Tom Advice

[adamS]

Hey Guys,

our local homebase has a reduced section for all the plants they have neglected, and picked up some cheap toms. Wasn't till we got home realised the girlfriend had picked one up too, but that she'd got one that didn't look too healthy !

Used to grow a lot of tom plants when I worked for the allotment man, so I know that magnesium deficiency is shown by yellowing leaves, and I know that toms often loose their lower leaves in favour of newer, higher leaves, but the yellowing seems to be sporadic, and has brown spots on the tips of the leaves. I remember being told about a tom virus that's encouraged by people smoking then handling the plants ? is it maybe this ?

What do you reckon ? should I whack in some epsom salts and see what happens, or remove the yellowed leaves, allowing the newer shoots coming from the infected branch (stalk of the plant) to get more sun ?

Cheers guys!

[Capsid]

I'd let it grow a bit more before making a decision. If it has tobacco mosaic virus then it isn't worth keeping anyway. I doubt it is TMV though given that you bought it from Homebase who would have been supplied by a grower who would not want TMV anywhere near their stock. It's probably just suffering from lack of water, so a bit of TLC from you should bring it round. Next time grow from seed, it's cheaper and a lot more fun.

[SarzWix]

Have a look at this: Tomato leaf symptoms Diagnostic Key
Might help you to work out that's wrong with it? (bearing in mind that it's an American site, and so will mention things that we don't get here )
It does seem likely a decent watering regime and some nutrients could be enough to perk it up though. And something as simple as scorch or windburn could cause browning of the leaf tips.

[FionaH]

Smoking damages tomatoes? Oh tell me your kidding?

[Capsid]

Smoking damages tomatoes? Oh tell me your kidding?

I've tried to find out what the evidence is here but not had much luck. It's possible I guess that you could transmit the virus from tobacco leaves to tomatoes if you are handling rolling tobacco, but even then the leaf has been dried and is dead so I'm not sure if any virus would remain viable. As soon as you light up then you will be burning and killing the virus, so smoking can't infect tomatoes. In fact, fumigation of glasshouses with nicotine was common practise.

OK found this

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=V...esult&resnum=6

As I said the issue is with touching infected tobacco leaves such as rolling tobacco..The virus is very resistant.

[SarzWix]

Panic not Fi, I've been rolling fags for the last 16 years or so, and grown tomatoes on and off for most of that time. I've never had TMV (and neither have my tomatoes )
Yes, it's a slight risk, but aphids, blight, botrytis etc are more likely to harm your plants. What it's doing to us is a whole other matter

[adamS]

Capsid, I always grow from seed but these plants were dying, and were 26p each so I thought I'd give them a good home !

Plants look good now, leaves died and I just pulled them off! rest of the plant is healthy !