Why Tomato Plants Get Diseases

We have always planted most of our tomato plants all together in the same grow box, or close together. Last year, after planting our tomatoes, they started going wonderfully like always, but then somehow one of them started looking dried out and soon died. So I pulled it out and threw it away quickly. However, it sadly and slowly it started to happen to the tomato plants closest to it. There were 3 left at the end of the season that were left untouched with disease. I had a tomato plant in the front yard, and it was very healthy all year. So as I analyzed what went wrong, I realized that if I had not planted them all together like that, they would not have spread the disease to each other as easily. So one of the lessons I learned this year:

• Plant my tomato plants throughout the garden/yard so they are not all bunched together to spread disease.

Integrating the tomatoes in your landscaping is one way to address this, or just plant them separately in different areas of the garden. Here are a few tips to help avoid disease and spread of disease:

1. Keep plant healthy by giving the right amount of water and nutrients.


2. Wash with soap and water all the tomato cages and other tools that come in contact with a plant with disease including walls of water.


3. Pull out any diseased plants as soon as possible and throw away the plant instead of composting.


4. Rotate the plants every year so that if it remains in the soil, it will have a few years to wash away or die off before reintroducing those plants that the disease affects.


5. Finally, do not plant all of the plants next to each other, in case one gets the disease, it will not as easily spread to the other plants.

Happy Gardening!

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