Damned Leaf Spot

[Drew Lawson]

Sigh. It seems that I get a second year of tomato leaf spot.

At least I think I recognized it earlier this year than last. The plants still look vibrant. And I know not to get lax about respraying like I did last year. I had the thought to do a preemptive spraying of copper sulfate when I set them out. I should have followed through with that.

Unfortunately we were out of town last week, and I was recovering from exhaustion for the beginning of the week. Otherwise, I might have figured it out sooner.

On the up side, I ate the first tomato and first cucumber of the year yesterday.

I had thinned the cucumber cages to about half the density of last year, and I'm thinking they may still be too crowded. I had to weave the vines onto the cages yesterday, since they'd sprawled about 4 feet instead of climbing.

[Terry Coombs]

That's what my tomato plants look like ! Copper sulphate , you say ? Mine are pretty bad , look like stems with a few leaves . Gotta get some of that stuff , I was told it was likely spotted leaf wilt , a viral problem . Will dusting with sulphur help ?

[Drew Lawson]

I don't think sulphur will help with viruses, but I don't know. I'm mostly familiar with it as a fungicide.

Tomato leaf spot is a fungal problem, with spores splashed from infected leaves to uninfected, so the problem mostly climbs up as the plant grows. The copper sulphate worked well on it last year, but my experience is that it suppresses the spread rather than killing off the problem. So this year, I will keep spraying for the rest of the season. What I have is a powder/dust, and I mix it in a 1500ml hand sprayer.

I'm a tree-hugging sort, but don't mess with my tomatoes.

[Terry Coombs]

I have a bottle of Spinosad at my right elbow as I sit here ... it's supposed to control thrips , which are supposedly the vector for this tomato spotted wilt virus . They were beginning to improve but in the last day or three seem to have taken a turn for the worse . I was counting on these tomatoes for a winter's plus supply for sauce and paste .

[Terry Coombs]

That first link is the one that led me to believe this is the spotted wilt virus , but I don't have the charactristic discoloration on the fruit . Now I'm even more confused .

[songbird]

Terry Coombs wrote: ...

:) do you have fruit on the plants that is fairly good sized already?

songbird

[Drew Lawson]

Just wanted to comment that their pictures for tomato leaf spot (Septoria) are very good, exactly what I'm dealing with. I don't know whether that translates to good quality on all their pages.

It is frustrating that there are so many things that kill tomato leaves. In retrospect, I've been very lucky that I went so many years without having a problem.

[Terry Coombs]

Yes , and some has been picked , more is ready/almost ready .

[Terry Coombs]

I suspect part of my problem is the varieties I chose , all heirlooms .

[Drew Lawson]

As are mine. Now that I have the fungus in my garden, it will probably be a problem for at least several years. I have to get much better about controlling weeds that can be extra hosts.

I realized while spraying that I probably also need to space the cages about twice as far apart as I did this year (which is slightly farther than last year), to reduce how much gets spread between plants.

[Terry Coombs]

I did look at it , came away with the same diagnosis . Sometimes a patch just sucks . I had my squashes/cukes/melons in that patch last year . Lost almost everything to squash stem root rot , a fungal infection aggravated by excess rain . Which we had , both last year and this . Sometimes ya gotta just suck it up and go on .

[songbird]

then you're at least going to get a harvest, those that are big enough can be set aside in the garage or someplace and they'll eventually ripen. not quite as good as vine ripened but usually acceptable for sauces or ...

we've done that some years when the plants have dropped their leaves due to blights. i've never bothered to spray, but mulching to prevent leaf splash and removing leaves from the lower part of the plants didn't make any difference.

the challenge was finding enough space to set them out (on old towels so they'd not rot) in the garage, but most come through just fine in time. a few might rot anyways. we'd go through them once in a while to find them and get them off the tables.

Ma had the idea that we should set them in the sun, but that is not a good idea once the tomato is off the plant. she still does it by setting them on the window sill... ah well, can't change habits of some folks sometimes. :)

songbird

[~misfit~]

Thanks for the links.

[~misfit~]

Understood. Thanks again.

[Boron Elgar]

I have found that another variable is tomato variety, too. Over and above the specific ones that are wilt-resistant, some are just overly sensitive to it.

I have found that Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye are highly susceptible to fungal attack...also to scald and blossom end rot. Damn fine tomatoes if they make it through, though.

I am growing a lot of different varieties this year, each in large tubs, each in exactly the same growing medium. The different tubs are being treated as similarly as one can do under home gardening conditions, so I really believe some of what I am seeing is variety based.

[Boron Elgar]

I am in northern NJ. Sometimes designated zone 6b, sometimes 7a.

I have been at this a long time and known blight/spot/wilt and the variations pretty well. I am trying Serenade this year, as it is a biofungicide, but probably waited too long.

This has been a highly productive, relatively dry year for tomatoes in the area, with minimal problems that can come from a wet season, and I will have oodles to use and give away from many other varieties.

I had higher hopes for the Tie Dyes, though. Ah well. I got the seedlings in LA in April and brought them east.. Next year I will try them from seed.

Or maybe I will get some from the Lomita Tomato Lady.

[~misfit~]

Handy to know. I wonder if that information is out there somewhere? Last year I decided to just grow Grosse Lisse as the previous year they were my favourites. However we had a wet season and they lost all their lower leaves first then the stems rotted. A later crop I put in was too late.

I've never sprayed tomatoes before, just figured if I get a crop then that's great. However as finances get tighter and mobility more limited I can't afford to put the effort in for little or no return so will have to learn to work out what the trouble is (if any) and sort it out this year.

Cheers,

[songbird]

~misfit~ wrote: ...

i would try cherry tomatoes and varieties geared towards patio growers. as of yet the cherry tomato variety sweet 100 has been reliable. last year was our worst for the large tomato harvest, but the sweet 100s did ok. the plants do get big, but they flop down if you don't stake them up so you can work from the side or underneath if you have to.

songbird

[Boron Elgar]

I am as close to organic as one can get - at least when the bugs are OUTSIDE my house, but Serenade (way overpriced bottle of liquid it is, too), being a biological, doesn't offend me instantly.

I recommend putting in as wide a variety of tomatoes as you can accommodate, and include a few cherrys. Even when the weather decimates the large fruit plants, I always manage to get some harvest from the cherries. Makes for odd sandwiches, but they are tasty.

Yesterday's pickings:

[Boron Elgar]

Gotta laugh...I did not read ahead, but posted to Misfit and recommended the same solution.