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pws1120

I need help with my tomato plants

9 years ago

Last week I noticed the lower leaves yellowing and eventually dying on 80% of the plants. I started to remove the bad, but each day it is creeping up. I don't want to keep removing more and more any help is greatly appreciated.

Also noticed similar wilting on my peppers and escarole.

Top pic is of overall set up from Memorial Day

Yesterday

Comments (4)

  • 9 years ago

    Are you using fungicide regularly?

  • 9 years ago

    First off, thank you for responding.

    I have not used any fungicide ever. Not opposed to it, just new to the gardening game. I also have stopped watering, I have the felt paper down and the ground is super saturated. From the web I found everything from rip out and burn to ride it out. Any help and recommendations are greatly appreciated.


  • 9 years ago

    I think you have bacterial speck, possibly septoria. The symptoms can be pretty similar. Spray fungicide weekly and prune off affected foliage as soon as it shows signs of disease. Throw the pruned foliage away promptly--do not leave it in the garden or compost it. This should help slow the progression of disease so that you can get a decent harvest out of your plants for a while.

    These diseases are normal and expected for tomato growers in many parts of the country. For this reason, many choose to spray fungicide regularly from the first day their plants go outside. Fungicides available to home gardeners aren't curative for the most part--they work best as preventatives to delay onset of disease. After disease onset, they can help to slow down the disease progression. Options are neem oil or organic biologicals like Serenade/Actinovate (not recommended for active disease), copper (there are both organic and non-organic forms), chlorathonil (non-organic but often more effective than organic options, brand names Daconil and Bravo, among others). Do some research online, and you'll see a lot of options, one of which is sure to fit with your priorities and philosophies. Personally, I use a biological regularly (Serenade, Monterey Complete Disease Control) until about mid-late season when diseases ramp up for me in my area, at which point I start to alternate in organic copper. That's just how I personally choose to approach it. In your situation, I'd probably go straight to the copper. Once again, that's my personal choice. Many would choose Daconil.

    Neither speck nor septoria are death sentences. They can be managed in many cases. There's no need to pull the plants, as these diseases are pretty much everywhere in the air, soil, and water, and there's no need for rigid quarantines, which would be pointless. The risk they pose to your plants is that they will defoliate so much that the developing fruit will get sunscald from lack of leaf cover against the sun.

    If it's speck, you may see black dots on your fruit. Bad news if you're trying to sell your tomatoes, but mostly a cosmetic annoyance for the home grower. Fruit can be eaten as normal, but don't use diseased fruit in canning, as diseases can alter fruit pH, which injects some potentially dangerous uncertainty into the canning process.

  • 9 years ago

    Thank you so much for all of your insight and knowledge. I will start the process tomorrow with copper and follow up with the fungicide. And I will keep this thread posted. Once again I am truly thankful for all the help

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