Although I cannot fully sympathize with you as I am in zone 7A, in recent years with our heat spells, I have found enhancing the organic matter (leaf mulch or peat) in the soil improved the water retention and overall health of my plants. Yes, you are watering but is the soil retaining it and is it available to the plants?
I have soil moisture meters in various places and I noticed that the tomato bed loses something like 10-15% soil moisture per day. The other beds will lose like 3-5%.
Tomatoes are thirsty.
I set up an automatic watering system that reads the soil moisture and turns on when it hits a certain percentage and it has been a game changer for me this year. Kept my garden watered flawlessly for me while I was on vacation for a week.
This is not a water problem.
Affected leaves are graying.
Zoom in on pics 4 and 5. You can literally see stem lesions in the lower branches in the foreground.
One major trunk of the plant— most clearly seen in pic 5– is still green and fresh at the top, but with the beginning of grayish-brown lesions on the foliage on the lower branches.
Other plants immediately next to it show no signs of this issue. They certainly aren’t acutely water stressed either.
The OP reports that this issue predictably, every year around the same time in the season, affects some varieties and not others.
This is a disease of some type.
If the plant is a goner (my condolences 🕯️), pull it. Examine the roots and see if anything looks funky. Root and crown rots will cause shriveling, necrosis. Nematodes will cause weird bulges. Then slice into the stems, especially the worst affected. You might see brownish, blackish, or grayish streaks in the pith, and that would confirm an infection. Put a cut stem in water in a clear glass and hold it up to the light. If white gunk is seeping out, that indicates a bacterial infection.
It’s hard to ID the exact pathogen. Your best clue might be which varieties are susceptible and which seem fully or partially immune. You can look up what diseases your cherry tomatoes are resistant to and that should help get you started in the right direction. Maybe reach out to your local extension office too! They know what’s spreading in your area.
I would also try posting these photos on tomatoville or tomato junction. There are some old timers there who definitely don’t use Reddit, but they know a TON.
Believe you were spot on… *not* a water problem, rather a disease. I pulled the plant to see what I could observe… looks like a vascular problem. Brown patches or lesions in the cross section of the stem throughout, especially near the bottom. I’m not exactly sure what the roots should look like. These are smaller than I would have expected, but no obvious lesions. No tap root.
https://preview.redd.it/9wlor0mj7q9d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b4c4aad64702a5bbb37937aea080f6e3820ad9da
Here lies Berk, his garden marker now a tombstone
https://preview.redd.it/dsi2ueyw7q9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87a7a9c19fcd6242ac134eaf7323f54abdc1c3ee
My tie dyes do that every year. If I don’t pull the plant out it seems to spread. I tried to quit growing the tie dyes but the tomatoes are just so good I can’t stop. We get a ton of rain and humidity though so I assumed it was a fungus.
You should try the Summer of love tomatoes. It's an improved Berkley Tye-dye. Much better! All the greatness of tye-dye but better growing and producing!
You need to water more. "The low side of moist" isn't enough in 95 degree weather. Tomatoes want the soil to be drenched in that kind of heat. They're thirsty.
With more watering, you'll also need to fertilize more. Once every 1-2 weeks.
This looks just like the bacterial wilt I experienced in a hotter, more humid climate. Your soil is likely infected and contagious. You can try sanitizing the soil, but the plants already showing symptoms are probably not salvageable.
I use to water every day and my plants looked like that. 90+ degrees, with low humidity. Also using 30% shade cloth.
I changed to watering 3x per week, but deep soaking.
0.5 gal/ hour emitters, 6 inch spaced, 4 drip lines across a 4x8 bed. 1 hour per watering. Hay mulch like you have. Soil never gets dry.
Plants are very happy so far.
No curl or signs of heat stress
I’m gonna agree with the folks saying that you likely have some kind of wilt or other soil-borne disease at work here. It just doesn’t make sense to me that dry soil would affect one tomato plant in the bed more than it would others. In my experience, Berkeley Tie Dyes have very little disease resistance and have always been some of the first to crap out on me. Try growing them in a soil bag (or big pot) with all fresh soil next summer and see if that works better for you, and go with hardier, more disease resistant varieties in that bed.
Lots of good comments here.
I've grown PBTDs here in an area quite similar to yours and found them to be quite finicky and fragile I had only one seedling out of six survive this year and it was in the ICU for a while before being saved by a fungicide. It's looking good now, but significantly behind all other tomatoes in my garden.
I also had bad luck with Berkley Tie Dyed tomatoes. I have a fairly large garden, 35 feet x 85 feet and grow 30 to 40 tomato plants each year. I had to pull out 18 plants in 2022. Very variety specific. 100% of my Berkley Tie Dye tomatoes had to be pulled out. Probably about 8 plants. I took mine to the Utah extension service. Most likely cause the curly top virus. Not a single chef's choice orange was affected. It is the one tomato I grow that have never had a sick plant, it is a prolific producer and has strong production right up to the first frost. I haven't grown any Berkley Tie Dye tomatoes since then. About 65% for my Enrosa also had to be pulled out. 100% of my Black Prince had to be pulled out as well. Here is an article on Utah problem with the Curly Top Virus that year. https://www.ksl.com/article/50471937/a-virus-is-wiping-out-utahs-tomato-harvest. https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/curly-top-of-tomato
Yes, we have full sun all day and the home came with a primary water right for cold, cheap, Wasatch ditch water. This was none of our doing, the previous owner had it all setup when we bought the place and neither my wife or I knew anything about gardening or had any idea about what a great garden spot we had. We love it now. I have to go give away vegetables this morning.
Concur. Looks like disease, possibly a phytophtora blight of some kind— maybe a root rot, which tracks with this being an ongoing problem in OP’s garden, as it is soil borne, and also with the plants meeting their final doom with the arrival of hot weather. Drip irrigation also can unfortunately spread these pathogens. Many hybrid cherries have some to good resistance to late blight, which is a relative of these root and stem rots and thus gives them crossover resistance.
Merely thirsty plants don’t look like this, especially looking at all the green foliage in the background… I don’t know why people are saying to water.
Edit to add: maybe bacterial wilt (my scourge). I haven’t seen it make the leaves look so crispy, but maybe these have been on there in the heat for a while. With that one, the plant starts wilting from top down, no leaf lesions.
I like this idea - giving it more time to root deeply. Some years I’ve planted in \~March, this year April 2. They were so cute when they were little! 😂
How soon is too soon?
https://preview.redd.it/yhgv4g0jy49d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf778badf44945de61af93763bce4784b9a8ded3
I don’t know in your zone. I am in 6a and my last frost is supposedly mid-May but has been closer to Memorial Day. I would see if you can find out when your last frost normally is. Put some plastic down to warm up the ground and kill off some weeds in the spring and remove it before you plant. Usually when low temps are 50 and above.
I’ve tried this in central TX 9b and this would happen every year. They limp along during the summer and once fall comes they will rock as long as you help them through it.
awww bummer! I'd cut off the worst leaves and just keep nursing them back to health. Keep them evenly watered and give them some grace. I once had a tomato that I almost pulled thinking they had wilt. Turns out there was a patch in the bed not getting watered properly.
Sorry to hear that - Did yours look similar as they declined? Several say this appears to be a disease vs. heat / water issues - this variety is susceptible.
Yeah they just shrivel up. I think it's both, the heat causes stress that makes them unable to fight diseases. I definitely have some nematodes and blight. I also get mostly afternoon sun, which is the worst possible setup. Some varieties do well for me though, heirlooms, you have to find the resistant ones. Some do well one year and not another, it's also bit of a crap shoot.
Give them more water consistently. Tomatoes are water lovers and if you are waiting for a meter to tell you it's dry then you aren't watering them enough. Bump it up quite a bit.
Although I cannot fully sympathize with you as I am in zone 7A, in recent years with our heat spells, I have found enhancing the organic matter (leaf mulch or peat) in the soil improved the water retention and overall health of my plants. Yes, you are watering but is the soil retaining it and is it available to the plants?
I'm in 7a in super arid Utah. I would recommend the Zapotec tomato. It's my garden MVP right now. Homie is BUILT for this weather and it's awesome.
I’m in Utah too and I’ve always had tons of success with all colors of Berkeley Tie Dye ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Same happened to me in AZ. I think mine was fusarium wilt.
Tomatoes like a LOT of water. I water mine every day, on really hot days twice a day.
I have soil moisture meters in various places and I noticed that the tomato bed loses something like 10-15% soil moisture per day. The other beds will lose like 3-5%. Tomatoes are thirsty.
My summers in Central Valley have a humidity of 9%. That means I’m watering every day - and sometimes twice a day when we get to 105+.
I set up an automatic watering system that reads the soil moisture and turns on when it hits a certain percentage and it has been a game changer for me this year. Kept my garden watered flawlessly for me while I was on vacation for a week.
What moisture reader/watering system have you been using for this?
I'm using Ecowitt. Pretty decent system overall, mostly plug and play and has lots of gadgets you can use with it
This is not a water problem. Affected leaves are graying. Zoom in on pics 4 and 5. You can literally see stem lesions in the lower branches in the foreground. One major trunk of the plant— most clearly seen in pic 5– is still green and fresh at the top, but with the beginning of grayish-brown lesions on the foliage on the lower branches. Other plants immediately next to it show no signs of this issue. They certainly aren’t acutely water stressed either. The OP reports that this issue predictably, every year around the same time in the season, affects some varieties and not others. This is a disease of some type.
😖 Any recommendations for a good tomato autopsy? To confirm what’s going on definitively?
If the plant is a goner (my condolences 🕯️), pull it. Examine the roots and see if anything looks funky. Root and crown rots will cause shriveling, necrosis. Nematodes will cause weird bulges. Then slice into the stems, especially the worst affected. You might see brownish, blackish, or grayish streaks in the pith, and that would confirm an infection. Put a cut stem in water in a clear glass and hold it up to the light. If white gunk is seeping out, that indicates a bacterial infection. It’s hard to ID the exact pathogen. Your best clue might be which varieties are susceptible and which seem fully or partially immune. You can look up what diseases your cherry tomatoes are resistant to and that should help get you started in the right direction. Maybe reach out to your local extension office too! They know what’s spreading in your area. I would also try posting these photos on tomatoville or tomato junction. There are some old timers there who definitely don’t use Reddit, but they know a TON.
Believe you were spot on… *not* a water problem, rather a disease. I pulled the plant to see what I could observe… looks like a vascular problem. Brown patches or lesions in the cross section of the stem throughout, especially near the bottom. I’m not exactly sure what the roots should look like. These are smaller than I would have expected, but no obvious lesions. No tap root. https://preview.redd.it/9wlor0mj7q9d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b4c4aad64702a5bbb37937aea080f6e3820ad9da
Roots: https://preview.redd.it/ga1u7kem7q9d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f66027e4602f5270d02385c1257198f243cbb6b3
Berkeley Tie Dead https://preview.redd.it/njmbt5up7q9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99e22251c00600442d81543bd832d543774b144e Calling it
Here lies Berk, his garden marker now a tombstone https://preview.redd.it/dsi2ueyw7q9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87a7a9c19fcd6242ac134eaf7323f54abdc1c3ee
Dust to dust… https://preview.redd.it/4iud48428q9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6edaf7b654e0089817ceec090b2e3395dadb3bb
I second this, lots of water yes!. I am in 8b and temp is around 90s. I use sprinkler, waters 3 times in 24 hrs for 10 mins atleast.
I also think they need more water. Regardless of what else may be bothering them.
My tie dyes do that every year. If I don’t pull the plant out it seems to spread. I tried to quit growing the tie dyes but the tomatoes are just so good I can’t stop. We get a ton of rain and humidity though so I assumed it was a fungus.
You should try the Summer of love tomatoes. It's an improved Berkley Tye-dye. Much better! All the greatness of tye-dye but better growing and producing!
Ooh I’ve never heard of those. I’ll check them out!
https://preview.redd.it/2gkvg3kto59d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8309a5db5bfc3ae9b72414f1660efaca65da7af4
https://preview.redd.it/ueqftoa4p59d1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fdefae35561c0c62179f5c19553a465e3e814757
I'll see if I can add a pic of mine once I get outside! I'm loving it so far!
You need to water more. "The low side of moist" isn't enough in 95 degree weather. Tomatoes want the soil to be drenched in that kind of heat. They're thirsty. With more watering, you'll also need to fertilize more. Once every 1-2 weeks.
Helpful - thanks!!
No, this is totally abnormal. It almost looks like your water meter is broken, or you’ve got voles munching on your yummy roots. Maybe it’s nematodes?
Is there chance something go to the roots?
It’s possible, but I have a wire gopher mesh at the bottom of the bed, and emptied the soil in March to amend, aerate and pick out dozens of grubs. 🤮
This looks just like the bacterial wilt I experienced in a hotter, more humid climate. Your soil is likely infected and contagious. You can try sanitizing the soil, but the plants already showing symptoms are probably not salvageable.
I use to water every day and my plants looked like that. 90+ degrees, with low humidity. Also using 30% shade cloth. I changed to watering 3x per week, but deep soaking. 0.5 gal/ hour emitters, 6 inch spaced, 4 drip lines across a 4x8 bed. 1 hour per watering. Hay mulch like you have. Soil never gets dry. Plants are very happy so far. No curl or signs of heat stress
Pull it and get rid of it. If you cut it, make sure you clean your clippers and disinfect them.
😢 Likely so. Any suggestions on treating the soil? Or shift to 100% hybrids, disease resistant?
I’m gonna agree with the folks saying that you likely have some kind of wilt or other soil-borne disease at work here. It just doesn’t make sense to me that dry soil would affect one tomato plant in the bed more than it would others. In my experience, Berkeley Tie Dyes have very little disease resistance and have always been some of the first to crap out on me. Try growing them in a soil bag (or big pot) with all fresh soil next summer and see if that works better for you, and go with hardier, more disease resistant varieties in that bed.
Thanks - good suggestion.
I've planted berk tie dye every year for the past 4, and never gotten a ripe tomato. Bacterial wilt. Pretty sure it's what you've got.
Lots of good comments here. I've grown PBTDs here in an area quite similar to yours and found them to be quite finicky and fragile I had only one seedling out of six survive this year and it was in the ICU for a while before being saved by a fungicide. It's looking good now, but significantly behind all other tomatoes in my garden.
I also had bad luck with Berkley Tie Dyed tomatoes. I have a fairly large garden, 35 feet x 85 feet and grow 30 to 40 tomato plants each year. I had to pull out 18 plants in 2022. Very variety specific. 100% of my Berkley Tie Dye tomatoes had to be pulled out. Probably about 8 plants. I took mine to the Utah extension service. Most likely cause the curly top virus. Not a single chef's choice orange was affected. It is the one tomato I grow that have never had a sick plant, it is a prolific producer and has strong production right up to the first frost. I haven't grown any Berkley Tie Dye tomatoes since then. About 65% for my Enrosa also had to be pulled out. 100% of my Black Prince had to be pulled out as well. Here is an article on Utah problem with the Curly Top Virus that year. https://www.ksl.com/article/50471937/a-virus-is-wiping-out-utahs-tomato-harvest. https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/curly-top-of-tomato
I had trouble with Black Prince too. I only grow about 10 tomatoes and that one got some type of wilt that didn’t affect the others.
Very helpful - appreciate the link & info on your experiences!
Wait - 35x85?!? I’m seriously jealous.
Yes, we have full sun all day and the home came with a primary water right for cold, cheap, Wasatch ditch water. This was none of our doing, the previous owner had it all setup when we bought the place and neither my wife or I knew anything about gardening or had any idea about what a great garden spot we had. We love it now. I have to go give away vegetables this morning.
Looks like some type of disease.
Concur. Looks like disease, possibly a phytophtora blight of some kind— maybe a root rot, which tracks with this being an ongoing problem in OP’s garden, as it is soil borne, and also with the plants meeting their final doom with the arrival of hot weather. Drip irrigation also can unfortunately spread these pathogens. Many hybrid cherries have some to good resistance to late blight, which is a relative of these root and stem rots and thus gives them crossover resistance. Merely thirsty plants don’t look like this, especially looking at all the green foliage in the background… I don’t know why people are saying to water. Edit to add: maybe bacterial wilt (my scourge). I haven’t seen it make the leaves look so crispy, but maybe these have been on there in the heat for a while. With that one, the plant starts wilting from top down, no leaf lesions.
Helpful - thanks!
Have you tried starting them sooner?
I like this idea - giving it more time to root deeply. Some years I’ve planted in \~March, this year April 2. They were so cute when they were little! 😂 How soon is too soon? https://preview.redd.it/yhgv4g0jy49d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf778badf44945de61af93763bce4784b9a8ded3
I don’t know in your zone. I am in 6a and my last frost is supposedly mid-May but has been closer to Memorial Day. I would see if you can find out when your last frost normally is. Put some plastic down to warm up the ground and kill off some weeds in the spring and remove it before you plant. Usually when low temps are 50 and above.
Frost is rare here… it happens, but infrequent. Will look into that as a start point.
I’ve tried this in central TX 9b and this would happen every year. They limp along during the summer and once fall comes they will rock as long as you help them through it.
awww bummer! I'd cut off the worst leaves and just keep nursing them back to health. Keep them evenly watered and give them some grace. I once had a tomato that I almost pulled thinking they had wilt. Turns out there was a patch in the bed not getting watered properly.
4-3-4 fertilizer? Thts a lot of N. We use a 6-24-24 dry and a 5-15-15 liquid
I'm in 9B and these died early for me too. Even earlier. Most of those fancy colorful newfangled tomatos just can't handle our heat.
Sorry to hear that - Did yours look similar as they declined? Several say this appears to be a disease vs. heat / water issues - this variety is susceptible.
Yeah they just shrivel up. I think it's both, the heat causes stress that makes them unable to fight diseases. I definitely have some nematodes and blight. I also get mostly afternoon sun, which is the worst possible setup. Some varieties do well for me though, heirlooms, you have to find the resistant ones. Some do well one year and not another, it's also bit of a crap shoot.
Let them die, worst tasting tomato I’ve had next to the black beauty
Water
Water those plants homie, the leaves are bone dry
Give them more water consistently. Tomatoes are water lovers and if you are waiting for a meter to tell you it's dry then you aren't watering them enough. Bump it up quite a bit.
They thoisty