Tomato plants - leaves (and some fruit) suddenly curled and discoloured... Help!

Hi all

Our tomatoes are about the only thing that have been doing well this year.... Up until now that is.....

On inspection 2 days ago (Sunday) all seemed well and dandy. Yesterday (Monday) I forgot to open the greenhouse before leaving for work and it therefore remained closed until 3pm. I opened it then and it was obviously VERY hot in there. One of the plants was wilting but the others all looked ok. Compost a little dry, but left it until the evening to water.

This morning I've opened it up and most of the plants have wilting/curling leaves with discolouration. One or two green tomatoes have been affected but the rest are ok. All are still green at the moment.

Here's a pic of how things looked on Sunday:



And here are some pics of the problem as it is this morning:







If anyone can offer any advice as to what the problem is and what we need to do, I'd really really appreciate it.

Many thanks

Max

 

Not sure where you are, it would help putting your location in your profile.

Assuming you are getting the same heat wave as in the South then I'm afraid those plants have been fried. Best to limit damage by keeping everything open even at night for the time being.

Those pots look too small, they will need watering at least twice a day.

 

Hi JWK

Thanks so much for the quick reply. Good point re location - I've added it to my details. I'm in North Norfolk , so yes it has been pretty hot.

Before posting I looked up briefly on line as to what the problem might be and feared that it might be tomato wilt or some kind of fungal disease. I was worried because if it is something like that I read that there would be no hope, and that it spreads alarmingly quickly.

Do you think it's possible it could be something like that? Or is it looking like it is definitely just that they got to hot and/or dry?

Happy to upload more photos if it would help diagnose.

I will indeed keep the greenhouse open overnight. And certainly won't forget to open it in the again! And will increase the watering regime too! The pots are mostly around 15L at a guess. What kind of size is optimum (for future reference)?

Many thanks once again.

 

I don't think it's Blight as you would see that on the stems and it would have spread like wild fire on them all. I'm certain it's sun-burn, once a plant become wilted it cannot resist the heat of the sun and hence goes all brown/shriveled.

The larger the better when it comes to pots, I have used 35L in the past and still had trouble keeping them watered, they were with too soggy to begin with then dried out too quickly.

That's the trouble of working, you need to be at home to keep an eye on your plants - maybe they will give you time off

 

Can you sit the pots in trays of water as well to tide them through the day? Mine don't seem to mind having wet feet

 

I think you can bury a big filled bottle up side down with small drilled holes on cap in the pot. It should be able to feed the plant with water through the day.

 

I agree with John, almost definitely scorched. As a point of reference, once my indoor tomatoes get going, I leave the door open all the time, unless it's forecast to drop below 10c at night.