Tomato Question!

Back to the garden we go. I have a question for those of you with a PhD. in Tomatology.

What's eating my tomato plant?   The leaves have been completely stripped off of some of the stalks.  See the upper left corner of the plant: 

It doesn't appear anywhere on the lower part of the plant.  I suspected worms, but I can't find any on the plant. I searched high and low, under the leaves, inside the stalks, everywhere.  Any ideas?  Here's another photo.  The stalk in the foreground has been stripped bare.

The damage is only to the upper part of the plant. (so far).

  I have a bottle of Safer's Tomato and vegetable spray, but I only sprayed a few sections of the plant.  I'm kind of leary about using it without knowing exactly what I'm going after.

I also sprayed it in a circle around the plants, right into the mulch.  Think that will help kill the nasty invaders?

Here's one of the banana peppers:

A few good tomaters:

What type of lily is this? It was growing wild around our house when we moved in. I still haven't found out what type it is, but it is VERY hardy!  They're blooming all around town right now. They'll grow right along the sidewalks on busy roads, which I find amazing.

Below: A purple mexican petunia, (not a water-wise plant) growing wild in a bed of Blue Daze.

It has taken over my side yard, and it's so pretty that I've let it go wild. However, it needs to be watered frequently, something I'm not inclined to do.  Yet, it's hanging in there, just waiting for a good rainstorm.  If you plant them, they'll appear at random all around your yard.  Their roots were born nomads!

Here's a red hibiscus. It's relatively new to the market (by a few years) and is one of the water wise varieties.  The name is escaping me at the moment and that is driving me crazy!  Look for it in the Xeriscape section at your nursery. (I bought mine at good old Home Depot years ago).  It's just great in the sun and heat. 

The foilage is beautiful, however.  Remind me to go back out there and get a photo of the whole plant for y'all.  Then we'll get some sweet ice tea and toast to the finer things in life.

I had this one in the sun along the back fence, but then a neighbor's tree grew over it, blocking the sun. So I had a lot of foilage and few flowers.  This one has been transplanted and is doing great in the hot, hot, melanoma sun.

This concludes our Friday gardening tour and should send you into the weekend just itching to get out there and weed.

Or not.   

(I say not). 

  ~Toodles!~

Comments

[MsGoldbloom]

Great photos...and I LOVE that red hibiscus.

I would try to help you with your gardening dilemas, but since I was born with a brown thumb I'd better pass.

[pam]

Beautiful!! The lily looks like one of the crinum variety, the moorei.

[caroline in south dakota]

I don't know if you are in deer country, but my tomato plants that are not in pots on the deck, look just like that and I know the night the deer mowed them off. They are now in cages. The tomatoes, although I wish it were the deer!

[kenju]

Love the flowers. I'd say maybe deer are eating your tomato leaves. If it was rabbits, they'd eat the whole thing.

[Old Horsetail Snake]

I don't know what you got, unless it's slugs.

You got a nice garden, Ms. Vitamin.

[mom]

snails or grubs. some of my flowers look like that and I find those nasty snails under them. Plant marigolds with tomato plants. they are a natural repellent but not sure is they repel snails. a nice bowl of beer attracts them they climb in and drown.

[FC]

I'd say tomato hornworms, you just didn't find them, OR they got eaten by a bird after the damage was done.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

[myamuhnative]

I'm with FC-bet it is tomato hornworms!

As for the day lily, if you are in South Florida, we have a native one that looks exactly like that but the flower is a much deeper pink when first blooming.there is also a white variety , but it is less common.

[Linda/RV Vagabonds]

The tomatoes in the garden we planted for Denny's 96 year old (at the time) father last year looked like that after the deer got them. The best clue? Green tomatoes on the ground with chunks bitten out of them. We were in a drought last summer and apparently tender young tomato plants were enticing. This year? We put up a portable electric horse fence around the garden. By gawd, we're going to have tomatoes this year!

[Dani]

I would say hornworm as well. They call the lily a rain lily. It's a pretty little native. The indians used the bulbs to treat toothache.

[Sugar Britches]

My grandpa Lester could have told you. He grew the sweetest, ripest tomatoes in all of Lawrence County. I wish I'd have listened to him more closely when he talked gardening. I wish I'd have listened a lot closer about a lot of things!

[Sara]

Hi! I did a search on Southern Blogs and found yours from this website - http://www.thestjosephsoundadvisor.blogspot.com/. Do you ever do posts on your photography techniques, equipment etc.? Your pictures are incredible.

[Old Horsetail Snake]

I maybe think what you got is tomato hookworm, or something like that. This is a caterpillar that is the exact same color as your tomato plant. You have to look real hard to see the buggers.

[Old Horsetail Snake]

Getting my worms on straight, I meant to say hornworm. I think.

[Meems]

Well, I'm a little late to weigh in here and I don't have a PhD in anything so take this for what it's worth. I've had plenty of my own troubles with my tomato plants. The tomatoes have been absolutely wonderful but the plants are really struggling right now. I would guess by the damage and lack of worm sightings your leaves are being eaten by those evil grasshoppers that do so much damage and move along to the next area. I've been plucking them off of other plants (not tomatoes yet) one by one and showing no mercy.

Your lily is a rain lily... I just did an entire post on them. Mexican petunias are actually on the invasive plant list and will take over any area if left to themselves. I have several areas of them planted but for the most part I plant them in large spaces where I need a take-over.

Love your red hibiscus... then again I love just about anything red.

Meems @ Hoe&Shovel

[Laura, late to respond!]

Thank you all! I'm glad y'all liked the photos. I also meant to reply to your comments earlier. Arrrrgh!
Sorry about that.

I did some research on the tomato hornworm and yep, looks like y'all are right on target. I still haven't seen the worm itself, but we do have a lot of wasps and hungry birds around here.

And Meems, the heat is really setting in these days. Tomatoes don't like our summers at all. I haven't had grasshoppers yet and am hoping I won't get them this year. (knocking on wood).

Meems also mentioned the Mexican petunia, she's right about it being invasive. It also used to be on a butterfly plant list until they found it doesn't attract butterflies at all. However, since I have a whole yard of them (they spread like wildfire), I 'll just leave 'em in. Too pretty to destroy!

Dani and Meems also, thanks for the rain lily ID as well. They grow wild around my yard also, and I'd like to get some more of them to line the front walk. they're incredibly hardy!

For the record, we don't have deer since I'm in a suburban citified neighborhood, unfortunately, but we used to garden on a lake up in North FLorida and both deer and rabbits were a problem up there. I remember one spring, I planted several dozen plats of flowers that I'd grown from seed all winter. The next morning? Gone. Every single one. They didn't leave a trace!

I hope you get a good crop this season! Tomato pots on the deck seems to be the way to go.

Sugar, Might I add, those ol Lester's of the world usually know a thing or two. :)

And last but not least, Thank you to Sara for the really kind words about the photos. I had an absolutely awful night on Thursday and didn't read your comment till I got home that night around 10.

You never know when a comment you make will make a difference in someone's day. Thank you for making mine a little better. :)
I've never done a post on my photography actually, preferring to just wing it and experiment. I'm largely self taught and I learn most of it from viewing other photographers and reading their posts as well.

Someday I hope to sell my hub's boat and buy several sets of lens to support my habit, too.
(hi honey! sorry!)

[Deana]

I bet you have one of those big nasty worms. I think some old timers around here call them cut worms. I have had them and they strip everything down to the stalk. Search the plant well...you will find them upside down on a leaf or stalk. They are the same green as the vine. And sometimes they have white eggs on them that my brother told me were wasp eggs which made me almost throw up! Good luck! Your pics are fabulous, as always, I guess I should quit telling you that.