[Arid_gardener] Re: Tomato Plant Question

[Dick Gross]

With a thousand or so Master Gardener Volunteers in this Valley, Ellen, I am embarrassed that no one has responded to your question. Most active Master Gardeners are, however, amatuer volunteers who bust their tails with no thought of recompensation except for the satisfaction of learning or of having helped someone with home horticulture. But, I will try or at least this may spark a dialogue on the question. All home gardeners grow tomatoes, don't they?

If tomatoes have flourished in that greenhouse environment for two years but have suffered in the third, there has to be a rather prominent reason for the decline. I assume these are growing in the ground in existing soil.

The soil may stay damp and warm providing a haven for pathogens to thrive and multiply without the benefit of any solar pasturation. Without careful hygene, I believe a greenhouse is a  breeding ground for a host of  evil soil and other organisms that prey on our plants unless everything is grown in a sterile soil medium in pots. In the ground, crop rotation is a prudent practice. You may not have much latitude in a greenhouse but similar crops should not occupy the same spot two years in a row if there is any way to avoid it. Could that explain why some vines thrive in one spot but not in others? That is a theory that it would be easy enough to confirm. You might try rotating beds every other year. Root node nematoads can be a problem with tomatoes but I haven't seen evidence of the affliction except where I have tried to treat the plant like a perennial keeping the vine alive and growing two or more successive years. Pull one of the ailing plants and examine the root system. Nematodes should be obvious, looking like a bunch of ugly warts attached to the roots. Nematoads feed off plant juices restricting the flow of fluids through its vascular system. A plant with this condition, in my experience, will just languish without the decency of dying so that a frustrated gardener can move on.

Is a wall-of-waters effective in a greenhouse, Ellen? I have worked in Queen Creek but I would have guessed that frost is pretty rare there.  I think the w-o-w would have to be in full sun to provide a heat sink to prevent freezing. In a greenhouse, this sounds like over-kill, but your circumstances may justify the practice.

I don't know if any of this helps, Ellen, but let us know if any of our facts are wrong or if other extenuating circumstances occur to you.

Contrary or supporting intellectual opinions are welcome that we may all learn from the discussion.

Dick Gross, Master Gardener Volunteer
University of Arizona Maricopa County
Cooperative Extension

Bcc: arid_gardener at CALS.arizona.edu; VOSG members. 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ellen Stobaugh 
  To: rkgross3 at cox.net 
  Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 8:40 PM
  Subject: Tomato Plant Question
  Hi Dick, Thanks for asking for the post again. I do remember seeing it in the list one day. Anyway, here it is again. Thanks for your time and help. Have a great day. Ellen

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Ellen, I can't find your question in my in-box nor do I remember it but I would like to contemplate the problem. Would you mind copying me again. Dick Gross

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


   
  Ellen Stobaugh <lnrosy2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
    Date: Mon, 28 May 2007 09:02:12 -0700 (PDT)
    From: Ellen Stobaugh <lnrosy2000 at yahoo.com>
    Subject: Tomato Plant Question
    To: arid_gardener at CALS.arizona.edu

    Hello to all,

    I have a question about tomato plants. We have three greenhouses that the covering is heavy duty greenhouse plastic. We've had them a couple of years now and normally the tomato plants do great in them. This year is different. We started the plants early and because of the cold winter that we had here (I'm in Pinal County, Queen Creek) my husband started them in wall of waters. They did quite well for awhile, but once the plants started getting any size to them, had tomatoes on them, etc. the leaves would just shrivel up and die. The stems are still somewhat green and the tomatoes have hung on but ripen extremely fast. There are some of the tomato plants in the same greenhouse that are doing quite well and haven't had any problems. We were wondering what might have caused this. Could the humidity from the wall of waters and the greenhouses caused them to become diseased early on but not have it show up until later? The rows weren't getting watered as good as they should have, but not all the plants in those rows suffered. Could it have been because of that. My husband put black plastic down early to try and control weeds. Could that have something to do with it? Any help is greatly appreciated. Take care and have a great day.

    Ellen







------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check.
  Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://CALS.arizona.edu/pipermail/arid_gardener/attachments/20070604/206d0f69/attachment.html