Newest Garden Woe

I swear tomato plants are so special! So for a few weeks I've noticed a "dust" on the leaves. I know sometimes they tell you not to wet plant leaves so I was a bit hesitant. I also started noticing the leaves turning yellow and slumping. I began asking around and looking for interventions to save my plant.

I was talking to a colleague who had been telling me to watch out for hornworms, which I haven't seen yet. But she was telling me that if the leaves are moist yet drooping then I'm over watering and of course if they are crispy then not getting enough water. So, I noticed a bit of both on the plant which I I thought meant I wasn't being consistent with my watering (If I don't water daily then its every other day).

This weekend the leaves were looking pretty bad so I thought well maybe they need a bigger space to grow. I went out and purchased 2-5 gallon buckets and some tomato fertilizer and transplanted them into the buckets. I trimmed the branches and gave them a good watering and felt like I had fixed the problem.

I also decided to use a water bottle to slowly water one of my plants that is always slumping and just regularly water the other one. Today, I went out on the balcony and I hadn't watered the one plant yet because the soil was still wet BUT ALL the leaves were drooping and yellow. I moved in for a closer look and noticed them tiny red critters running across the leaves. I was mortified!!!!!

I've since researched it and found out that my poor tomato plant is being attacked my spider mites. The dust on the leaves was a sign because it was actually webs. So, I may have cause this with inconsistent watering and/or given the plant too much nitrogen (I was adding plant food weekly).

I'm gonna try to savage my plant and have since watered the leaves and sprayed it with some stuff I bought when the cabbage loopers were noticed. I've also quarantined it because I have all my tomato plants near each other.