Knowledgebase
Damaged tomatoes, fig and kiwi #867612
Asked May 08, 2024, 3:23 PM EDT
Anne Arundel County Maryland
Expert Response
Hi,
The tomato and the fig do look like herbicide damage. It doesn't sound like it could have come from the triclopyr as they did the right methods so it wouldn't travel. Triclopyr herbicide tends to travel in water and rain run off (as opposed to glyphosate that binds to the soil) so perhaps that could be the reason but the product name you mentioned states that the products is rain fast in 2 hours, so that suggests it didn't travel.
It could just be coincidental that the neighbor had this applied the week before. Perhaps there was another neighbor that used something else? Maybe on the hotter days we have had and it did volatilize?
We don't think these symptoms are due to the heat. The blistering on the tomato stems could be the beginning of adventitious roots, but the twisting and curled leaves is indicative of herbicide. Tomatoes are very susceptible to herbicide damage and these plants will likely not recover. You could try cutting them back to see, but it might be safer to start fresh with new plants unfortunately.
The fig will be a wait and see situation as it is too early to tell if it can grow out of it and recover.
The kiwi is likely something unrelated. Assuming this is a hardy kiwi. Perhaps it was just hit with frost on the new growth? You can just pluck those black tips off and it should be ok.
Emily
While it's quite unlikely that herbicide exposure drift to vegetable or fruit plants will accumulate enough of the chemical in the plant that it would affect the harvest (especially since a large-enough dose would do more damage to the plant long before a harvest was ready), we doubt any plant with sufficient exposure to be concerned about will survive long enough to fruit, especially the tomatoes. It remains to be seen if the fig will grow out of the damage (whatever its cause), but the fig's fruits will probably be fine and not a food safety risk. New tomatoes put into the bed will also likely be fine, harvest-wise, but if any residues remain, they could affect the new plant growth as well. (Is any of that raised bed soil new or amended with composted manure? Manure composts sometimes still contain certain herbicide residues as the animal's digestive system and the composting process do not degrade them enough.) Chemical herbicides do break down over time, though the pace of degradation depends on environmental factors as well as the active ingredient(s) and their dosage.
Miri
Miri
