Any suckers can become a new primary growth stem. You should be fine as long as you don't prune all the suckers.

Deer would be the culprits in my yard. They don't squish worth a darn either.

Those kinds of pests get lead poisoning in theses parts lol.

Deer do that here, too. It's happened to my tomato plants a number of times.

As long as the plants still have some leaves and stems they will be just fine and will grow back.

If they've lost *all* of their leaves to vermin, that would not be good and they would probably be doomed.

Really, as long as there are some leaves and stems, this should only set you back a couple of weeks or so, depending on how much they munched off and how old the plants were to begin with.

You will be surprised at the recovery.

I plant my tomatoes in wall o waters (water tee pees that insulate the plants) and sometimes they get tall before the wows are removed. Sometimes a snowstorm hits in April or early May that kills the tops. Only a few times, out of maybe 100, has the plant failed to recover.

You should end up with two "tops", instead of one.

I have lots of deer, in and around my garden. They never bother my plants. Tomato plant tips are like candy to them.

DEER REPELANT:

4 eggs
2 tbls ground red pepper
2 tbls garlic powder
2 cups water

Put it all in a blender for 5 min.

Strain it into a discarded laundry detergent bottle (non-bleach) that has a little left over soap in it. add 1 gal. water and shake.

To use- pour into a sprayer and apply once a week to plants or after every rain.

{{gwi:1323402}}

Be tough on them, use habaneros instead of wimpy cayenne powder.

Thanks to all replies. I do not think it was deer, I am guessing something in the rodent family. One of the plants already has a sucker growing out the top...the other two not yet. Both plants are very healthy looking though with the lower parts nice and green and leafy. I'll just leave them where they are and hope for the best.

armymomma- you must live in the city if you say it's not deer. Then you must have rats. Why do you ask for help if you already know what the answer to your question is? I have 35 years experience doing this with surveillance camerias on my property, not just to watch my garden but for hunting deer. So I do know what certain animals do both day and night. Most prefer fruit not vegitetive growth.

"Be tough on them, use habaneros instead of wimpy cayenne powder."

I do use habaneros, but not everyone has dried ground habaneros at thier disposal. And the deer are repeled by the protien in the eggs, hence non-meat eaters.

drtomato, you wrote:

"Why do you ask for help if you already know what the answer to your question is"

Considering you didn't answer my question, which was whether or not my tomatoes were done in terms of growing because they'd been topped by something...well...maybe tone and intent are just hard to get over the internet and you're really just trying to be helpful and not snarky at all.

And for the record, I have a 6 foot high privacy fence around my back yard, therefore the chances of it being deer are slim to none, but thanks for your input.

yES- THEY WILL CONTINUE TO GROW AS LONG AS THERE'S GREEN FOLIGE ON THE STEM.
But you already been hit once, and they will strike again.
Deer can jump a 6' privacy fence with ease.

To the comment about deer jumping over fences 6' tall... There are a few videos on YouTube you could watch to see how they do it. And yeah, they do it all the time, especially if there is something they want on the other side of that fence.

Its not the height of the fence that deters the deer, its the fact they can't see what is on the other side, or at least that is what the deer tell me. I've seen deer jump over cars before...but in my experience the only reason a deer will over something they can't see through or go around is because they are in danger or trapped somehow. I have a friend whose garden is in the middle of tame deer central, where the deer are so plentiful and afraid of nothing human related they will come up and beg for food like a dog, and he keeps them out with a 4 foot fence inside of another 4 foot fence. of course, ymmv. Just my opinion and we all have them...

I am still confident that what ate the tops off of 3 out of 18 tomato plants was not a deer. I just hope my 3 half eaten plants make it to set fruit, that's all.

Happy gardening to ya'll.

"I just hope my 3 half eaten plants make it to set fruit, that's all."

Yup, nothing to worry about there. As long as there's still nodes on the plant (spots where leaves are currently, or once were), the plant will sprout new branches (called suckers) from those nodes which will produce fruit.

we also had 3 tomato plants cut off just below top leaves last night, never in 25 years have we had this problem. I called UCSD Master Gardener hot line and she is checking into what could do this. she is baffled too. said most animals, and snails, slugs don't bother tomato plants, since the leaves are poisonous. anyone have any thoughts? no deer here, don't have squirrels or rabbits, we do have raccoons but like I said the lady said most animals are smart and know that these are poison. ??????

I don't know that tomato plants are poisonous to all other mammals. Apparently, the deer don't know that either.

I saw deer eating/pulling the tops off tomato plants one night when I pulled in my driveway and the headlights caught them in the act. The next morning I found their calling cards and hoof prints. Despite lots of grass and other plants around, the deer chose to nibble the tomatoes. Apparently, they preferred the tomato plants to the other plants.

Anyhow, one example is that deer love to eat yews and consume them freely, yet yews can kill horses if they eat them. Deer can break down the poisons in the yew; horses cannot.

It's not always true that a plant that is toxic to one animal is toxic to another, different animal.

Hey y'all!

I live in Florida and its either squirrels or rats chewing my tops off of my maters! Sounds gross but I found evidence (droppings) of the varmints all around my tomato containers doesn't look like rats so I'm suspecting its squirrels. I too am curious to know if my maters will still produce. Will take advice of the cayenne peppers and keep my fingers crossed that I still may get a good yield. Thanks! Mmm ain't nothing like home grown maters!

Yes, something has and is topping my tomato plants. The topped part is found just laying there - not eaten! That's what's so weird. The stalk is found with a slanted slice at the top -a clean cut so to speak.

How tall are your plants?

I'm wondering about cutworms.

Linda

We've had a few times when cutworms did some damage ..... cut off the plant right at ground level or an inch or so above.

We've also had the mysteries of the disappearing plants and the topped plants. My DH set-up a trail cam and caught the culprits in the act. In our case it was deer.

We crafted some chicken wire domes to fit over smaller plants. Seems to work. Repellents didn't work on our deer.

Our deer wreak havoc on young cabbage. It seems like they eat them as fast as I can plant them.

Shell

Thanks for your inputs. My plants are now from 2 to 3 ft. tall. About three were topped about 6 to 9 inches above the base (in containers that are set on the ground). Don't believe that deer -of which we have a few- would top plant & then leave the topped part uneaten on the ground. Am now suspecting rats or field mice .. more investigations needed & further inputs/suggestions much appreciated.