What Is the Problem if My Tomatoes Grow Very Healthy & Suddenly Die?
Watching a plant decline suddenly is a gardener's heartbreak. Since tomatoes are the most popular homegrown vegetables, the sudden death of a tomato plant (Lycopersicon esculentum) is painful, especially when dozens of luscious or soon-to-be-luscious tomatoes are involved. Although many different pests, diseases and conditions can fell tomatoes, here is a short-list of potential problems to consider first.
Determine Whether Determinate
The issue of whether your deceased tomato plant was determinate or indeterminate may seem irrelevant, yet it remains the first question you should ask. An indeterminate tomato plant is a vine that keeps growing until pulled out or killed by frost. A determinate tomato plant grows upright into a bush, stops growing at a certain height, sets fruit for a period of weeks and then dies. If your plant was determinate, it may have simply reached the end of its life cycle, set all its fruit and withered.
Water, Water Everywhere
Anyone who has ever cut into a fat, juicy garden tomato understands the central role water plays in the vegetable's development. Tomato plants die without water, but they also die from too much of a good thing. Check the soil around your late tomato plant; if the earth is bone dry, lack of water may have caused the plant's demise. If the ground is muddy and holds standing water, excess water is probably the culprit. Heavy soil stays saturated for hours or even days after irrigation. Plant your next tomato crop in well-drained soil to prevent a repeat of the disaster.
If one day your apparently healthy tomato plant falls over and dies, bacterial wilt may be the cause. Bacterial wilt lives in infected soil and enters the plant through its roots, destroying the vascular system. A plant infected with bacterial wilt has few external symptoms before it dramatically wilts, as if someone poured scalding water over it. Diagnose bacterial wilt by cutting the plant at ground level and looking for darkened tissues. If you find some, suspend the stem in water. If the problem is bacterial wilt, a white slime will ooze from the cut. The bacteria are difficult to eradicate from the garden soil. Remove infected plants quickly and do not replant tomatoes in the same area.
Other Wilt Diseases
Tomato plants are attacked by many different wilt diseases, but most cause external symptoms in the plant before it dies. Fusarium wilt and verticillium wilt both kill a tomato plant quickly by constricting the water-conducting tissues. If either of these wilts attacks your plant, the first symptom is yellowing leaves. Diagnose these wilts by examining a cross section of the stem of the tomato plant. If the tissues inside the stem are brown rather than ivory, one of these wilts may have been the cause of death. As with any wilt disease, you should not replant tomatoes in the same garden plot if you determine fusarium or verticillium wilt was to blame.
- Mississippi State University Extension Service: Look for Six Common Causes of Tomato Wilt in the South
- University of California Integrated Pest Management: Tomatoes
- Horticulture: The Difference Between Determinate and Indeterminate Tomatoes
- Clemson Public Service Activities: Bacterial Wilt of Tomato
From Alaska to California, from France's Basque Country to Mexico's Pacific Coast, Teo Spengler has dug the soil, planted seeds and helped trees, flowers and veggies thrive. World traveler, professional writer and consummate gardener, Spengler earned a BA from U.C. Santa Cruz, a law degree from Berkeley's Boalt Hall, and an MA and MFA from San Francisco State. She currently divides her life between San Francisco and southwestern France.