Growing tomatoes is not always sunshine and roses. Many tomato growers get discouraged, sad or angry when the progress of the cultivation does not always go as we would like. Soon the social media groups will be full of problems with tomato growing. Your tomatoes can not produce fruit, can not ripen or your leaves can get unwanted black dots. In this article I try to make an overview of the problems that you can encounter as a hobby tomato grower. Welcome to the world of tomato problems. Publishing this list of 22 common tomato problems would be quite sadistic, I also try to always give the reason and the solution.

How to Identify Tomato Problems and Diseases?

Before you look at the list of tomato woes and woes, it is important to know how to recognize those diseases or pests. That will make it easier to ask for help. Try the following steps when you want to detect problems:

1. Identify the affected part of your tomato plant, is it the tomato itself, the leaves, the stem, the flowers or is it the roots of your plant that are showing defects?
2. Make a note of the differences between the plant with problems and healthy plants. For example, if your healthy plants have healthy fluffy green leaves and your sick plant has brown or black spots, holes, curled edges or a white cast, make a note of that before you ask for help.
3. Check if there are any animals present on your plants. If you want to know what the plants are, take a picture of them and ask for help.

Armed with these tips, you can now easily sort through the tomato problems to find your problem. In the best case, you are reading this article purely for information and your tomato plants are doing very well.

22 Common Tomato Problems

The list is divided into two parts: 16 diseases caused by improper cultivation, bacteria or fungi. Then you can read 5 problems caused by insect pests. Hopefully you will discover some tips that will save your tomatoes this year or improve your crop next year.

16 Tomato Diseases That Can Spoil Your Fun

When I started writing this article I came home, did my round in my vegetable garden tunnel greenhouse and noticed 2 Coeur de Boeuf tomato plants with a total of 5 tomatoes that were suffering from blossom end rot. How cynical can nature be. In the meantime I have quickly looked up what I can do about it and done the necessary ... I hope. Tomato diseases, vegetable garden fungi or other circumstances can very quickly shatter your tomato dream. Very often you can save your plants with some extra love and attention, but in some circumstances you really have to intervene and remove your plants. Before we go through the list of doom and gloom I will list the main causes of diseases.

• Not enough nutrition : Use enough liquid fertilizer for fruit crops for your tomatoes.
• Too much pruning : Guide your tomatoes well so that there is always a canopy that protects the tomatoes sufficiently from the sun. I grow on cultivation string with tomato clips and that works wonderfully.
• Too little calcium : Test your soil and add calcium if necessary, you do it best before the onion plant. I use the seaweed lime that I also use in the coal bed.
• Planting when temperatures are not yet ideal : try to be patient until no more frost is forecast and the nights become warmer.
• Water... too much or too little : Choose a watering strategy that suits the weather at that time.
• Watering from above or with a lot of splashing is an advertisement for fungal diseases : Water at the base of your plants
• Not enough air circulation around your plants : Plant your tomatoes far enough apart and prune leaves if necessary but not too much (see above). Use a fungicide if you notice powdery mildew.

1. Phytophthora infestans

• What does it look like : you see discoloration (black spots) that start on the leaves, then move on to the stem and in severe cases even visible on the fruits. The spots are not noticeable at first, but soon the fungus takes over and your plant eventually dies.
• What is the cause of Phytophthora , also known as the potato or tomato blight : There is insufficient air circulation between your plants: moisture and heat form the ideal basis for fungal diseases.
• What can you do about it:
  • Preventive
    • Respect the planting distances and ensure optimal air circulation
    • Keep your plants neat: check indeterminate varieties for suckers. Apply leaf pruning if necessary. Cut off leaves that touch each other, you can cut off entire leaves or halve them. Leaves that overlap each other cannot dry properly and thus form a possible breeding ground.
    • Do not plant tomato plants next to potato plants. This will prevent the fungus from spreading from one plant to the other.
    • Treat your plants with lava flour . Especially in places where you have removed suckers or cut off leaves. Those small wounds can be a gateway for fungi.
    • If a lot of rain is followed by a period of lots of sunshine, you know that a lot of water evaporates from under your plant. Even if the disease is not yet visible, treat it preventively with BSI Ecopur Lecithin (ecological) or Cuprex Garden.
  • Are your plants affected:
    • Leaves only: remove affected leaves as soon as possible and treat with BSI Ecopur Lecithin or Cuprex Garden.
    • Remove your plants from your garden. Never compost diseased leaves or plants, winter is not severe enough to kill all fungal spores. Do not plant tomatoes in the same place in the same garden year without intermediate treatment, the fungal spores will also infect your new plants.
  • TIP: Always treat dry plants to avoid spreading further mold spores.

Featured product: https://www.moestuinweetjes.com/welkom/winkel/gewasbescherming-2/fungicides/bsi-ecopur-lecithine-100ml-breedwerkend-middel-voor-bladziekten/ https://www.moestuinweetjes.com/welkom/winkel/gewasbescherming-2/fungicides/cuprex-garden/

---

2. Nose rot

• What does it look like : Your tomato starts out fine and looks very healthy. But when it starts to ripen you will have a dirty dark spot on the bottom of the tomato. The spot feels leathery and even if you cut the spot away, the tomato is not tasty at all inside.
• What causes blossom end rot : Your plant has a calcium deficiency. This does not necessarily mean that there is too little calcium in your soil. When the acidity of your soil is too high or too low, your tomato plant cannot absorb the calcium, even if your soil is full of calcium. With a pH meter you can see how acidic your soil is. A pH of 6.5 is ideal for tomatoes. Irregular watering can also be the cause of blossom end rot. At a certain point, your fruits fill up with water very quickly, if there is a lack of water at that moment or if there is an interruption in the supply of water, then your tomatoes protest in the form of blossom end rot. Hot and warm days without water and you can be sure that you will suffer from blossom end rot.
• What can you do about it:
  • Before your cultivation: When planting out your soil should be ready for a big harvest of tomatoes, in addition to tomato fertilizer with a good dose of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) and magnesium sulphate (magnesium), you should also give your growing soil a good dose of seaweed lime . You can also grind your eggshells and mix them into your compost , that also gives a good dose of calcium to your plants.
  • During cultivation: In dry weather you can of course keep your plants moist. In case of a calcium deficiency you can use a foliar spray that contains calcium. Leaf spray can be absorbed very quickly and protect the rest of your tomatoes from blossom end rot
  • !!! Do not harvest tomatoes with blossom end rot when they are not moldy or overripe. Do not harvest green tomatoes with blossom end rot before your plant is healthy again, has been able to absorb sufficient moisture or calcium. When you harvest green tomatoes with blossom end rot, there is a risk that the plant will start to attack your next truss. So try to wait a while before harvesting tomatoes with blossom end rot.

---

Blossom drop

3. Your flowers on your tomato plants are falling off or the English term 'blossom drop'

• What does it look like: Very simple, you get flowers on your tomato plants but during their further development they break off or do not develop fruits.
• What is the cause of this: Large temperature fluctuations cause this annoying phenomenon. Typically when plants with flowers are planted out too early and shiver at night from the cold and get 40°C during the day under glass. Tomato plants must have a minimum of 12 degrees at night. Other causes that cause 'blossom drop' are: harmful insects, too little water, too much or too little nitrogen or a lack of pollination.
• What to do: You can't change the weather, but you can sow a little later (beginning to mid-March) so that you can keep the plants inside longer at night. If you start in February, your plants will have outgrown their p9 pot and will need to be in full (cold) soil. Furthermore, keep your soil well fertilized with liquid fertilizer for fruit crops , you can stimulate pollination by tapping the stem of your plants weekly or attract bees. You can combat insects with an organic product with pyrethrum.

---

4. Cracks in your tomatoes

• What do they look like: You often see the cracks on the crown of your tomatoes. Sometimes insects use the cracks to enter your fruit. Birds are also attracted by the delicious smell that the cracks spread when fresh .
• What causes the cracks : Hot, humid weather. After a dry spell, your tomatoes are very thirsty. When it suddenly rains heavily or when you give a lot of water in your garden shed or greenhouse after a dry spell, your fruit swells very quickly and cracks appear in your fruit.
• What to do : Even though you can't stop or stimulate the rain outside, try to water evenly during the growing season. This prevents your tomatoes from getting too much water at once. Also keep an eye on the weather forecast. If you see that rain is coming, keep your watering can in the shed for a while. In the greenhouse or garden shed, you obviously have more control over it.

---

5. Sunburn on your tomatoes

• What does sunburn look like: The plant looks perfectly healthy and the fruit develops normally. However, as the tomatoes ripen, yellow spots appear on the skin. The yellow spots fade to a whitish color and the skin becomes paper-thin. This gives the tomatoes a lean appearance and a bland taste.
• Why sunburn: The name already gives it away a bit, the sun rays have literally burned your tomatoes.
• What can you do about it:
  • You can give your tomatoes natural shade with the leaves of the plant or the leaves of a neighboring plant. Sunburn often occurs in very light-transmitting glass greenhouses or conservatories where there has been a lot of pruning.
  • You can choose to grow in a vegetable garden tunnel greenhouse with a slightly less light-transmitting foil. In the Splendid and Elegant you rarely have problems with sunburn because the sun rays are broken.
  • If you have a glass conservatory or greenhouse and you still want to prune a lot of leaves, you can choose to apply a sun-resistant paint to your glass. Temperzon is a product that applies a milky layer to your glass, which achieves the same effect as the tunnel foil of the Splendid and the Elegant . The sun's rays are slightly refracted, which prevents sunburn.

---

6. Poor fruit set in your tomato plants

• What does it look like: You do have some flowers but not all the flowers will become tomatoes. The few tomatoes you do have on the plant are small and don't have much flavor.
• What is the cause: Too much nitrogen in your soil often results in a lot of leaves and too few flowers. If there are few flowers, then of course there are also few tomatoes. Another reason could be that you have planted your plants too close together and the plant has not seen enough sun. You should also plant your smallest varieties on the south side of your greenhouse or conservatory . This way, the large plants do not catch any sun away from the smaller ones. Tomatoes are also self-pollinators, the flowers have both a female and a male part. A breeze is enough to make the flower move slightly and fertilize itself. When the plants are too close together, there is (too) little wind and you have poor fertilization. Not only for mold formation but also for good fruit set, it is best to keep the plants airy. You can do this by increasing your planting distance or by pruning leaves. When pruning leaves, be careful with sunburn. You read it right, successfully growing tomatoes is about making the right choices.
• What to do about poor fruit set: Be careful with nitrogen at the place where you want to grow tomatoes. A green manure during the winter or a little nettle manure when planting out will suffice, you should not pump more nitrogen into your soil. Then I need potassium for your plants. You can work it in beforehand in the form of Vinassekali , you can also brew a comfrey manure or you can simply give an organic directly absorbable liquid fertilizer for fruit crops when watering your plants. Also leave 50 cm between the plants for good air circulation and prune away excess leaves. I prune away all the leaves from the tomatoes when the trusses have reached the green mature phase. Read more about the green mature phase in this article ' Help my tomatoes are not turning red '. If you have already planted out your plants, tap the stem of your plants yourself weekly. This will help your plants to fertilize.

---

7. Deformed tomatoes, also called catfacing

• How to recognize it: The phenomenon of catfacing gives your tomatoes a deformed appearance. The side of the original flower is wrinkled and bumpy.
• What causes these deformed tomatoes: Flowers that were fertilized during a cool evening with temperatures around 10-12 °C are often the subject of 'catfacing'.
• What to do: Try to plant your tomatoes a little later. This usually goes hand in hand with sowing them a little later. It is best to wait until the beginning or middle of March. So that your plants do not have to go outside when there are still cold nights. Wait until the weather conditions do not hinder fruit formation. Planting the plants in black plastic also helps to transfer the heat from the day to the plant at night. When the temperatures are high enough, you can, you should even remove the plastic. Usually this means cutting it to pieces.

---

8. Curled leaves on tomato plants

• What does it look like: Mature plants can suddenly curl their leaves, especially the older leaves at the bottom. The leaves curl from the outside in. Often this problem forms up to 75% of the leaves.
• What is the cause of curled leaves on your tomato plants : High temperatures, moist soil and over-pruned plants can cause curled leaves. Actually, a curled leaf means: stress on your tomato plant. Young plants that are too cold when planting out can also show curled leaves.
• What to do: Even though it doesn't look pretty, the curled leaves have little negative effect on the development of your plant. Avoid pruning too much and make sure that excess water can drain away.

---

9. Bloated tomatoes

• What it looks like: The tomato plants look excellent, the flowering and fruiting are perfect and your ripe tomatoes are ready for harvest. However, when you cut the tomato open, the seed chambers are very large and empty. The tomatoes also feel light when harvested. The outside of the tomato can also look a bit angular.
• What is the basis for this: This phenomenon may indicate under-fertilization, poor soil or poor fertilization.
• What do we do about it: Give your plants enough nutrition. When planting out, you also ensure a good soil structure. Compost is of paramount importance for the soil structure and the reserves of organic material. In addition to tarred compost (which contains little nutrition), you can also add organic fertilizer pellets for tomatoes . This gives your plants a dream start. About 6 weeks after planting out, towards the end of June, you can start with liquid fertilizer for fruit crops or comfrey manure . Tomato plants are greedy plants, give them enough nutrition.

---

10. Anthracnose

• What it looks like: When the tomatoes ripen, you will see a dark, round circle near the blossom end (not the stem end). In this circle, the flesh softens, unlike blossom end rot, where the area dries out. When you cut the tomato open, there is a black, spongy area under the skin that looks like rot.
• What is the cause: The cause is a fungus, Colletotrichum phomoides is the name. This fungus likes hot and humid weather and is often freshly spread by automatic irrigation. Sprinklers that splash infected soil so that the fungus ends up on your plant.
• What to do: Change the way you water. Consider an irrigation system with drippers that release the water nicely to the roots. Pick your tomatoes on time. Rotten or decaying tomatoes develop this fungus faster.

---

11. Early mildew

• What it looks like : You will see brown spots on the leaves, starting with the oldest leaves. Each spot develops rings, like a target. The leaves eventually turn yellow around the spots and then the leaf turns brown and falls off. Eventually you have a bare plant that dies.
• What is the cause: The big culprit here is a fungus called Alternaria solani. The fungus lives in your soil, even during the winter. So chances are that if you had it once and you plant tomatoes in the same spot the next year, your plants will fall prey to that fungus again.
• What can you do about it: crop rotation can prevent your plants from getting infected. So rotate the place of your tomatoes with cucumbers , melons, peppers , paprika 's, aubergines , gherkins, strawberries, ... in short all greenhouse plants. An organic fungicide can also help. But prevention is better than cure

---

12. Septoria Spot Disease

• What does it look like: After the plants start developing tomatoes, the lower leaves get yellow spots. No nitrogen (entire leaf turns yellow) or magnesium deficiency (yellow starts from the veins). These are yellow areas with dark gray areas in the yellow spot with a dark edge. In the core, of the area you see black dots. Your leaf eventually dies.
• What is the cause of this disease: Again a leaf fungus called Septoria lycopersici
• What to do: Do ​​not water your plants or the leaves, keep them out of the rain if you grow them outside. The water on the leaves can develop the spores of the fungus and also let them nest in your soil with long-term problems such as feeling