tomato disease or high ph?

The bottom branches of my tomato plants have been drying up and the whole branch will then fall off. I am trying to decide if I have a disease going on or is it high ph? I used a soil probe and it said it was at least an 8. I don't know how reliable it is. Top growth does not seem to be affected, they are still flowering and fruiting. Not as much as I had hoped, but are still doing it

I used the gro-well mels mix from Home D for these. also have added a little organic slow release fertilzer over a month ago. So maybe it could be over fertilized? I don't think this is the case, but maybe

I did water some of the tomatoes with a solution of vinegar and water and they seem to be looking better after about 2 days, but wanted to ask others to see if they might think it a disease and not high ph.





When the leaf is touch it is dry and crispy like it just dried up!

Am taking some samples to the nursery today to see what they think also.

Learn More About What Causes Yellow Tomato Leaves

Posted By Gardening Know How In Vegetable Gardening |
By Kathleen Mierzejewski
If you have a vegetable garden and have planted tomatoes, you might be looking at the yellow leaves on tomato plants and asking, “What do yellowing leaves on tomato plants suggest?” Truth be known, tomato plants leaves turn yellow for many different reasons. Yellow tomato leaves don’t, however, have to mean that the plant is failing. Let’s take a look at the reasons why tomato plant leaves turn yellow.
The leaves of my tomato plant are turning yellow


If you only see a few yellow tomato leaves toward the bottom of the plant, you have nothing to worry about. The leaves of tomato plant turning yellow at the bottom of the plant means these leaves probably aren’t getting the nutrients from the soil and aren’t getting sunshine. This especially happens when the pla
nt is more mature and bearing fruit.
Tomato plants leaves turn yellow for a variety of reasons, some of which aren’t as simple as the plant maturing. Regardless of the issue, whenever there are yellow leaves on tomato plants, it warrants a thorough check as to what the problem could be. You never know what you will run across, and it could be detrimental not only to your tomato plants with their yellow tomato leaves, but to the rest of your garden as well.
Why Tomato Plant Leaves Turn Yellow


If you find the leaves of tomato plant turning yellow in your garden, you want to figure out what is causing the issue. It could be something as simple as a lack of nitrogen in your soil. If this is the case, you could check the nitrogen level of your soil, or you could just add a little bit of nutritious matter to the soil and watch to see if the yellow tomato leaves don’t just green up for you.
When tomato plants leaves turn yellow, it could be from a fungus or bacterial problem, like Alternaria alternata ^[1]. If this is the case, you will want to treat this according to your garden center instructions. They have treatments for this type of thing, and you need to follow the directions carefully so as to prevent killing your tomato plants.
Sometimes yellow leaves on tomato plants mean that there is a pest problem that needs to be handled. You might have caterpillars or worms affecting the health of the plant and may need to handle this issue with an organic pesticide.
Before you go making any adjustments, however, you should check the soil around your plants if your tomato plants leaves turn yellow. If the soil isn’t wet enough, you might just be under watering the tomato plants. Yellow tomato leaves could be a sign of lack of water. A drip hose is an excellent way to water the soil regularly to help prevent yellow leaves on your tomato plants.

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Article printed from Gardening Know How: http://www.gardeningknowhow.com
URL to article: http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/vegetable/yellow-tomato-leaves.htm
URLs in this post:

[1] Alternaria alternata: http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/vegetable/early-blight-alternaria-tomato-leaf-spots-yellow-leaves.htm

I trim off the bottem leaves anyway

Thanks for the info shannon. What has me so confused about my plants is that they aren't really turning yellow. They are pretty much just drying up and falling off. Can't figure out what is going on with them. Went to the nursery and they were no help. They didn't seem to think there was any sickness going on maybe over or under watering.. . . . ya lots of help... Anyway I'll keep looking and I bout some sulfur to add to the soil which can take a few months to help. until then I'm watering one bed with vinegar water to try and bring down the ph.

I guess it could be under watering. Do you stick your finger in and feel the MM? I thought I was over watering until I did that and discovered it was a little dry. I prune heavely per Acada's tips. So just cut off all the leaves under the fruit dry or not would be my best advise.

BTW I love the string method of supporting your vines.

I love stringing mmy toms. Someone posted a video on here about it and it was very informative. I have some on stings, some with a trellis and the netting and some in tom cages. I like the stining the best.

I don't think I'm underwatering. It is hot here, but they are shaded and mulched. I've been watering about 2 times a week. I am forever checking the soil moisture in the beds with the probe, but also digging down to see and touch the soil too. I will try watering more and see if that does anything to help. Thanks

Here are some of my tom plants today. I watered a few times with vinegar water and now most plants have new growth! Maybe it was just high ph... very strange. I will be adding sulfur to my mix for a long term solution.

I thought this guy was a goner!


Lemon boy that was posted on my first post. Beginning to make a comeback.



I'm happy they are doing better and hopefully I was able to figure out the problem so that next growing season will be even more amazing!

Goodness what a recovery!

So let me get this straight.......If your soil has a high PH balance, adding a vinegar and water solution at the base will straighten that out? Did your high PH come from your fertilizer, because you said you fertilized Mel's Mix?

Is there another way to check the soil or is it just a trial and error, "plant and see" kind of a thing?

We have a soil probe that is supposed to tell about soil ph, not the most accurate, but that is what I went with. Our water here is also very high ph 8.5+ when my husband tested it. (has a ph test kit for water) So I don't know if the mx was high ph, the water made it high ph, or if it was the little bit of fertilizer I put on. I don't think it was the fertilizer or the whole garden would have been effected.

Adding vinegar to the water lowers the ph of the water and the soil and is just a quick fix, you must continue doing it unless you amend the soil. I added sulfur to my beds, but that can take up to 3 months from what I have read to take effect. So for now I will continue watering once a week with a mix of white vinegar and water and the other waterings will be normal water.

I am not sure if this is really the problem.... None of the tomato diseases seemed to fit. The plants just looked like they were unable to get any nutrients, they seemed to be drying up and starving to death. Since adding the vinegar they have new growth and some are flowering and putting on fruit again.

Here is the plant today. I don't think I got a good enough picture, but it has some flowers on it now.


Here is another one near it, that also has a lot of new growth at the top and the bottom. The middle looks awful with the dried up leaves, I haven't had time to prune them off, but that is what the plant was doing.


Just hope this isn't a problem much longer. We got a ton of yellow pears this year, but not as many larger tomatoes like we wanted.

Duhh, is it all the tomatoes along side the house that are being effected by the yellow, crunchy leaves? Or is it just a few in that location?

From what I remember, the tomatoes in your pergola did not look like they were having this problem.

It's mainly in the back corner of the garden. All plant that have been effected are along the back wall.

It sure looks like it is making a comeback. That is great! I've never seen a tomato plant that has made a turn around like that. It certainly looked like it was on its way out. Good luck to you!

Glad to see that your plants are improving. You might want to change your mulch to not pine needles or (oak leaves which you do not have.) Both of those mulches are high on the Ph scale. In the feeling that every little bit might help. Happy Gardening.

Patty from Yorktown who is off to explore why her tomato leaves are also yellowing

Patty. My soil ph was 8+ now it's around 7. which is nuetral. My understanding is that pine needles are acidic which will actually lower my ph and make the soild more acidic instead of being so alkaline. This is my understanding of it. I could be wrong though

You are probably correct, I answered without looking up my terms. I just know I am supposed to put pine needles around azaleas and blueberry bushes. It makes them happier for the soil around where I live. Still glad that you figured out your problem.

Patty in Yorktown