2nd year in a row now! plants get 4-6 inches high, bottom inch or so of stem starts to dry up, leaves shrivel up and fall off! never happened in the many years before this, going to cut some above dry part and put in water to see if they root, others maybe bury way above dry stem in soil to see if they'll root above it, can't figure out what's going on. doing everything the same as previous years, it's on random plants not all the same types, sprayed baking soda solution on them, might try hydrogen peroxide next. thought this tomato growing would get easier thru the years not worse! getting ready to quit! lol---tom

losing about 25 0ut of 100 plants, not good! even had fan blowing on them and heater in basement, -----tom

Not sure what the conditions were prior to this picture, but that soil is dry like the desert. Are they getting enough water?

Yes. They are incredibly dry. What is the growing medium you are using? Did this happen shortly after you potted them up?

Linda

Encore, you may have kept all the same but might the soil mix have been changed by the producer?

getting plenty of water, was bottom watering, then gave about an ouce of water from top every so often, started them in 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 3 inch pots when up graded to bigger pots used same starter mix plus around outside to fill in empty spot used same mix i'll use for my rain gutter grow system, sporgum peat, manure, perlite, some lime, and some epsom salt, just enough to fill around outside of bigger pot. i water mostly by weight, if they fell light i water them more, they most are big enough to top water and i'm starting to harden off outside for short periods now---tom

Definitely get some new media of a different brand and try that asap, just in case there is some sort of contamination in it.

the stems seem to get dried out and hard at the bottom of the plant for some reason---tom

I think it's the mix, and maybe something to do with the manure.....

I would get them planted out as soon as you can.

Linda

There are many different mix products and probably 100 different opinions on each of them, but I have been using PRO-MIX® Ultimate Organic Soil Mix - 1 cu. ft. bags for ~$6.50 a bag from Menards for my transplants for many years with good success. (FWIW I also use the compressed Pro-Mix bales from Menards for my tomatoes and peppers I grow in buckets with good success.)

i've been using the same starter mix for over 5 years now, from steins garden center, last yer they were closed for covid, and tried other mixes, which seemed like they were all water repellant , water just flowed straight through, this year the steins seemed to be the same as those others, had to really soak that stuff with water to get it to work right, the soil mix i use for bucket and gutter system has been the same every year, and each commponet was the same manufacture, most plants are growing nice 8 inches or so tall and nice thick stems, so that's what puzzles me most. lol bringing most plants up north next week for other people and just have to tell them to bury really deep above skinny drying stem and hope they root above it, or find plants from somewhere else. ----tom

I know what you mean water repellent! Had this problem with peat every time, I am done with the peaty mixes.
The worst of it is, if you have any little nugget of super dry stuff that stays down in the mix, your plant roots touches it and it sucks the water out of the plant!!! I just hate potting mixes. Using more compost than anything now because I can't trust anything with that super dry water repellent peat stuff in it.

2 years ago, there was a bad crop/harvest of peat, I, and most of my very experienced friends had this massive die off using all the same planting techniques we had always done. 8 of my friends throughout the US, and Canada all had this, different brands of potting mix, but likely all the companies used a single supplier of their peat for their own mixes. 4 of us were using PromixBX, almost always a very high quality mix. The mix was so wet, so much more than ever before, and we didn't use any more water, and it just choked out the stems. This past year I switched to PromixHP, and didnt lose a single plant. But you have to water the plants much more when they get to 8" tall, because HP(high porosity) doesn't hold much water.
I wonder If the companies are all overcompensating to make their mixes extra dry now, since you are saying water repellent.

my thought exactly! in fact at the start of starting seeds, i did them in baggies, after putting in starting mix i noticed a couple of plants not looking good, top of soil was damp to wet, so i dumped the pot out and down to about 3/4 of an inch, was wet, the rest was dry as dust. lol ---tom

For science, try taking one plant and giving it a good top soak. Until water continues to come out the bottom. Do this every day, regardless of what the soil looks like. Those plants look big and beautiful. I'm sure they drink a lot. Especially if you've done the proper thing and put a fan on them.

If things get better with that plant, then you'll know for next year.

Mean time, a medium change May be necessary. Also, what is the temp? Could it be getting to hot?

It sort of looks like edema in certain ways, but you need to look closer, can't say for sure like this. There should be bumps on the undersides of the petioles. First the branches contort oddly, then they die off piece by piece.

i took all the bad looking ones and washed all the soil off, then put them in solo cups with different starting mix, kept in house over night , now outside, 80's out they are in shade so i'll see what happens, new soil above the bad part of stem where there is still the little fibers sticking out, where it was bad stems were smooth. ---tom

Most of the promix formulations (maybe all) and a lot of other good mixes include a wetting agent that helps make sure the mix wets out well and doesn't get that dried out, almost unwettable characteristic of straight peat and some peat heavy mixes. I bought some seed starting mix one time that didn't have it, which was expensive and organic, and it was almost unusable. My seedlings were terrible in that mix. I don't know if it counts as not being organic, but either way, I'll never use a peat-based mix without a wetting agent in it again.

zendog wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 6:54 am Most of the promix formulations (maybe all) and a lot of other good mixes include a wetting agent that helps make sure the mix wets out well and doesn't get that dried out, almost unwettable characteristic of straight peat and some peat heavy mixes. I bought some seed starting mix one time that didn't have it, which was expensive and organic, and it was almost unusable. My seedlings were terrible in that mix. I don't know if it counts as not being organic, but either way, I'll never use a peat-based mix without a wetting agent in it again.

I know that mix well. I hated it, but since then they've corrected it.