Tomato garden problems - please help identify and treat PICS

13 years ago

Hi,

I'm having a problem with my new tomato garden, and I'm hoping to get some advice on what it is and how to fix it. I can't tell if it's leaf spot or just bad weather conditions (I don't think it's early blight) - after taking pics I'm thinking it's aphids, but I don't know anything about them. So here's some background:

About 10 days ago I planted 4 tomato plants (roma, 2 - sweet 100, mr. stripey) along with 2 cucumber plants and some herbs in a small garden (8x5 feet) on the side of my house. All of the plants looked great, except the basil pot was a little moldy - white spots inside the peat pot, I removed most and planted anyway because the plant looked very healthy - was that a mistake?

The soil is rocky clay, (lots of earthworms) but we amended with composted manure and garden soil and tilled as deeply as we could removing rocks as we went along, and leaving small rocks to "keep the soil aerated / improve drainage".

Our weather has been pretty wet and humid lately. It rains on and off and it's very windy, but humid. Because of this, I've only watered the garden twice: once when I planted, and the second time my hubby misted it (Is it really bad to get the leaves wet?).

A few days ago I noticed small spots on the leaves of one of my tomato plants, I removed the leaf, but the problem is spreading. Also my sweet basil looks horrible compared to a few days ago - wilty and discolored leaves. My cucumber seedlings don't seem to be making any progress either. Here are some pics, please help me figure out how to get my garden healthy again. It's my first garden and I don't want to use anything too harsh because I hope to be eating it's fruits very soon and I also really don't want to kill the earthworms or drive away any other good critters.

All of my tomato plants are about this size, with a similar amount of spots:

A close up of the spotty tomato leaves.

This is the sickly sweet basil plant I mentioned. Could aphids be causing this discoloration and how do I get rid of them?

Anyone have advice on how to get these cucumber seedlings to perk up and start growing? (I'm going to use a trellis of some sort because of space issues - if they survive!)

See the aphid? (I think that's a fat little aphid?) Can they really do this much damage? Will it get worse / should I leave it alone or use something to get rid of them?

___________________V

Comments (4)

homegardenpa
13 years ago
For your tomato, it looks like Flea Beetles, you can actually see one in the bottom-most picture you posted and the damage is typical of them. Treatment for Flea Beetles depends on your personal preference. For the non-organic route, I believe you can use Sevin insecticide - provided they are listed on the bottle, which I believe they are. Organic pesticides, on the other hand, I don't know of any for killing Flea Beetles - I'll defer to those with experience on the matter. I don't use any pesticides really, but if I had them, I'd just squish as many as I could find :)

For your Basil, it kind of looks like it's got sunburn / windburn. Was it hardened off before putting it in full sun?

For the cucumber... I'm guessing it's probably not warm enough yet for it to really take-off growing. It looks fine and pretty much like most of my seedlings. They always start-off slow and then try to conquer the garden in a matter of weeks.

Good luck.
jesslovesreg
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks homegardenpa - the basil very well may have sun/wind burn I know I didn't harden if off before putting it in the ground and it's been super windy lately.
I'm off to squish those critters whatever they are!
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*Homegardenpa, thank you!.. For the opinion, and getting back to the problem at hand :) I didn't think it looked like blight because of the same things, after really checking it out. I really looked good and hard at every disease, and it seemed that my plants were lacking at least 1 major symptom of each. Nothing was adding up perfectly, even though I know there *are* exceptions to anything and everything. I do see where everyone can think blight at first look tho, especially with everyone's varying experiences with it. Have to say, Im sorry to have started an argument, and had no idea the word "organic" would turn out so bad. Im really neither organic or un-organic, but I see everyone's point. When it comes down to comparing to a disease, I really see bacterial canker more than any. The leaves look identical to pics I have seen. Yet again, the stems dont have browning, and when cut, there is no oozing. So this is where im rattled! I do think it is a combo of things at the moment. I guess a beginner's combo of wrong-doings! I uprooted one of the money makers to give a little more room, and have been evenly watering. I took a leaf to the nursery, and he told me it couldn't hurt to just spray a watered down solution of daconil incase it is disease, but just leave them alone other than that. The fact that every container (all 8 of them, spread apart) is showing these same issues, all appearing at the same time, makes me think its got to be a burn bc a disease would take time to spread. Im happy to say, most of them havn't really gotten worse. Not any better, but not spreading. That has to be a good sign, right?
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jimjack
13 years ago
yes i agree totally if you have doubt weather its a bug or desease take your hand and put it under the leaf and the shake it toward your hand and if its bugs then they will fall in you palm but if not then back to drawing board
roper2008
13 years ago
Yes, thats flea beetles. I had flea beetle damage on one of my tomatoes.
Only the bottom leaves. I didn't use any poison. The plant is bigger and
the flea beetles have left it alone. If you do use sevin dust, be sure to
lightly dust the plant, or you can burn it.

Tomato garden problems - please help identify and treat PICS

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homegardenpa

jesslovesreg
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Tomato garden problems - please help identify and treat PICS

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homegardenpa

jesslovesregOriginal Author

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roper2008

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jesslovesreg
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