Did I just kill my tomato?

8 years ago

Hello all! This is my first post here.

I have an heirloom container garden up and running (finally!), but I ran into an issue last night while I was transplanting one of my tomato plants.

I had it in a temporary container, which I had filled with some soil from the yard. The temporary container wound up housing the plant for longer than I anticipated. When I was finally ready to transplant it into it's larger pot with high quality potting soil/growth medium, the "soil" I had in the temporary pot had turned to total sludge. Thick, goopy, slimy, nasty. No wonder the plant wasn't looking too well.

Unsure what else to do, and completely unable to shake off the goop, I sunk my hands under the root ball and pulled up (causing it to lose some of its roots). I then gently ran some water over the intact roots until about 95% of the sludge was gone. I then planted the bare roots into it's permanent container, watered it like crazy, and prayed for a miracle.

My question is this: In your experience, will the combination of root trauma and having all the soil washed off the roots kill it? Or do you think it can spring back?

It's currently in a hydroponic pot that is 25" across, 30" tall. Soil is high quality organic potting mix, Kellog is the name brand I believe. I mixed that 2:1 with fertile garden soil (not the same stuff that turned to sludge) and then covered the top of the soil with 1" of black mulch for moisture/temperature regulation. We are working on getting a drip system up and running, but until then I am hand watering, about 1 gallon in the morning, 1/2 gallon at night (daytime temps are over 100 degrees here right now). Container is in full sun.

Any thoughts, input, advise?

Thanks in advance

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Comments (2)

theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
8 years ago
The Tomato Forum would be the better place for this question (this heirloom forum is nearly dead). Rinsing off the soil from the roots was okay to do. Planting it in pot that contains one-third garden soil is an issue. Soil isn't what you want to use when container gardening. It will compact, cause drainage issues, and prevent oxygen from reaching the roots. Best to use a soil-less potting mix. Also, have you poked your finger into the container to see if it needs all that watering?

Rodney
Jessica Aguirre
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you for your response! The temperatures here had been soaring well into the 110's and dry as a bone. It had been leaching the moisture right out of everything, including the soil. That amount of water was definitely necessary at the time, but it has since cooled off and I've not been watering nearly so heavily. The tomato plant seems to be doing pretty well. It didn't even abort any fruit, which I imagine it would have done so by now if it was going to.

As for the soil mix, oops. I've never done a container garden before and had no idea that mixing in a little garden soil would be a bad thing. Since everything seems to be doing fine (flowering, fruiting, etc ((aside from some yellowing squash leaves which I'm administering NPK for)), is it hyper critical to remove, resoil, and repot everything? The mere thought of that makes me woozy to be honest. In labor and in cost that would be almost an impossibility.