Thanks for letting me vent. :(

Vent whenever you want to Teresa, really.

I live a few hundred miles north of you and we've been having the same weather, almost to 90 and a bit higher every day, when the norm should be in the mid to high 70's, high humidity on many days, as it is right now b'c a heavy shower just went through, and this weather has been the topic of many newspaper articles up here.

One good thing about living in the boonies is that the few tomato plants I'm growing here at home don't have any diseases......yet. Sigh. Just no one else growing them near me, but fingers are crossed/

And that's as far as I know. Two days ago I had a chair by the sliding door to the back and Betsy, my helper gal, went from plant to plant and yelled back the data I wanted and at least then, there were no spots on the leaves.

Some bottom yellow leaves which I told her to just take off.

I'm glad you switched to the Bonide liquid copper b'c I was wrong in saying that Maneb and Mancozeb had copper in them although you can buy Mancozeb with added copper.

LEt's hope we do get a break in the weather and things get back to normal for early July. Sigh.

Carolyn

Hi Ladies - same mugginess here in Connecticut. I have disease problems too this season, but still, out of my 30 plants most look very good so far. I am beginning to think there is value in giving each plant more "breathing" room, so I may cut back on the number I plant next time because I can see first hand how the foliar problems spread in a closer growing environment. I put too many in each bed this year - it is too jungle-ified. I long for farmed fields, but must make due with sunny suburban patches. Let's hope the sweaty days give yield soon to pleasant sunny drier ones.

Carolyn,

The 5pm weather forcast was "no break in the humidity and heat for the foreseeable future." It's 90 and humid well into next week.

I'm glad to hear your plants are tolerating the weather and no diseases thus far. After I posted here, I walked around my neighborhood and peeked through the fences of some neighbors' yards (no one called the police as far as I can tell) and would you believe every neighbor's tomato plants are twice as big as mine and covered with healthy green foliage? So perhaps I shouldn't be attributing this largely to weather conditions otherwise my nieghbors would have similar symptoms. As for seed source, they were all purchased, and I gave one of my neighbors all of her tomato plants and hers are healthy!

Maybe this will teach me not to look at my neighbors' plants because, as they say, it IS always greener on the other side. Signing off now to go wallow in self-pity.

Teresa

In the meantime, Teresa, realize that this year's sanitation efforts will affect the next 2-3 years of tomato-growin effort. One's skill is not measured in a good season, it's measured by the seasons that were less than perfect. Yo future growin seasons, will be greatly augmented, if you practice good sanitation, an destroy afflicted residue, dont let it add to the contamination already manifest in yo soil. I perfectly Understand....venting...lol...i'm dam tired of daily rain, i caint spray nothin, now, for the last 3 weeks, cause it'll jus get washed off. Nevertheless, sanitation efforts continue...))) Try havin a 12 inch rainfall surplus...))) all in All, i'm very content w/tomato progress, tho, an i attribute some of that, to past sanitation efforts.Even if i can grow a Beautiful tomato in tough conditions tho, i caint insure it's taste, because the rain is diluting it's flavor. Best Wishes... we who have been pounded by this incessant rainfall recieve a reprieve, this fall, an that those who need some rain, recieve it...)))

Gimmee and others battling rain: Now is not the best time for my area to grow tomatoes (Rain, rain, and more rain).

Found just what I needed--only problem for me , is it is still too hot at night so I better stick to fall/winter gardening.

Check this out: Rain shelter for tomatoes in hot, rainy areas. I DON"T KNOW HOW TO LINK A PDF--CLICK ON LINK AND THEN SCROLL DOWN TO SHELTER.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rain shelter

I guess I should consider myself lucky. Except for a few random blotchy yellow leaves at the bottom of a few of my plants, no signs of anything wrong. They are growing well and we will have the first tomatoes in 2 wks.

I sprayed dacanil on them yesterday just incase though.

Best of luck to you guys. Sometimes you can't win them all no matter how hard you try. While my tomatoes don't seem to mind the humid rainy weather, I hate it.

I hear you sister! It's muggy and hot again today (in Balto County), early blight is rampant in my garden and I need a break in the weather to spray the daconil....the moisture in the air is horrible! If my plants go down, I don't know WHAT I'm gonna do!

Yes this year has been a rough one for me too and I'm probably not that far away from you. But regarding peeking at the neighbors, you may not be seeing the whole picture so don't despair too much! ;o) My neighbors, on their walks, all stop by my yard and oooh and ahhhh. It does look nice from the road and all my plants are 4-8 feet tall, lush, and thick. BUT what they don't see or know, is that I've already lost 3 plants, and 3 are holding on by the skin of their tiny green tomatoes. And I'm really crossing my fingers that nothing spreads. Those 6 represent 20% of my crop.

EB is now under control. Septoria, by shear will-power and a little help from Daconil (grin), is barely under control. 4 plants have been struck by some mysterious wilt that simply doesn't fit the profile of anything I can find. So, you're not alone and I truly do feel your pain.

Chin up and I do hope things improve for you and you'll get tomatoes sometime in the next few weeks. :o)

Christine

This weekend was the worst ever....yuk!

Michelle,

Agreed! Like a fool, I took a chance and sprayed with Daconil on Saturday. No joke...as soon as I go back inside and close the back door I hear the patter of rain on my windows. :(

Teresa

Genetic tolerance describes the ability of a plant to produce acceptable yield even when that plant is infected by the pathogen. Tolerance does not necessarily limit the ability of the fungus to infect or damage tissue, and it does not necessarily lead to a reduction in numbers of reproductive spores produced by the fungus on infected plants. Tolerance simply allows a plant to withstand the infection. It does not reduce the risk to future crops, and it may fail to adequately protect plants when climatic conditions and crop management are highly favorable for disease development. Tolerance is evaluated by comparing yields from plants grown under field conditions in soils highly or only lightly infested by the pathogen(s). Plants can be tolerant without being resistant to the disease.

Genetic resistance describes the ability of a plant to retard or prevent infection by the pathogen. Resistant plants sustain very little damage to their tissue. Resistant plants also reduce spore production by the pathogen, and therefore reduce the potential risk to future crops. Resistance is likely to be more effective than tolerance when conditions are highly favorable to disease. Resistance can be measured by evaluating the presence or absence of infection, or relative severity of infection, in either seedlings or in plants grown in the field.

FYI, for those wondering about VFFFNTA etc.

I spoke too soon. My plants are suffering and the daconil has not worked up to what I thought it would be like.

Rain? What's that? Living in the 'Golden Horseshoe' the humidity has been rampant but nothing falls from the sky...until yesterday. Early summer huge piles of foliage turned into tons of green tomatoes...and just when you think the fruit is turning colour the foliage is turning yellow, lots of tomatoes just falling off...ho hum...the thought of 15 dollars a bushel is annoying. Think I'll pick 'em green...might as well. Thanks for the vent. Think I'll go spray before something else happens. (Sigh)

We have had a bit of rain...and it is a bit cooler for a day or so....SO MUCH humidty here too....ALL my plants have Early Blight..I keep picking off the leaves..some look leafless...sprayed with safers soap for what looked like mildew splotches, and aphids...so mildew gone..aphids less..but the EB is spreading like wildfire...Have had a few ripe tomatoes mmmmmmmmm thats a plus and earlier than last year...Some very twisted tomatoes as well..am being very careful to get rid of every bad leaf..not leaving a thing on the ground..wishing everyone some good harvests...martha/zucchini

Early Blight AND Late Blight!!!!! Oh, the frustration!

Ditto. I've never seen anything like this before and since we're having a drought, I should keep spraying because everytime I do, it rains. I will say that the potato leaf varieties are holding their own against whatever foliage diseases are attacking better than regular leafs.