The Plants

We enjoyed our tomato plant this summer. Since early July we have been harvesting tomatoes all the time and enjoying every one of them. The faux cypress looked great and our basil plant kept supplying fresh basil leaves.

About a month before our trip to the US, we actually starting thinking about the survival of our plants during our time away and devised a watering system we thought would keep them alive during our 3 week absence.  The faux cypress also had a watering bottle but I didn't take a photo. 

We purchased two different types of watering spikes which hold an overturned bottle of water. The spikes used with the clear bottles are superior. These spikes are a ceramic or porcelain bisque. There are 4 types depending on pot size and length of time away. We bought the longest term ones we could get. These spikes can even accommodate a 5 gallon water jug. It was not possible to use that size water container for our tomato, but in a landscape situation they would work great.

We had a really mild summer here and we hoped for more of that. Unfortunately, we had an extended hot period while we were away.  

The faux cypress bush can withstand winters just sitting on our balcony. (I admit this has not been tested yet.) Because of this, we felt the faux cypress would be the most likely to be just fine with a slow drip spike/bottle set up. We assumed the basil plant would probably not make it. I had trimmed it back considerably before our departure. I collected the basil leaves and dried them. I picked all of the green tomatoes and froze them. (On our return I planned to make a green tomato pasta sauce.) Still, we hoped the tomato would be OK with 4 spike/bottles. 

We were wrong on all counts. The cypress bush had some dead, brown branches on it. The tomato was 85% yellow, drooping leaves. The basil was thriving. We had everything wrong. Hmmm.

We also had not counted on an early August insect invasion. It turns out the brown branches on the cypress were caused by an aphid family reunion.

Despite the yellow, drooping leaves on the tomato, the main stems still looked fine and there were still some healthy green stems and leaves at the top of the plant. There were even a handful of ripe tomatoes and new growth in spots.  We picked off all of the yellow, dead looking stems and leaves and watered it. The tomato sprouted a lot of new growth, some small ripe tomatoes and even has a lot of blossoms on it. Hopefully the newest tomatoes will be able to ripen before cold temperatures end the growing season. So what happened to the tomato?

Maybe the Lace Bugs!?

We have lace bugs frequenting the tomato. Did this cause all of the leaf yellowing?  I don't know. However, I did notice that the vast majority of the sycamore trees which line many of the streets in town all seemed to be suffering with leaves turning yellow. The street below our apartment is lined with sycamores- all with yellowing leaves—and it was only mid-August. Lace bugs suck the fluids from the plant leaves so????   I learned that while lace bugs aren't one of the big tomato pests, sycamores are loved by lace bugs. They fly of course despite their delicate wings, but are also carried by breezes. I have even found quite a few lace bugs actually inside our apartment--we do open the windows and balcony doors a lot. I read this can happen when your windows are open and there aren't any screens.

My lace bug battle plan is to continue to pick them off manually as I find them. I've also installed yellow sticky traps on the tomato. It would be great if the tomato could continue providing a few tomatoes here and there for a few more weeks.

B comment - In summary: despite looking terrible with so many yellow leaves, the tomato did survive and is still producing a few tomatoes. Right now we even have a lot of new blooms on the new growth.