Tomato plants may have been sprayed with Roundup! help!

ok, my plants were doing great, green healthy, growing rapidly. I got a new power sprayer and decided to spray all my daylilies with a bit of foliar feed. I put in some organic stuff, superthrive and small amount of miracle grow. while I was at it, I sprayed my tomato plants thinking it could only help. boy was I wrong! within a few days all my flower scapes on my daylilies started to yellow, buds dropped, some had total scape death. the buds that didn't die are now blooming very deformed. all my tomato plants began yellowing at the top leaves. the spraying was about 3 weeks ago and my plants are not seeming to recover. I figured I somehow mixed my feed to strong and I am an idiot. however, I posted some pics of my deformed daylilies and several folks told me that it looks like roundup or chemical damage!

so, when I got my "new" sprayer from the feed store and got it home, there was a small amount of water in it. I called the store and they assured me that it had never been used and they weren't sure how the water got in it. I washed it very well (the water I sprayed in it foamed up some). the foliar feed was my first activity with my new sprayer. I called the feed store back again today and talked to the same lady. she assured me again that she had asked around and no one said they had used the sprayer. I figure someone there used it and then rinsed it out and put it back on the shelf. this little mishap has cost me hundreds of blooms on my dayliles since I have over a thousand named varieties!

anyway, do you think I should pull them up and start again? by this time last year my plants were 4 feet high! of course it has been much cooler this year. if they are not going to recover and produce well I would rather replant. what do you think?

tracie

here are some pics of my tomato plants and a few of my daylilies to show the deformation

My own inclination would be to water them well and hope for the best.
They do not look all that damaged to me.
Your growing season is soon over with the heat of summer?
It is so disheartening when something like that happens.
I hope they come back strong for you.

thanks clscott for the advice and the well wishes. yes, usually our temps are already in the high 90's. this has been a really weird spring and it is much cooler. however, I am afraid that once this cool ends it will jump straight to the normal high temps! since tomatoes usually don't set fruit once it gets too hot, we have a short window.

tracie

the fact that it foamed up indicates that there was some sort of herbicide residue. As a weed scientist its obvious to me that something was in that sprayer previously either by a customer that returned the item or by staff at the store. If after 7-10 days the plants were still alive they will survive and will set flowers again either this season or next. I would not replant the pernenials.

aggiegrl, I hope your plants recovered OK. I've never thought about the possibility that a new sprayer might have been used by a customer then returned to the store - that's certainly something to think about when buying one.

At home, I worry that I might accidentally spray herbicide residue on my garden plants. I have two sprayers and I made sure they're different sizes and colors - also, I've written on them both in large letters with permanent black marker. One is marked "WEED KILLER" and the other is marked "BUG SPRAY / FERTILIZER". I hope I never mix those up.

I bet your posting this did someone some good. Next time I have to replace a sprayer I'll make sure the new one I get from the store is bone-dry, looks and smells unused, and hopefully I'll find it in a box that's still taped shut.

I suspect, too, that your sprayer was one that had been returned to the store after being used.

Ozark,

Thats a great idea! I do the exact same thing. I only use insecticides or fungicides/fertilizers in one sprayer and the other is for herbicides only. I also make sure I triple rinse them out. It wouldnt take much herbicide residue like Round Up or 2,4-D or dicamba to do a lot of harm!

Unless it was a real weak mixture, I would think if it were Roundup they would be dead within 2 weeks. The plants. Don't know about the others, I have only used Roundup. Yes, I would go ahead and let them finish their season. If what you posted is the worst, I would say they are better than nothing, which is what you would have if you pull them up. Hosing them down when you water them might help. Don't give them so much water they rot tho.

Just my opinion.

thanks for all of your posts! sorry I haven't been on in a while. well, I did end up pulling and replanting all of the tomatoes. I probably would have been ok to leave them, but they looked so bad I decided to start over. even though the replacements were planted later than I normally would have planted them, we are getting some nice fruit and I am happy for them! :)

tracie

Hey, that's great!! I forgot you live in Texas. That does make a difference. Up here in the North country, we wouldn't have enough of the season left to do that.

So, did you plant the new plants where the old ones were?

yes, I did. I didn't get nearly as many tomatoes as I did last year with the longer growing season, but still got some! the problem here is that it gets so hot so early and the plants stop setting fruit for the summer.

tracie