The first problem I encounter with my tomatoes is usually blossom-end rot. This will frequently happen on the first fruits on a plant, and it is due to a calcium deficit. That doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have enough calcium in your soil, but it might. That’s why I recommend calcium supplementation. Before I started supplementing with calcium fertilizer, I had some luck with calcium sprays like Southern Ag’s STOP Blossom-End Rot that you mix and spray onto the plant’s leaves. There is some debate about how well leaves absorb the calcium, but it’s going somewhere. If it’s not absorbed, then it washes off into the soil below. Even if you have adequate calcium in the soil, other things may inhibit the absorption. Cultivation, which damages the roots, could cause the issue or even extremely dry soil. These are good reasons for using mulch, as it will help limit weed growth and help with moisture retention.
One pest for tomatoes is the hornworm. A hornworm can devour a smaller plant overnight and significantly damage any plant. Because of their color, you will not usually notice them until you see significant damage unless you are looking for them. Here is one where I broke off the affected area of the plant where the hornworm was feasting.
You will notice the distinctive ‘horn’ on the last segment. In this case, it’s a tobacco hornworm as opposed to a tomato hornworm. The tomato hornworm has a black horn and V-shaped white marking instead of the diagonal white lines on the tobacco hornworm. When I see damage from one of these, I can usually find others nearby. I will look closely at neighboring plants and apply a dusting of Sevin to all affected plants and their nearest neighbors. Because hornworms eat the entire leaves, this will quickly take care of the problem. I prefer to use insecticidal soap, and the makers claim it works on hornworms. However, I have not found that to be true. I have bathed them in insecticidal soap, and they are still going strong the next day. Sevin will stop them within minutes.
That brings me to my next pests, which can be much harder to deal with – aphids, mites, and whiteflies. I lump these pests together because they all like to get on the underside of the leaves where they suck out the juices. They are small, but you have to keep them under control, or they will damage your crop. Many insecticides will take care of them, but you have to spray under the leaves. I prefer insecticidal soaps. I will mix up enough to spray every single plant on both sides of all the leaves. You should see a vast reduction the following day, but I always see some that I either missed or maybe just moved in. I will use a 16-ounce spray bottle with the soap solution to spot treat as needed. You must keep doing this, and it might seem frustrating, but you can control them with this method. One-time spraying with Liquid Sevin or Malathion might be less time consuming, but those will also affect pollinators and beneficial insects. Here’s a photo of a plant with an aphid infestation.
