Here is a closer shot.

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If you've got a cheap rifle scope you don't care about, you can take the eye piece off, flip it around and have a very powerful magnifier.

Do they move? Do they come off? What took out the chunk on the right side?

Beautiful photos and sprouts. Hope you get em cleaned up.

Dave,

nope, they don't move at all. To me they look like little black heads, like they might pop if you squeezed them. I can't rub them off. They appear to mostly be right at the pores that those little white hairs come out of, except they aren't on the stem.

I really wish someone could chime in that knew. Carolyn, where are you? (sigh)

I've looked at most of all the tomato disease photos I could find, and don't see anything similiar. Only close thing I could find is maybe septoria. But that looks even different, usually with gray rings and dying leaves. No plants have died, though some appear slightly curled.

I really wish someone could chime in that knew. Carolyn, where are you? (sigh)

*****

I'm right here but I don't have a half clue ( see below) as to what it might be. I've never seen pictures like that in any of the tomato disease books I have and I've never seen anyone else post a picture like that and I've never experienced anything like that.

it isn't Septoria or anything like that.

Closest I can come is maybe gnats that got trapped in the hairs of the leaves and died there, may their souls rest in peace. LOL Actually I'm half way serious b'c the initial seedlings were not affected, you are growing them inside, gnats can be inside and so there you go. ( smile)

Scrape off a few and crush them and see if their guts spill out. Sigh. But get some fresh ones so the guts are still juicy. Double Sigh.

Carolyn, who suggests that you could target an unaffected leaf and position yourself in front of it and stay there to see what happens, no matter how long it takes. Do you have a day job? LOL

Carolyn, anyone tell you your nuts? :) You think those pics were weird, check out this one:

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Look at those little crystals. How odd is that? Looks like someone dumped salt on them. I've only been bottom feeding, and haven't noticed a single bug. Some leaves are a bit curled, but nothing totally worrysome:

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And there is some funny color in some of the cotyledon leaves:

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These pics help you at all with your diagnosis, Dr? :)

And I do have a day job, but I have to stay home today and take care of my sick babies, you know? :) Only one seedling not affected, and it was a store bought SS 100.

chris

My seedlings are doing THE SAME THING exacltly. Mine are a little older and the leaves have started to yellow. Not very vigorous. I have noticed springtails and the same greening of the surface of the soil. I have been told that condition is due to too much moisture. BUT- haven't been able to cure them. I did spray them with Neem and it seems to be helping slowly but surely.

Thanks for the input lalameija, keep me posted on how it works out. I went ahead and hit them with a little neem also. I also watered them with a very dilute fish emulsion. I'm going to transplant them into larger containers in a few days, so hopefully they will hold up. I'll keep you posted on their progress.

chris

Carolyn, anyone tell you your nuts? :)

**** Actually no, no one has although I've been called several other things besides my name, which is Carolyn, not Dr. Carolyn.( wink)

So to reward you with being the first to call me nuts I'd be pleased to send you two of my newest varieties not yet in circulation commercially, Anna Maria's Heart and Danko. The first is a lovely pink heart and the second is a medium red heart, both with wonderful taste, at least to my taste buds as well as the person who grew the plants for me ( and kept some at home) and the person who does my seed production for me now that I can't do that stuff anymore.

Just send me your home address and the seeds are yours. ( smile)

I spent some time looking at your photos and I'm beginning to think that the black dots are where the leaf hairs grow out of and if you look at the fringes of the leaves you'll see what you're calling crystals are really small white globes and they appear on the ends of the hairs that are forming.

At least that's what I see.

I'm not accustomed to being so up and close and personal with the enlarged leaf surface so it took some time to try and figure it out. The magnification is so large that I never would have seen such microstructure on my own with the unaided eye.

Summary: I don't see a problem.

Carolyn

Carolyn

Cool.

Thank you Carolyn for your input, my fears have been put at bay for now, if only I can keep them there until I get these buggers in the ground. And that's exactly what it looks like to me, too. The black dots are where the little hairs come out. Maybe it is just some odd water/heat/cold/light combo that is causing them to be more pronounced? And thanks for your generosity, I'd love to try something like that!

Perhaps i'm a little too paranoid about my gals, but it's scarry to think that I could lose my first heirloom crop before I even get them in the ground. I'd rather feed them to the local critters here, then lose them to some seedling disease/fungus.

chris

This is just an update to my original thread. I said I would update, so I am :)

Looks like everything is growing just fine. I believe my initial reaction was just a bit of paranoia. The floros have a way of making the smallest things look huge and ugly. I get the same thing in public restrooms when I look in the mirror!

I set my first 7 in the ground the weekend before memorial. Dern rabbits got all but 2 of them. So put some small cages around the rest and planted all 21 the next weekend.

Thought I'd post a few shots of may garden to date. These were just taken this morning. Most tomatoes have been in for 3 weeks now, with the exception of 5 or 6 that I had to replace due to lack of hardening off which caused them to burn beyond recognition.

Varieties from seed:
German Red Strawberry
Black Russian
Pineapple
Wins All
Super Sweet 100

Store Bought Replacements:
Hillbilly
Red Brandywine PL
Early Girl

Red Brandywine PL
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Front 3: RBW left 2, Wins All right one
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Wins All, Peppers in background
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SS 100
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I'm staking most this year, but happened upon some free CRW! Wish I had more now. Maybe next year.