April 30, 2026

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Master Gardener: Troubleshooting tomato plant woes | House & Garden

Master Gardener: Troubleshooting tomato plant woes | House & Garden

My tomatoes have brown places on them. Can I help save them? — B.V.

The warm, wet conditions we have been enduring are perfect for the progress of fungal conditions in tomatoes. Brown places on the blossom stop of tomatoes would propose blossom end rot, but the tomatoes in the photograph we received have a different kind of brown spot. This one particular is indicative of a fungal disorder identified as buckeye rot.

Buckeye rot is just one of many tomato health conditions cause by pathogens that are located in the soil. Lots of of the fungal sickness in tomatoes tend to have an effect on the stems and leaves, but this a person affects the fruit, which locations it in a unique class termed soil rots. Soil rots include buckeye rot, southern blight, pythian rot and rhizoctonia. After we begin to get educated about all the maladies that can influence tomatoes, we can commence to experience like it is amazing any of us gets tomatoes at all.

Just one superior point is that there are some straightforward matters you can do to decrease any challenges you may well probably have with these and other fungal conditions in your tomatoes.

Given that most of these maladies get started when the pathogen moves from the soil to the leaves or fruit of the plant, your initial line of protection is to lessen the prospect for this to happen. This can be completed in a selection of ways.

To start with, you can use a layer of mulch around your plants. I know we chat about mulch a good deal in these content articles, but mulch provides a barrier amongst the soil and your plant, and this has quite a few added benefits. In this occasion, it keeps soil-borne fungi from splashing up on the plant when watered or through the rain. Mulch also allows keep humidity in the soil and cuts down that total your soil temperatures differ all through the working day. Both of those of these assistance preserve your plants nutritious.