What is the matter with my tomato plant?

[Penellype]

One of the Shirley tomatoes in the Quadgrow in my greenhouse is wilting at the top. It has plenty of water and the photo was taken at 7am so it is not in hot sunshine. All the other plants in the greenhouse look fine.



Should I cut the top off it or remove the plant completely to stop it spreading? Should I just ignore it and hope it produces some tomatoes?

Help!

[burnie]

Not sure, but it doesn't look like it will get better does it? I think I'd bin it just in case it's catching.

[smallblueplanet]

One of the Shirley tomatoes in the Quadgrow in my greenhouse is wilting at the top. It has plenty of water and the photo was taken at 7am so it is not in hot sunshine. All the other plants in the greenhouse look fine.

Should I cut the top off it or remove the plant completely to stop it spreading? Should I just ignore it and hope it produces some tomatoes?

Help!

It looks healthy as you say, except for the top wilting. Has it got enough root growth to supply the whole plant - it looks very green and vigorous? Just thinking that there's a lot of transpiring going on, and like when you repot something the plant often wilts at the top.

I might be tempted to leave it a bit after checking it's roots or repot it and put it outside to see how it does.

[Penellype]

It looks healthy as you say, except for the top wilting. Has it got enough root growth to supply the whole plant - it looks very green and vigorous? Just thinking that there's a lot of transpiring going on, and like when you repot something the plant often wilts at the top.

I might be tempted to leave it a bit after checking it's roots or repot it and put it outside to see how it does.

Its in an 11l Quadgrow pot with a water reservoir underneath. The compost felt damp when I stuck my finger in it this morning which is why I was so alarmed. I've been out and checked again and the half of the Quadgrow that this plant is in is dry, while there is about 2 inches of water in the other half. They are connected by a tube, which must have somehow got blocked, possibly by plant roots (I cant see without dismantling the whole thing). So mystery solved, plenty of water added and lesson learned - check BOTH sides of the Quadgrow reservoir when watering!

I have filled the reservoir and hopefully the plant will recover, although it is likely to drop some flowers and the developing fruit may get BER. Hopefully panic over.

[Nicos]

Glad you got that sorted Pen.
Indeed- let’s hope others have learned from your experience. Not something I would have thought of for sure.
Hope the plant recovers too!

[Penellype]

Glad you got that sorted Pen.
Indeed- let’s hope others have learned from your experience. Not something I would have thought of for sure.
Hope the plant recovers too!

Thanks Nicos. The plant looks slightly better this morning although the leaves at the top are still a bit wilted. The bizarre thing is that the other plant that uses that half of the reservoir looks fine, although it is slightly smaller than the wilted one which could account for the difference.

[Penellype]

I've been meaning to update this thread for a while but never got round to it.

The tomato plant has survived and is growing again, although the trusses of flowers that were near the wilted part have not set much fruit:



However, the plant has made up for this with the bottom 2 trusses of fruit, which are huge:



The strings are supporting the trusses so that the weight doesn't snap the stalks.