Virus? Fungus?

[arienwolf]

Hello,
I have been reading and re-reading information on the website. Love it here btw. Thanks to baymule for sharing the link to this page.

Found a problem with my tomatoes today, it's been raining for the last couple of days but there was a break in the weather and some sunshine today. I went out to play around in the garden and check on things and found this on two of my tomato plants... I've tried to look around for information on google but haven't found a lot other than Maybe Early Blight.

The dark spots are on the Tops of the Plant on what Appears to be new growth. The leaves haven't turned yellow (although in one of the pictures it looks like it) They just seem to be curled in a bit but still bright green. And the plant seems to be stunted... the others are taking to the rain like weeds and have grown a lot in the past two days these two plants with these spots seem to be stuck.
It's only on the top of the plant leaves and stem. But not on the bottom. That looks healthy.

I live in central florida.

Any idea on what it is, and if so, is it treatable with organic or home remedies? Thank You any help is appreciated.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

if you are having a problem with this and are concerned i think i would dig the plants up and move/remove them as a precaution. though i probably wouldn't try keeping any seeds from the fruit if you let them get to that stage.

this sounds like what you have-Septoria Leaf Spot-which tends to be in more humid climates where you're at. http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Tomato_Septoria.htm

 

[catjac1975]

Look closely at the leaves.Am I seeing aphids? I can'y quite see. It rather looks like bite marks on the stem.Break off the sod looking stem an see if you find any more.

 

[so lucky]

You might try removing the affected branches, then see if it occurs on any more. If it does, you will probably want to remove the plant.

 

[897tgigvib]

Ya know, those marks on the stem look like simple rubbing marks from the cage is all.

But that top apical part, the tip growing part of that stem worries me. Yea, look mighty close. Do you see any bugs in there? Get a magnifying glass, and maybe a 12 year old with sharp eyes. You have to admit it is growing like aphids have been there. Aphids often come with ants nearby. Do you have any ants on the ground or around that plant?

Whiteflies can do a similar thing, but not as often. Do you have any sudden flocks of tiny gnats suddenly fly up when you move the plants? They would be pure white and small gnat sized. Whiteflies look for all the world like ultraminiature fighter jets! Mini F-16's.

I have a hard time knowing if there are any spider mites that do much infesting when conditions are moist, but just in case, check for really small spider webs in there.

=====

And then, there is what I was reading about going on worldwide in the tropics, especially where Cacao, Chocolate, is grown. A virus called Witches Broom seems to be the most recent pathogen spreading up from the tropical regions. Look closely and see if you have a lot of stem growth suddenly starting.

It does not look like Early Blight, at least not yet. Is your tomato variety here maybe a variety that is very tolerant of it? I could visualize a variety being tolerant of blight and not having leaves just die all of a sudden.

I just don't know. Try a set of google searches. Maybe florida or georgia university sites may have some info, or uc davis or cornell.

 

[arienwolf]

Actually About the Gnats, I haven't seen them on my tomato plants (and I do go out there a lot because it's doing so darn well this yr. I might actually get something ) I go out there and lightly spank them at the base. Anyway, They haven't been around the tomatoes but by my chicken pen which is 15 feet away from the garden there has been a huge SWARM flying about, I didn't notice them and walked right into it a few days ago.

I took my 7 year old nephew in there looking for bugs after I found the two tomato plants. The rest of them look good and healthy but these two look worse today. I'd hate to pull 'em up because they have fruit already on them. Seems to be a beefsteak and a cherry tomato that are inflicted with this. I took more pictures because today it does look like the leaves are dying from the edges in. Rolling up. Only seems to be the outer limb leaves, the top still looks stunted.

I checked to see if maybe I was jumping the gun and it was Just Cage rub but the One plant Ive been taking pictures of, the stunted growth is inbetween the 1st tier and 2nd tier. And the other is on twine being trained.

Here Are the pictures of today. I will pull them up if its the best course of action, but I would still like to treat the others in the group as a preventative.

By the way Thank You so much for all the tips, clues, and information. And be sure That each one of them is being heard and investigated. For the sake of my garden and sanity.

 

[arienwolf]

If anything this will be a learning lesson.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Boy i dont like the look of those leaves at all. Not sure what it is, but i would get every affected piece of those plants out of your garden right now. Cut the bad pieces out, burn or send them to the dump, wash your pruners. If you see any bit of it starting again on the plants after this, pull the plants out. Sucks that they have fruit on them, and i can understand not wanting to loose your tomatoes, but it would be worse if this is something contagious and all your plants become infected. Good luck!!

 

[897tgigvib]

You really get me googling.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable/tomato-problem-solver/leaves/

I typed in the box on google...

tomato diseases

Then I looked at one site that seemed good, but it did not seem complete or well made, so I looked at another site, this one above.

It does look something like that bacterial speck but there is not so much yellow halo surrounding each speck as the photo. It does not look too much like bacterial spot because you are not getting holes.

But you should go ahead and look through the photos on these sites to make a closer comparison.

=====

I notice that for a lot of the diseases the common controls are the same.

Crop rotation
General soil, plant, and seed sanitation practices. (I just try to be neat).
They often suggest copper based solutions
Varieties that are resistant, tolerant, or immune, especially if it has appeared in your garden before.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This one from Cornell looked pretty good. I didnt see the Aggie one. A&M often has some good stuff.

Ive scrolled through this link looking for something similar. Unfortunately I started at the bottom so they are backwards. You might want to look through and see if you can maybe narrow it down.

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/DiagnosticKeys/TomLeaf/TomLeafKey.html

Iron deficiency, glyphosate, tomato big bud, white fly, Tomato planta macho, tomato bunchy top, tomato apical stunt, leafroll, tobacco mosaic, cucumber mosaic, spotted wilt virus.

Those white flies Marshall mentioned are not the gnats you see around the chickens. They are really white and swarm off the plant when you shake it a little. If you see them once youll recognize them. They suck the juices right out. They are cruel nasty things with no socially redeeming values.

My thoughts when I saw that was that something had sucked the plant right where that stuff showed up and infected it. Stink bug maybe? Even if I couldnt identify it, as a minimum Id cut out the bad part and dispose of it well away from the garden or compost. Like put it in a garbage bag and send it to the dump. And clean whatever you cut it with in rubbing alcohol before you use it again. Sanitize, not just wash.

And look at the inside of the stem when you cut it. If it looks funny, really drastic measures are called for.