So there I was, pouring fertilizer-laden water over the ground where my solanaceae lay, and I noticed that the lowest leaf on one of my F2 cherry tomatoes was alarmingly yellow. Trying to recall what I had read of early blight and fusarium wilt, I decided to pick the leaf off, figuring it probably wouldn’t hurt and might help. I leaned over, grabbed the leaf–and snapped the stem off instead.

There I was, my first cut bouquet of tomato plant in my hand, looking foolishly at the stub of tomato sticking up from the ground. The first thing I did? Rip off the yellow leaf. Then I went inside and wetted a pot of dirt and stuck the tomato plant into it. Tomatoes grow roots along their stems, it’s possible this one will root before it dies, right?  

Also it turns out that fusarium can be mimicked by overwatering, and we got an overabundance of water with that storm, plus magnesium deficiency could also be the culprit; so I might not have to worry about the other tomatoes (except the Celebrity, which is fusarium resistant anyway)–but I don’t know. At least now I can examine the roots of that tomato plant to see if anything was wrong down there.

What an idiot.