Tomato Disease / Attack something?

[Greenthumb18]

I threw the 2 worst into the burn pile already.... just like I burned the diseased strawberries.

Thanks so much to listening to me flip.... everything is out of my hands now.

Hubby is grabbing a bag of some cheap mulch at Home Depot on his way home. I never mulched the tomato bed and that is my fault... it would be the one bed I didn't mulch wouldn't it?!c

Oh ok good burn that disease down lol.
No problem i like helping people out when i can.
So mulching should help the problem?

 

[Southern Gardener]

vfem - sorry to hear about that! Does mulching help?

 

[vfem]

I read that the blight can sit in wait in the soil and is contracted through the leaves from 'soil splash' which can be minimized with mulching.

We had nothing but a weeks' worth of rain last week.... I'm guessing that's when it was actually contracted to the plants.

 

[digitS']

I was going to ask about how often you are getting the plants wet but with rain all week . . . it ain't you, babe !

I'm so sorry you have had this problem. With insects, the gardener can often shoulder arms and go to war. With disease, sometimes the gardener can't do a thing . . .

Rainy weather during the growing season doesn't happen here all that much. I use overhead sprinklers but humidity is often below 20% in the late afternoon. The plants dry quickly. But even here in the arid West, June can be tricky and changeable and plants can get sick.

Best of luck going forward, Vfem. Make special note of the varieties that can get thru this and during selection next season, think - disease resistant, disease resistant.

Steve

 

[Purple Strawberry]

I found this awesome website regarding tomato problems. It has great pictures to help identify the problem.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/tomatoproblemsolver/

I ran across it because sadly something is wrong with my plants.

Check out my blog tomorrow for more details of the illness in my family.

 

[vfem]

I am by NO means having an easy time with this disease. However, I have several plants that were not hard hit bouncing back. My brandywine is fighting, and so far the new leaves are showing no signs.... but the damaged stems are just that, and no one on those stems are developing any longer.

I lost a 'chadwick' cherry plant which was covered in tomatoes... but it just gave up and kept falling back. I had to remove it, and it is now sitting sadly in the burn pile.

I found a similar site to yours looking at images (its heart breaking to have to do that, find something wrong when EVERYTHING looks to be the problem because you are so scared!!!). You should share your info here... it may be very important to someone here. Have you found what it is for sure? Are you treating?

 

[Purple Strawberry]

So by comparing a leaf of mine to the ones on that website mentioned above I think it it Early Blight.

"Early Blight
Alternaria solani

Symptoms:
Leaf symptoms of early blight are large irregular patches of black, necrotic tissue surrounded by larger yellow areas. The leaf spots have a characteristic concentric banding appearance (oyster-shell or bull's eye).

Control:
Minimize wetting of the leaves by using drip or furrow irrigation. Infection occurs rapidly during periods of warm, wet weather. Fungicide sprays control the disease effectively."

But my steam or fruit have no signs, it is only the leaves. So can it still be Early Blight?

It says to control with fungicide spray, but what brand is good and does wal-mart carry that kind of item or do I have to go to a garden center?

 

[vfem]

Can I see pictures of your leaves for sure?! Did you mulch your tomato bed?

If so, and it IS blight of either type (or at least definitely a fungus) Try using mancozeb fungal control. I found it at a garden center, but after all my reading it seems to be the best.... with the least side affects!!!

Again, mulch the bed and look for that fungicide to use!

Use it as a preventor spray from here on out each year if you plant anything belonging to the tomato family in that bed. The blight is actually in your soil and got to your plants from the soil being exposed. Simply mulching could have controlled it, and I'm kicking myself HARD right now!!!!

http://fromseed.blogspot.com/2009/06/invasion-of-blight.html

Here's more on mine!