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Vegetable Gardening

Early blight or Septoria leaf spot?

11 years ago

Help please, I am not sure what is decimating my tomato plants. I have researched it on the internet but I don't know what it is for sure. I would like to treat it organically but from what I read this is really not possible. Any info is greatly appreciated.

Lani

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Comments (12)

lanidell
Original Author
11 years ago
another pic.
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lanidell
Original Author
11 years ago
And another
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Is this early blight on two of my tomato plants?
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Comments (5)
What should I do? Treat with fungicide? Remove leaves? Pull plants? I have 7 other tomato plants, planted at least 3 feet apart. These are two of the biggest. Other veggies are nearby, including peppers, but they aren't susceptible, are they? And how would tomato plants get this? You'll find much more info about this over on the Tomato Forum here linked at the top of this forums front page so I hope you don't mind if I just hit the highlights. Early Blight or, in this case, Septoria Leaf Spot are the 2 most common tomato diseases and both are caused by fungus found in the soil and in the air. They are both so common that the real issue is how to be one of the lucky few who avoid getting them, not how you got them. :) The only way to avoid getting them is to use a regular program of fungicide spraying from the day you plant them outside. As to what to do now, first you immediately strip off any and all affected leaves and dispose of them outside the garden and you continue to do this as the affected leaves develop but no you don't need to pull the plants. They will still produce. Then you begin a regular weekly fungicide spraying program to slow it. Fungicides won't cure it but they can prevent new leaves from becoming infected. Follow the label instructions on which ever fungicide you choose for mixing and application rates. Dave
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"A new tomato grower"? Heh. It's OK, you can say it was me! Thanks for the tips. I guess most of my plants are indeterminate -- even the cherry tomato plant. I still don't know what I'm going to do about support. There's so many options and I really don't know what's going to work best. Hey, I was just checking my radar and I thought of you guys near the Red River. It looks like NE OK is going to get the brunt of this latest "rain event" as they call it on the evening news. Rain event. I love their terminology. Can I buy tickets to a rain event? Well, I hope you guys are OK. I know some of you had muddy gardens before this rain started falling, but as for me, it'll help my latest transplants get "watered in."
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I told myself I was going to go 100% organic this year....until this crud started showing up. It just seemed to come out of nowhere like you said and started spreading pretty rapidly. I finally broke down and sprayed them with Ortho Garden Disease Control several days ago which put a halt to the spread. With rain on the way, I'm sure I'll be spraying again soon. My tomatoes look so good this year with what should be very good yields - I just couldn't sit by and watch them deteriorate. I'm growing Anna Russian, Better Boy, Brandywine, Brandywine (Sudduth Strain), Cherokee Purple, Gardener's Delight, Marianna's Peace, Opalka, Sioux, and Stump of the World. All are affected with Stump of the World getting it the worst, but the spray has helped tremendously, and everything is growing without any apparent adverse impact.
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Thanks guys, I just found some "tomato dust" out in the barn, a copper based product that maybe I can use until I get into town again. Not too many tears are going to be shed over losing a couple of P.O.s, I think I have 11 of them planted, and maybe I can head this off at the pass for the other varieties with some copper spray. Any recommendations on the brand? Also, should I pull these plants or leave them to die a slow natural death? I was expecting a fairly high mortality rate being my first year growing so if I pull these, I will have approx 70 tomato plants left. LOL, hopefully, knowing my weakness can become my greatest strength (in the garden, anyhow)!
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lanidell
Original Author
11 years ago
And the last one.
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springtogarden
11 years ago
Your leaves look identical to mine. After spending hours studying pictures I think it is safe to say we both have Tomato Septoria Leaf Spot. The website below has great pictures. What cinches it for me is the description of the circles. Our circles are pretty tiny and with early blight it seems they would be bigger. I am new to gardening so I will have to learn how to take care of this. Really bummed :(.

http://organicgardening.about.com/b/2009/07/05/diagnosing-tomato-diseases-is-it-early-blight-late-blight-or-septoria.htm
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springtogarden
11 years ago
Looks like there is no way to treat this without chemicals. I am completely out of luck as I am in an organic community garden, near water and am allowed only a short list of acceptable organic products none of which treat this problem. What is weird is that my tomato plants look great and robust. Just a few bottom branches have this.

http://www.growgardentomatoes.com/septoria-leaf-spot.html
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elisa_z5
11 years ago
Looks like there are some organic controls -- some suggestions here on the site linked below. You can cut off and destroy the bottom branches and sounds like all will be okay -- I hope so.

Here is a link that might be useful: from missouri botanical garden -- septoria leaf spot of tomato
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springtogarden
11 years ago
Oh Elisa I hope so too :(. Never had a fungus problem before. FIrst time in a community garden so I am learning a lot. I will check those links out. Thanks so much!
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springtogarden
11 years ago
Oops, double post. Edited it out :).

This post was edited by gardengal13 on Wed, Jul 17, 13 at 20:35
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elisa_z5
11 years ago
garden gal and lanidel - I have two sprays that should help with this and they are both organic, OMRI listed. One is Copper soap fungicide, and the other is Serenade Garden, (Septoria is one of the things it says it works on )

You cut off the affected leaves first, then spray the healthy ones to prevent the spread.

I wish you both good tomatoes!
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elisa_z5
11 years ago
Also, there is an excellent thread on the Growing Tomatoes forum about organic controls for Septoria.
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digdirt2
11 years ago
Your plants have Bacterial Speck IMO but the treatment for all the leaf diseases is the same - strip off affected foliage ASAP, cease any overhead watering/sprinkling, and spray with fungicides on a regular basis to slow the progression of the disease till you can get a harvest. There is no "cure".

And yes there are a number of ORMI approved fungicides available although their benefits are questionable when compared to chemical controls.

As already mentioned you can learn much more about all this over on the forum for growing tomatoes here.

Dave
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springtogarden
11 years ago
Thanks for the tips! I will head over there. Now I am not sure which one I have. I swore I had septoria leaf but don't have a pic to post. Removed and disposed of all affected leaves and I am going to start spraying the only acceptable fungicide by my picky community and hope for the best :).
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