I have no thoughts... just sympathy. I am in the same boat... 160 plants in the ground, many are wilting. We received 4" of rain in 2 days. However, as it has gotten dryer, some have recovered. I don't know if this early stress will have lasting effects?

Best wishes to you!
Lisa

Did you harden these transplants? The the original leaves will often wilt and turn yellow from sun and wind shock if they were not hardened. The plant will probably make new growth that will weather these conditions. If the weather has been cold and wet it will slow this process down. If a few warm days does make nice new weather hardy leaves then its something else.

Many of us are having the same problem this year. Most of my tomatoes are in containers so they drain fast and don't have that problem. However, I do have some in the ground and after a huge rain they were all droopy and I thought I would lose them all. I mixed a very small amount of liquid fertilizer and a very small amount of fish emulsion into a bottle of water and sprayed the foliage. The next day they looked much better. We just had 3.6 inches of rain in one day last week also but they seem to be making it through that one a little better. This is a personal opinion but I think the ground is so saturated that they get no oxygen and have no capability to take up the water they need. I know it sounds like more water is the last thing they need, but it worked for mine. You might try it on a few and see what happens.

The problem you describe is called waterlogging and it means that the soil is so water saturated that it can't take up oxygen or nutrients.

More than once I've had plants under water after downpours and the first thing you'll see is the droopiness, then leaves turning to yellow and those turning to brown and then the death of the plant.

Different varieties react differently to xs water, that I can tell you. That is, some will live, some won't.

The first thing you should try to do is if there's standing water to dig some drainage ditches.

Other than that, hope that the ground dries out quickly.

Carolyn

Thanks everyone....

And Carolyn, your description was about as accurate as can be, out of the 80+ plants, half have seem too come around, some more than others, 12 are completely goners, the rest I had some hope for, but after seeing todays forcast of 2+ more inches of rain, I have my doubts! Best of wishes to the rest of you in my same position!~

Mike

Sounds like me. I started mine in late Feb/March and planted in late April. Tons of rain as compared to the drought we had last year. Mine looked like crap a few weeks ago and now they are starting to come around. I actually(painfully) went out and bought some replacements...but ended up only needing 4. The jury is still out on my peppers though...

would it be helpfull to apply some hydrogen peroxide if the roots get waterlogged? that would give some much needed oxygen to the roots

would it be helpfull to apply some hydrogen peroxide if the roots get waterlogged? that would give some much needed oxygen to the roots

*****

I don't think so for two reasons.

First, the H2O2 breaks down the second it hits the soil and thus O2 won't penetrate to the root area.

Second, any minimal O2 that might even get near the root area isn't going to be taken up by the roots b/c it would be disolved in water and that brings us full circle to what the problem is in the beginning that's preventing uptake of O2 normally there.

You can certainly try it if you wish, but I remain a bit dubious as to effecting any major change.

Carolyn

Carolyn thanks for the valuable info, no I won't be trying it quite yet , I have the opposite problem ,very hot and no rain in almost 3 weeks !

It June 20th,2015,, Indiana had so much rain, my heirloom oxheart tomato plants are wilted today, I did use a small amount of superthrive 2 days ago, but I think it's so wet,, saturated ground,, so about 1/2 of my tomato plants, are top rubbery and wilted,,and they had so many flowers too

I am having a bunch of trouble with my tomato plants. One in particular is doing really bad and I would love some help so that I can get going on some nice tomato sauce.

I live in Ohio and there has been a ton of rain. Ever since a week ago when the rain started the plant has begun to get unhealthy.

I think Carolyn has explained the cause in her June 2008 post.

If the plants are planted in a row, try to dig a ditch between the row and direct the water away, as much as possible. Or emplt around a single plant, loosening up the soil and aerating the roots, filling back /mixing with some dry potting soil or something like that. It might help.

Sey

Do you guys think that, because the leaves have black spots on them that the plant is infected. I also have another tomato plant and two potato plants. All of those three plants are definitely overwatered by rain but don't have black spots. I think that the first tomato plant is infected but the others are just overwatered. Do you agree?

Also do you guys think that a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide in water solution would help the waterlogged plants. I would only use the solution in the worst case ( the plant being almost dead)

"Do you guys think that, because the leaves have black spots on them that the plant is infected. "
Black spots certainly sound like an infection. The question is what is the infection from?

"Also do you guys think that a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide in water solution would help the waterlogged plants."

No, small amounts of hydrogen peroxide will not make a difference to waterlogged roots, nor will it be harmful to them.
PC

Please forget about hydrogen peroxide. It's not clear that it's worth anything at all to plants, and it certainly won't do any good in this case.

Bacterial speck gives small black spots with yellow halos. But there are lots of other reasons for black spots -- fungus, virus, and insects. I would definitely trim off the leaves with such spots and dispose of them securely.