Leaf mold? Blight? Aphids? All of them? Help!

9 years ago

Hi, everyone,
This is my first year in a house and thus my very first garden. I started late in the season, so mostly bought my plants. My patio tomato and sweet hot pepper plants looked especially happy (or so I thought) when I planted them but now something is clearly going very wrong, and I'm so clueless. I've googled until my eyes crossed and still feel too hesitant to name what on earth is afflicting them.

The patio tomato has mottled purply brown splotches all over. I thought it was limited to one branch but it seems to be spreading. I plucked the worst ones off. You can see the pics below. My best googled guess was leaf mold, and if so, how do I treat it?
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And then I thought it was just the patio tomato, but the pepper plants looks ill as well. This wee pepper is completely covered in sooty mold.
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And the pepper's leaves have a few white and brown spots.
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I haven't seen bugs camping out on the plants. The undersides of the leaves do have some detritus that I assumed was dirt from a rather messy planting process but now I wonder if it's bug-related.

Any ideas on what issue (or multiple issues) I have? And can I treat it? I'm sorry if this is all rudimentary--Gardening 101 if you will--but Gardenweb has always been so much more helpful to me than Googling! Thanks so much!

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Comments (3)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
could we see pix of the whole plants.. and the general set up ...

stressed plants get weird leaves ... but.. treating the leaves.. will not reduce the stress .. a vicious circle ..

so i am thinking.. being your first garden and all .. that if we address your plant 'culture' ... and then reduce the stress ... THEN we can deal with the leaf problem ...

also, i am a bit confused... is your patio T on the patio.. or in the ground???

you said you got a late start ... how late... i wonder how much of this might be transplant shock ..???

ken
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lyssalea
Original Author
9 years ago
Hi, Ken,

I'll try and take a picture this afternoon and upload it but I'm headed out of town until Sunday so I may not have the opportunity.

The patio tomato is, indeed, in the ground. I know--silly probably. I have a 4x4 raised bed that's very loosely based on Square Foot Gardening. Mostly, I just used the 1x1 pattern to help me with plant spacing guidelines 'cause I clearly need Gardening for Dummies. I cut out all the sod and dug down about 8 -10 inches. Then I have bricks stacked to create an edge that extends above ground level about 6". i filled with a mixture of various compost (mushroom and manure primarily), vermiculite, peat moss, and some of the existing soil. The plants literally just went in the ground on June 17th. (I know, I know... We had a crazy cold spring here that didn't ease up until the beginning of June and then I dragged my feet.)

I wasn't going to plant a garden at all until a coworker gave me seeds mid-May. I figured, "What the heck. So it's a late start. If it bomb, it bombs--at least I'll have learned something and can try again next year. But then the seeds sprouted and I got all excited about a raised bed, and I bought plants and ... well, now I'm invested, lol. i can accept failure--to a degree, I'm expecting it given my abysmal track record with houseplants, but darnit, it's too soon!

Sigh. If "stressed" plants get weird leaves, my plants may be in for a rough time! i need gardening training wheels.
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lyssalea
Original Author
9 years ago
Oh, and I should add that I did last night spray the leaves directly with a mist of water to knock debris of the undersides of leaves (wanted to see if it came back or if it was simply dirt as I'd thought). Other than that, I've been watering from below the foliage whenever the soil seems dry an inch or so down. The watering schedule has been erratic depending on rainfall.
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Leaf mold? Blight? Aphids? All of them? Help!

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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Leaf mold? Blight? Aphids? All of them? Help!

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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