Young Tomato Plant Stem Issue

[EFGrows]

Started indoors last month....Batch of about 8(of 12) made it to this point...During "hardening off", three of them recently showed signs of "bare sections" on their lower stems...However, they all look "healthy" on top as far as the leaves are concerned.....Is this "normal" or something that needs to be addressed?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

It looks as though the one on the left has lost its seed leaves, I can see one in the pot. No real problem, when you repot them bury them right up to the first 'real' leaves. They will make roots all the way up, some people say that those top roots only act as support, I can't see it myself, a root is a root, and anyway even if they do there is nothing wrong with a bit of extra support.

 

[EFGrows]

So what causes that "bare spot" on the stems?....I looked with a magnifying glass and couldn't see any "pests".....As they both show, the bare spot appears to be a temporary condition during a certain time of growth....

 

[oneeye]

Started indoors last month....Batch of about 8(of 12) made it to this point...During "hardening off", three of them recently showed signs of "bare sections" on their lower stems...However, they all look "healthy" on top as far as the leaves are concerned.....Is this "normal" or something that needs to be addressed?

Good work EFgrow. When container tomato plants get dry they drop their lower leaves. Nothing to worry about like O said.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

So what causes that "bare spot" on the stems?

Looking again closely I see what you mean. It looks as though a tiny baby slug has eaten some of the outside, you wouldn't see that, it would only come at night and retreat into the pot during the day. A couple of slug pellets in each pot should put a stop to it if that's what it is, don't overdo it, people tend to scatter them like they are feeding chickens, but it only takes a couple to kill a full size slug. I don't know what you get in America, here they used to use metaldehyde, which is filthy stuff, causes brain damage, now they have switched to iron phosphate which damages their 'liver' and is pretty harmless to anything else, check the active ingredient on the label.

 

[EFGrows]

No "slugs" or "snails" here these days....And these small plants are in small pots which I've moved into my home quite often the last few weeks due to poor weather conditions and such...

 

[Oliver Buckle]

No "slugs" or "snails" here these days...

Why? My experience is always, everywhere. They find pots attractive, getting between the pot and the earth is easier than digging. If you are moving the pots it means they are in multiple locations, more chances of picking one up.

 

[Meadowlark]

No "slugs" or "snails" here these days....

Why? My experience is always, everywhere.

Certainly not always and never everywhere. No "slugs" or "snails" here in my East Texas garden either.

@EFGrows ...it looks to me like we have seen our last frost until next winter. Two nights ago, here it briefly hit 32 deg. F but for a very short period of time with almost no damage.

 

[EFGrows]

Why? My experience is always, everywhere.

I used to have many slugs in my backyard a decade or so ago, then they pretty much vanished....When I moved to this house back in the 90's there were tons of "Mole Crickets" all over the yard....I'd never seen one before....Two years later they were all gone and haven't seen one since....Last year I had hundreds of small snails that ended up attending one of my several snail-stomping "jamborees"...Thus not many around this year....

 

[EFGrows]

So I was doing the usual internet searches for the possible cause of those "bare spots" and the only thing I found so far is that they may be "cankers" from "early blight".....I hope not, but the plants that have it look pretty healthy so far....

Last year I had a large Tomato plant that ended up getting what I think was "late blight"....I just kept cutting off all the affected branches and it eventually made tomatoes, although "smallish ones" and very late in the season....Strange thing was that I ended up picking all the tomatoes before a freeze was suppose to happen and I sat them on my kitchen counter to ripen....They were all "red" at the time and "hard" to the touch....They sat there for a solid month and never changed color/hardness....I thought that was really strange and ended up just throwing them away considering the issues I had with the plant....

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but they are like weed seeds, very good at getting about, turning up where they are not wanted, and concealing themselves. I have seen similar damage caused by small slugs. I still reckon a couple of slug pellets would be worth a try.