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duckflatgarden

Tomato disease - leaves curl and whither, yellow and brown spots

duckflatgarden
15 years ago

In search of someone to identify our tomato problem and how to deal with it, we came upon this site. Hopefully someone who has knowledge here will be able to help us.

To begin with, we had trouble with a similar-looking tomato disease last year, which we THOUGHT was leaf hopper/curly top because the plants began to curl and yellow and die rapidly, and spread to most of our other vegetables (bush beans, peppers, potatoes). We ended up uprooting all our plants and lost out on having tomatoes. We hope we don't have to do that again!

This spring we started a new garden bed with imported soil from a nursery. One month ago we set out our home-started tomato plants (Caspian Pink, Baby Girl, Souix, Honey Bunch Grape, Dr. Wyches Yellow, and Omar's Lebanese) during a warm spell (temp in 80's and 90's) and watered them regularly (by bucket) during that time. The weather cooled the next week and has continued to be cool (down into the mid 40's and up into the 60's with a few sunny 70's). They seemed to establish well and were growing beautifully and starting to flower when some tell-tale symptoms have appeared.

SYMPTOMS: The first sign has been leaves curling up while still green (with some branches also wilting) on both lower and upper areas of plant. Next, there is some yellowing and/or brown speckles on lower leaves particularly, followed by a withering/drying up of leaflets on the end of leaves. (Please see photos)

Some info that might help with the diagnosis: We first started noticing some leaf curling the beginning of June and used Pyola spray (natural insecticide), thinking it might be the leaf hopper again. I sprayed a second time, about a week later, but it has progressively gotten worse. Two days ago my husband and I removed all the dying/diseased lower leaves, including all that touched the ground, in hopes that contamination would be adverted. Yesterday my daughter took the pictures, so you can see the early stages of what's still going on. Is this a fungal disease, something spread by insects, or something enviromental? We would like to keep our garden organic and not use any synthetic pesticides, etc.

We would appreciate very much if you could help us know what it is and what can be done!

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