Play the Blame Game!

This was not the best spring to be a tomato transplant. Frost, chilling temperatures, wind, hail - it's been a tough start. Sometimes transplants also get challenged by the herbicide in these backward conditions.

We can't do much about the weather, but we can test our knowledge in the Blame Game. Can you diagnose the cause of the damage in the following photos? The choices are metribuzin injury, frost, wind desiccation, and chilling injury.

Photo A

Photo B

Photo C

Photo D

If you chose wind desiccation, chilling injury, or frost, you're probably partly right for any of these photos. It's likely a combination of these factors that is causing the symptoms. If you chose metribuzin injury for photo A or D, you're incorrect. These photos were taken in plots that have not received any preplant or post-emerge herbicide. The symptoms look identical to Photos B and C, which received Dual + Sencor, pre-plant incorporated. So although the symptoms look like metribuzin injury, in this case we can know for sure that it is not.