Viewing post #447225 by Moonhowl

So glad your plant set seeds even happier that you found them. Sometimes when we are not very familiar with a plant, it is easy to miss things about it. I speak from personal experience... My husband and i can be walking through the yard and I will say...YUCK! Please pull that hornworm of that tomato....and he will give me a blank look and say where? and even when i point to it, he doesn't see it.....Not that he can't see, or doesn't know what it is or how to recognize it......the problem lies with him not being familiar with that individual plant's morphology. The first thing I hear from folks when i say that is often, NAH...every gardener knows what a tomato plant looks like.... While this may or may not be correct (that is a different discussion ) in this case, he does know....but he doesn't know THIS particular plant. Why? I choose it, brought it home, planted it, fed it, tended it, and pretty much looked at it every day.

So what difference does that make? Quite a bit actually. I remember the shape of the leaves, stems and trunk from the time i put it in the ground....So? He was still not convinced....and i am sure neither are a lot of other folks, That being said....how? When i watered that plant this morning, all of its' branches were full and up upright and healthy looking creating a certain symmetry..... now this evening, that is gone. So why does that tell me there is a hornworm eating my plant? It doesn't what it does tell me is that something has damaged my tomato plant since morning and from there it is a matter of deductive reasoning and observation .

1) It has been damaged, 2) it is a tomato plant 3) we have seen hornworm damage before, and have them in our area , 4) the tender small new growth is gone, and finally 5) There is Hornworm frass on some of the lower leaves of the plant.

Plant Morphology is basically knowing what a healthy Tomato plant looks like, and recognizing when it doesn't. ( This is a gross oversimplification of the science i am sure) But, think in terms of human morpholgy....we all know what humans look like given the norm for human body structure.....You do notice when a person you meet is missing an arm or leg....not an intentional recognition of what is missing, perhaps, but you see the difference, because your brain knows and carries an imprint. Nature is full of symmetry and for most living things that is bilateral or radial symmetry. We notice when the symmetry is missing.