Get out your violin...

...cause I'm gonna whine. I can't figure out why potatoes and tomatoes are wilting from the tops down. I'm afraid they're gonna croak before they're done. And the eggplants and lemon cucumber have bloomed prolifically but there's not a single eggplant or cuke anywhere to be found. Waaaaah!! What's going on here?

The same thing that is going on here. I have blooms all over my melons, no fruit. The tomatos are stating to die from the ends, same with the melons, the tips are dying off. We have bee looking insects, but mabe they dont polinate. Its to hot to stand out there and water and hope, only to get nothing.

I t may be just the heat. Tomatoes and eggplants are self pollinating, no insects needed, but they don't set when temps are in the upper nineties. Low humidity and drought are also stress factors that come into play. The lemon cuke and the melons are insect pollinated, but check first to make sure you are getting female blossoms. Many of the older cultivars start with a profusion of male flowers before the females show up. If the females are aborting, then you might try some hand pollination. Cukes take a lot of water.

How much of your stuff is shaded now, TF? My 'maters were definitely peaky and wilting from the tops down, even with adequate water, before I got the shade cloth up. I think what was happening was that the water couldn't be pumped up to the ends fast enough before the hot & dry sucked it out again. Now that it's a whole bunch cooler under my shade cloth, they're looking LOTS better.

Jill, most everything is under shade of some sort now. The potatoes are under umbrellas; the tomatoes are either under shade cloth or trees (different locations); and the cuke and eggplants are under shadecloth. I've got my doubts about that shadecloth. Supposed to be 75% but it doesn't look like that to me.

I was afraid I was underwatering, but I had to dig a hole to replace a plant and it was a bog! I cut back on the water since I don't think they can swim. The potatoes are another story; I don't think they're getting too much water but that's a downside of growing in tires - I can't really test to see.

Farmerdill, the heat is upon us for sure. 110 degrees today!! And it's been in the 90's for a short time, too. The eggplant had such pretty flowers and they just dried up and fell off. Yes, the humidity is very, very low. But last year was a record-breaker and I got tons of eggplant.

I really need to move....

I did not even realize there was aveggie forum. Alma my tomatoes looked ok last night although something has already started attacking the tomatoes that are trying to grow.
What do you do when you do not want to use checmicals and the insects are attacking?

Which kind of insects, Marie? Some things I hand-pick and feed to the roadrunners and lizards, some (but not many because I just hate the process of spraying) I spray with soapy water, if I'm really having a bad run of hornworms on my tomatoes I'll use bt spray. I did spray for mites last year when they were so bad, I think it was a certified organic miticide. Not sure it did any good, but I did feel like I was trying.

I've been lucky not to have an infestation of pests. Only ever found a couple of hornworms. Like Jill, if I find aphids or some other little suckers, I break out the soapy water. It's the wilting and leaf curling that I can't figure out. I have some plants that I don't think are going to make it but I also have some that are loaded with tomatoes and seem - knock on wood here - very healthy.

Here's the weird curled leaves on a Roma. This plant has produced tomatoes but a few had bottom rot when quite small and now I see that others are starting to flush with color and they're way too small to be ripening.

I have some of that curling going on too. Jill I do not know waht kindo f insects just know somethign is damaging the tomatoes. Since I will not get home until dark tonight I willahve to check tommorrow and see if I can take pictures of the damage.