tomato problem - 3 photos

[jlrbhjmnc]

This is only our second year of growing. We started all the plants from seed. We used several varieties, including Early Girl and Better Boy. You can see the brown leaves. The most constant thing from since the plants really started to grow after transplanting is that yellow color on the stem. The stem gets that color, the leaves die and the stem will just break right off.

We found the caterpillar recently.

Any thoughts from you experienced growers? We have a little fruit, maybe enough to can a few pints, but these plants seem to be finished.

[used2bcool13]

I found his cousins several weeks ago and went out every day for probably a week and either picked caterpillars and then sprayed with some caterpillar killer (sevin). Mine are okay now but those green buggers ate a million leaves.

If all of the branches/leaves are gone then I think your plants are done. I do feel your pain, it is alot of work. Maybe a friend has a plant or two for you?

[Phoebesmum]

I think you have a couple different hings going on here--obviously you have caterpillars chewing on your tomatoes, but I think you also have either blight or a form of wilt virus...the yellow/brown leaves and stems would not be caused by the caterpillars. I am sure someone one here (probably Martin!) will be able to pinpoint the problem more specifically.

Good luck!

[jlrbhjmnc]

used2bcool13 - Well, we have gotten some usable fruit from them, and a lot more than last year, so it's sort of an improvement for us, BUT

Phoebesmum - Eeek! This is what we're afraid of. I do hope someone on HT will recognize the problem, though. We're also trying to contact our county extension office.

Sadly, we put a lot of the prunings into our compost, so it may be useless .

[chickenista]

[QUOTE=jlrbhjmnc
Sadly, we put a lot of the prunings into our compost, so it may be useless .[/QUOTE]

There in lies your problem.
You are just holding it over for next year.
You need to burn it.
And depending how long it was in your compost.. you may need to light that up as well and move your new compost pile to a new location.

[Phoebesmum]

The more I look at your pictures, the more I am willing to put my money on blight..the dark spots on some of the tomatoes look like blight. Probably too late to treat with a fungicide, but next year treat early and often!

[jlrbhjmnc]

chickenista - That's what we're thinking. We worked SO hard on that compost pile. I think once we get a definitive diagnosis I'll post on the Extreme Composting thread to see if we might be able to let it cure an extra year or something... but I expect you are correct, we will need to burn it. Sniff.

[jlrbhjmnc]

Originally Posted by Phoebesmum

The more I look at your pictures, the more I am willing to put my money on blight..the dark spots on some of the tomatoes look like blight. Probably too late to treat with a fungicide, but next year treat early and often!

That's what I've thought it was since we first noticed the yellowing stems and dying leaves - blight.

But as chickenista points out, I think we'll have to ditch our hard-earned compost and what will we do for the soil in the two raised beds where the affected plants are growing?

JUST THOUGHT OF NEW INFO: Two bell pepper plants growing with the tomatoes have not produced fruit yet, but seem healthy so far.

[Phoebesmum]

Originally Posted by jlrbhjmnc

That's what I've thought it was since we first noticed the yellowing stems and dying leaves - blight.

But as chickenista points out, I think we'll have to ditch our hard-earned compost and what will we do for the soil in the two raised beds where the affected plants are growing?

JUST THOUGHT OF NEW INFO: Two bell pepper plants growing with the tomatoes have not produced fruit yet, but seem healthy so far.

Well, yes, there is a good chance that the spores will not be killed from the heat of your compost which is why any time you suspect a virus or fungus, you need to burn/throw away those plants, not put them in the compost. How to salvage, if you even can salvage it, that compost is beyond my knowledge. However, I would make sure you pull up all the plants that are affected, destroy them and then use plastic to solarize the soil in your garden before winter. Then in winter make sure the soil is bare to allow a freeze to reach as deep as possible (there is some evidence that winter kills some/certain spores of late blight. Next spring, you will want to choose resistant varieties and begin treating them with a fungicide as soon as you set them out. Plus you want ot make sure there is good air flow around the tomatoes by removing lower branches. I had late blight last year and none of my plants are showing signs of it this year and this is the process that I used.

As for the peppers not showing signs of problems--you could have pepper varieties that are resistant or the air flow could be better with the peppers. I would probably treat with a fungicide as a precaution at this point.

Good luck!

[jlrbhjmnc]

Thanks, Phoebesmum!

We are learning an annoying lesson about hygiene. I think we can go ahead and put down plastic on one of the beds. Do you use black plastic or clear?

[MELOC]

it would be helpful if you could post a picture of the dying leaves and not the dead ones as it is hard to see what ails them when they are so far gone.

my patch of 4 50 foot rows is looking pretty good so far this year. i have been plagued by either on or more of the following for at least 5 years...late blight, early blight and septoria leaf spot. for those 5 years, i planted in basically the same spot. the previous two years, 09 and 08, i mulched with whatever i could find...oak and maple leaves, straw, grass clippings etc., and i watered as much as i could from either soaker hose or at the base of plants with a hose. my plants really didn't do much better once the infection began.

this year i made a few small changes. i moved the plants a few feet from the last patch. one row may actually be close to where last years patch ended, but they are where i had corn last year. i also didn't plant potatoes this year. for the entire time i had problems, i had been saving and planting my own potatoes. i suspect the potatoes may have been overwintering the late blight right on my back porch!

another factor helping my patch this year is the super dry weather we have had since the beginning of june. i haven't even mulched this year and i only saw a few signs of questionable leaves at the base of the plants...which i removed.

according to what i have read this year, late blight has a very tough time surviving the freezing temps of winter....but it spreads like wild fire when it gets started. i am not sure of how well septoria leaf spot and early blight survive the winter. point being that it is preferable to destroy diseased plants if you cannot compost them hot enough to kill the fungus, but if it is late blight, a cold winter should kill it.

[Phoebesmum]

I used clear plastic to solarize the soil in last year in late summer--black can be used too though...just important to make sure you give it a few weeks to really heat up under there.

[geo in mi]

Your pictures look like the pictures from Cornell, Bacterial Canker http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne..._Bacterial.htm

Or, possibly verticillium wilt
Do some browsing there and see if you concur.

geo

[bee]

Well I think the worm is a tomato fruit worm or possibly an army worm..as far as the disease is concerned, I don't see dead areas on the stems..so I don't think it is late blight..possibly early blight or septoria. Be sure to let us know once you get ahold of the Extension service for a positive ID.

[Backfourty,MI.]

I was thinking late Blight. That's exactly what my plants looked like tworads the end of last growing season & I was sure it was late blight. My tomatoes were rotting on the vines from the top when they were still green.
Thank goodness I got enough fruit before it actually killed all my plants.

Hopefully we won't have the blight here this year. We did have a really cold winter last year so that may help.

One of the blight's is air borne & the other I think but can't rmember which is which?

[bee]

I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I think early blight comes from soil splashed on lower leaves and the late blight comes from airborne spores?? Early blight works from the bottom up the plant. Late blight from wherever it starts and spores are produced and air moves them...

I am fortunate this year, I have a little early blight and some calcium deficency...working on both. Lots of green tomatoes and good top growth!

[jlrbhjmnc]

Originally Posted by geo in mi

Your pictures look like the pictures from Cornell, Bacterial Canker http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne..._Bacterial.htm

Or, possibly verticillium wilt
Do some browsing there and see if you concur.

geo

Thanks for that link - what a useful site! All this input is great!

Some of our fruits, in fact better than 75% have been in good condition (my guesstimate is that the plants produced 1/3 to 1/2 what they might have if healthy), and none of them had the spotty look of the bacterial canker or the mottled look of wilt. The spots are very few, larger and black. I am still leaning toward blight.

[jlrbhjmnc]

bee and Backfourty,MI - The problem started right after transplanting in the spring, as soon as the plants started growing in their new bed, and it was a wet spring. So I continue to lean toward blight, and I will post what information I get from the extension office.

Phoebesmum - Okay! We'll get that bed cleaned out in the next week and lay down clear plastic. That should give us up to eight weeks of hot weather unless we get an unusually rainy period. Should I loosen the soil at all before installing the plastic?

[Phoebesmum]

Originally Posted by jlrbhjmnc

bee and Backfourty,MI - The problem started right after transplanting in the spring, as soon as the plants started growing in their new bed, and it was a wet spring. So I continue to lean toward blight, and I will post what information I get from the extension office.

Phoebesmum - Okay! We'll get that bed cleaned out in the next week and lay down clear plastic. That should give us up to eight weeks of hot weather unless we get an unusually rainy period. Should I loosen the soil at all before installing the plastic?

I did not loosen the soil but I am sure it wouldn't hurt anything if you did. It is very important to remove all debris from the garden surface though. Good luck!

[jlrbhjmnc]

MELOC - We do get below freezing at night for probably twelve weeks here, give or take. Maybe that will help after we've used Phoebesmum's suggestion to "cook" the bed under clear plastic for the rest of the summer.

Turns out we have early blight. The late blight sounds worse!