Please help! What is wrong with my potatoes and tomatoes?? (PICS)

14 years ago

Please help! My potato and tomato plants are suddenly looking really pathetic, and it's only the beginning of the season.

It started about 2 weeks ago with my red potato plant. Up until then, all my potato plants were looking gorgeous and healthy. But then the red one started to look a little droopy. This has progressed to yellow and brown leaves and VERY droopy looking. Now I'm worried because it seems to be spreading to my other potato plants... they are getting brown.

Is this some kind of disease? Is there anything I can do to keep it from getting worse??

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The one in the lower left corner is the red potato - which has had the problem for 2 weeks

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Closer look at the red potatoes

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Good example of the leaf problem on my Yukon Gold potatoes

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Leaf problem on my Yukon Gold potatoes

I have noticed similar leaf problems with a few of my tomato plants (which are in containers about 15 feet away from the potatoes):

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I only planted this tomato 2 weeks ago!

I hope this is a problem that someone can recognize. Could they be related?

Possible clues:

I live in zone 9. The weather has been pretty normal - not overly hot except for one weekend 2 weeks ago.
Everything is on an automatic drip system... we were watering once every 2 days for a while, but when the potato plant started to look bad I shut those sprinklers off thinking they might be over-watered, and have been hand watering less frequently since then. However this did not seem to make a difference.
I have noticed a lot of cucumber beetles in the garden recently. They are chewing holes in many of my plants, especially a sunflower (do those attract cucmber beetles?), they are also on my green beans, tomatoes and I've spotted them on the potatoes. Could they be causing the leaves to brown? I've tried spraying them with insecticidal soap of the last couple of days, not sure if that's helping.
I am very experienced with growing tomatoes in containers - this brown leaf thing is a first for me (at least in May).
I am a complete newbie at growing potatoes. I was so excited because they seemed to be doing SO GREAT until a couple of weeks ago!

Please please please tell me what I should do! I don't want to lose my potatoes and tomatoes at the start of the season! I was randomly wide awake at 2:30am this morning, fretting over my poor veggie garden.

Thank you!!

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Comments (5)

shot
14 years ago
Might be tomato wilt. Some of our plants are getting it. Don't know a cure.

Shot
ajpa
14 years ago
Maybe one of these will help?
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/DiagnosticKeys/TomLeaf/TomLeafKey.html
http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/pathology/pepper.html

I'm guessing bacteria or fungus.
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I cut through the black discoloration in the worst looking stem, the inside was green (looked normal). It looks like the black does not go all the way though. Right after I planted out we had a few foggy damp mornings, cooler but not cold by any means. The spots showed up right after that. So far it hasn't spread to any new plants other than the ones it first showed up on. I mulched them with straw right after planting but probably need to add some more. I'm trying to decide if it would be best to just pull the bad plants up and start over while I still can. I hate to do it, since these were heirlooms I special ordered and I probably won't be able to find more of those particular varieties. I only planted one of each variety - I wanted to try as many as possible! I really hope it's not something that's in my soil now that would infect the new plants if I do replace them. I sprayed with Daconil right after the sports showed up (too late for the ones that already had it I think). Maybe that kept it from spreading? I am going to try the copper spray tomorrow.
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Ok, this is just a semi-educated guess because, honestly I can't see the problem all that well in the photos even when I pull them up and magnify them - there just isn't enough detail or contrast with the background. That said, what I CAN see appears to be located at the base of the new leaf growth, correct? That spells micro-nutrient deficiencies - possibly boron and/or zinc as both cause yellow-brown damage at the leaf stem joint. Unfortunately, you should not attempt to correct either without first getting a soil test done. Is it possible that you applied a lot of lime to the soil this spring before planting? If so, then the most likely problem would be a boron absorption problem as lime interferes with boron uptake. That problem will resolve itself as the plant adapts and matures. Now why it would affect only this one variety I can't say except that these are romas so determinates so further along in growth cycle than indeterminate varieties. If they were mine, I would give them a good dose of fish oil emulsion because it is micro-nutrient rich. It can't hurt and should help. The plants also show severe leaf roll which is normally indicative of inconsistent moisture problems. How do you water? Soaker hose or drip irrigation? But I have to say - and please don't be offended - that like city_tomato noted, your photos do your soil no favors at all. ;) Same with me - pics of me don't do me any favors either. I can only hope your soil looks much better in person than it does in its photos. ;) And I'm very relieved to hear that it has been so productive for you in the past because my first reaction was the same - Good Heavens! what are they growing in and how have they survived? The photo "looks like" soil badly in need of organic matter amending, moisture (why all the dry cracks), and plants sorely in need of some nice heavy mulching. Have you ever had a soil test done? Might be worth considering if for no other reason than all the salts that would have built up over the years from all the pasture manure and it would let you know which micro-nutrients might be lacking. Hope you have a good gardening year. Dave
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Hi, containers need constant light watering as opposed to when planting in the ground where the watering is done deeply. Try picking up a container and see if it's really heavy. Water weighs around eight pounds per gallon. If a ten gallon pot feels like seventy or so pounds then yeah, too much water. Stick you forefinger into the soil and see how damp the soil is up to your second knuckle. If wet, not very slightly damp, then - too much water. Next time you do need water, add a little epsom salt to the mix - magnesium - and that will help with the greening. Figure at the rate of one tablespoon per gallon water. Another thing, nitrogen travels easily through soil and you may be washing it right out. Usually when a tomato puts out fruit it no longer needs fertilizing so don't go heavy. Hope this helps and makes sense too. Best of luck.
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tiny1
14 years ago
I am not a container gardener so if you want, you can tell me to hush and mind my own business. However, I know for a fact that in the conventional garden, you should not grow potatoes and tomatoes near each other due to the chance of "early blight". Both veggies(or fruit) are susceptible to it and I hope you can find a way to correct it, as I have never encountered the problem.
thefarmguy
14 years ago
gee looks like early blight to me on those spuds, my experience is no amount of copper sulfate or other nasty chemicals will help the spuds now. we get this problem here on the wet coast and planting very early and harvest early is the best strategy,,,,, as for the tomatoes, they have to be kept out of the rain here, we have lots of heat units but we have to keep those tomato leaves dry. my guess is the tomato plants will out grow this as your summer arrives, i often snip off and destroy infected leaves, ofcourse some varieties have more resistance,,,, if your spuds die down, enjoy those early nugget potatoes, mmmmmmm
jean001
14 years ago
Not tomato blight, either early or late.

Looks more like environmental stress to me.

Consider any or all of these: heat, including reflected heat from the wall behind the bucket; excessively bright sunlight; ran short of water, even though very briefly; and/or roots heating up excessively.

Please help! What is wrong with my potatoes and tomatoes?? (PICS)

Comments (5)

shot

ajpa

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