Tomato stems dry out?

[Garjan]

Hi all

I am faced with a problem that is not tackled in previous posts. Hope you can tell me what the source or cause is and how to prevent it happening to my other plants.

Yesterday I found three tomato plants keeled over. Part of their stems were woody, almost reduced to a few fibers, from the soil upwards.
Two of them I could probably rescue by putting more compost around the remaining stem. At least today they look fine and green again.

The variety is Principe Borghese.
The plants are about 12 cm high and quite strong. At the moment they are outside in pots, not to close together, waiting to be planted out. I didn't find symptoms of a fungus or a nibbling creature. I did not splash water over them.
The weather has been fine: sunny and without even a breeze.
I just don't know what I did wrong.

[Garjan]

[Robert_Brenchley]

Slug damage?

[davyw1]

For what my opinion is worth i would say foot rot if they are seedlings or stem rot if a more mature plant.. I would have them out and burnt
DavyW

[Tee Gee]

I would tend to go with Roberts suggestion (slug damage) now that you mention they have picked up.

Had they not picked up I might have gone along with Davy's reply.

I would cane them to give some support until the root system re-establishes itself again.

[Garjan]

Thanks for the replies!
But wouldn't rot and/or slugs leave some kind of slimy trace? I didn't consider these causes because the stems seem to be dry and woody.

I will give them some extra support and report back on how they are doing.
Thanks again.

[pigeonseed]

It sounds like slugs or snails to me as well. I've had the same thing, but tomatoes never seem to mind luckily.

I pick off the lowest leaves, to try and discourage slugs/snails, hoping they'll just slither past and not notice  the small brown woody stem and decide to climb!

[davyw1]

If you have some Marigolds in pots put them next to you tomato,s you will soon find out if you have a slug problem