Bizarre looking. I yanked it. The skinny part was about 3/4" above the soil line.



Karen

I've had this happen and I never know what causes it. What I do is leave the plant in but mound the soil up above the squeezed part. The plant always seems to recover. It develops new roots above the pinched part.

But I'd love to know what causes it!

Dave's advice is the way I would go also. It kind of looks like damping off but the pinched part is up from the soil line and my experience with damping off it has happened very close to the soil line.

Too late, Patti, I had already yanked the thing and trashed it. I didn't know if it was just a weird anomaly or some weird disease.

Thanks for the input, Dave.

Karen

I am going to GUESS that it may be a reaction of the plant to low calcium levels in the soil. It does funny things.....

Good guess Carol! I have been thinking maybe magnesium...

= Bingo. My remedy would be to add Dolomite so that would make us both correct

It was a weird thing to be sure. The whole seedling was only about 4" tall. And None of the other seedlings planted in the same soil did that. I'm glad no one has diagnosed it as some communicable disease of tomatoes.

Thanks for the input.

Karen