works for me, how often should I spray?

[beeman]

Originally Posted by Goldie321

Trimmed the dead and dying stuff, then sprayed everything. About how long till you noticed improvement? If it works for me, how often should I spray?

It should look better tomorrow. I have started spraying once a week, everything looks greener and cleaner, even my fruit trees and certainly less insect damage.
Only time will tell if it's the milk or just the 'year' but I am not seeing the leaf roller damage and no holes or brown stuff on my black currants.
Please let us know if it works for you.

[Tracydr]

I'm a big believer in milk spray. I also like to use kelp spray for general immune function. My plants get a kelp soil drench weekly,too.

[Goldie321]

Sprayed yesterday and I'm seeing even more dead leaves today although the tops of most of the plants look good. Lot's of green tomatoes. I picked 5lbs today and made pickled green tomatoes. Figured no sense waiting in case they go bad. Will probably have fried green tomatoes in a few days as well as the smaller ones get bigger. The ripening rate is at a snail's pace.

[Labradors2]

Goldie, I'm surprised that nobody has questioned your comment that you try to keep your containers "damp all the time". Apparently, we are supposed to let them dry out in between waterings, so perhaps you inadvertently over-watered them?

Linda

[Goldie321]

Well, letting them dry out here in Florida the plants quickly start to wilt. I found that out a couple of times when I had to water later in the day than usual. This Florida sun has no mercy on man, beast or garden!

[Goldie321]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

Goldie, I'm surprised that nobody has questioned your comment that you try to keep your containers "damp all the time". Apparently, we are supposed to let them dry out in between waterings, so perhaps you inadvertently over-watered them?

Linda

Eased up on the watering a little and they started looking better, but then we had really heavy rain yesterday and this morning there were more dead leaves. If that is the problem, then I'm sunk for the rest of the summer. Our rainy season is just starting up. On the positive side though, the cooling rain has gotten my green tomatoes ripening - and at a pretty fast pace. So, I figure if I can at least get most if not all those tomatoes, I'll be doing great. It was so hot for a while, and with no rain, that the green tomatoes weren't ripening. I read that if the temp goes over 85 the chemical reaction that causes them to ripen just stops dead in its tracks - and that sure seemed to be the case for a while. I canned pickled green tomatoes to save some from rotting. Have a bunch of half ripened ones I'm going to make a salsa with. I had brought them indoors and put them in a long bin in the bathtub. The cooler temp got them ripening but not completely.

[HydroExplorer]

If easing up on watering helped you were probably drowning them. You need oxygen in the root zone or the plant suffocates.

The beginning of this video explains it pretty well (around 3:20)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BleWpBYweHE

He also talks about relative humidity being between 40 and 60. This has to do with mineral uptake but that is likely a problem in your climate.

I've heard people swear by watering plants with diluted H2O2 to increase O2 on the roots. I haven't tried it but some people claim it works. You could try it on one plant and see what happens.

[Goldie321]

Originally Posted by HydroExplorer

If easing up on watering helped you were probably drowning them. You need oxygen in the root zone or the plant suffocates.

The beginning of this video explains it pretty well (around 3:20)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BleWpBYweHE

He also talks about relative humidity being between 40 and 60. This has to do with mineral uptake but that is likely a problem in your climate.

I've heard people swear by watering plants with diluted H2O2 to increase O2 on the roots. I haven't tried it but some people claim it works. You could try it on one plant and see what happens.

Well, it's too late to try anything now. Summer rains are really moving in. Tomatoes are ripening at breakneck speed now. Guess the rain cooled things down enough for them to go into ripening mode. But the plants are looking worse and worse. I've started pulling plants where the tomatoes ripened enough to be harvested since they are bare. Have to wait for the fall planting to try anything new.

Our humidity has been sky high as well. Doesn't take more than a few minutes out in the garden for the sweat to be pouring off you. When I go back inside, I'm soaked right through my clothes.