I'm a first time grower in Pacific Northwest and didn't know anything about pruning (learning a lot about it now!). We harvested a few red tomatoes but now most of the tomato plants seem to be withering and the existing tonatoes are turning brown after they are green while it's still sunny a lot of days in the week. Same is happening to other folks as well – is weather the only culprit?
by Specialist-Stress310
7 Comments
Late blight. They are toast.
It is a fungal infection. I am also in the PNW. It is somewhat inevitable, but preventative fungicide treatments starting in mid August, keeping plants well fertilized and vigorous, and choosing blight resistant varieties help.
It’s end of season blight. Happens to us all.
Aww, I’m sorry. I’m in the Fraser Valley and my outdoor tomatoes got toasted too. Luckily most of mine are in a tunnel so will be ok for a while yet.
Late blight is a problem most years. These are classic pictures of what happens. It was all that rain we had when? A couple of weeks ago?
Late blight will be brought on by rain or excess humidity, when the temperature is right. The cooler rainy weather we have in the spring doesn’t do it, but it normally happens now.
The easiest way to hold it off here is to erect some sort of structure over your tomatoes to keep them dry. You can also make a point of growing tomatoes that will mature early, and there are a few varieties that have some resistance to late blight, although even my resistant variety has croaked this year.
I recommend a copper-based fungicide 🙁
It’s going to sit in your soil now. Might be a good idea to rotate crops next season.
Late blight
i can’t grow tomatoes without this happening. i get maybe one tomato before the whole plant starts dying