I hate to say this but it sure looks like the blight,and take it from me I lost all my plant last year.This year I changed the soil,good potting mix,tomatotone, even bought Earthboxes I did everything but change my grower,?? and the blight is starting to show up again.. it is a curse!!! good luck

Hello,

Here is a link that nkessler0709 boardie sent to me that shows great pictures of diseases. There is one that looks just like your leaves.

Figure 17. Marginal browning of leaves caused by
bacterial canker

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/publications/pm1266.pdf

Hope it helps, it helped me identify what I had.

Kendra

I hate to agree with brewyc but it looks like blight to me too. Google images of the tomato blight and you can compare. Good Luck, the blight is really bad

Which blight?

There's Early and Late...

Anney, it looks like Early Blight to me.

Nkessler, I noticed that you said you will never use Sevin Dust again. Why? The problem with your plants was not caused by it.

I am the third generation of gardeners in my family to use Sevin Dust on the tomatoes. Both sets of grandparents used it until they passed away at ages of 70 to 95 years old. My parents (both over 70) have used it all their lives. At 50, I have used it all my life. Each of us have used Sevin Dust with good pest control and no problems to our tomatoes or to us!

So, again I ask... why are you putting the kibosh on the Sevin Dust?

I don't know why Nkessler doesn't want to use Sevin, but many of us on GardenWeb know that it kills all kinds of insects indiscriminately, including honey bees and beneficial insects.

I keep citing the same information (in case you've seen it before), but 95% of the insects in your garden are benign and beneficial insects. VERY few are pests, and of the pests, very few are destructive enough to worry about. When nothing else will do, some gardeners will reluctantly use Sevin, but extremely carefully. It pollutes the water supply, poisons fish, birds, and even mammals including human beings in great enough quantities.

This site lists some of the problems with Sevin, which you may or may not credit, though I don't know that any of the research has been discredited by the scientific community.

@nkessler those look like old leaves and that's just what they do. Just cut them off if you don't like the looks. They are really no longer useful.

@beebiz Because it kills all the beneficials and pollutes our water supply. It's hurting you, your descendents and us whether you choose to believe it or not.

Bee biz - you will find any number of folks here who have long ago put the "kibosh" on Sevin Dust and for several very good reasons. Some research into Carbaryl will serve you well and a search of the name here will pull up many discussions on it if you are interested.

I can't speak for the OP but for me personally it is because it kills far more beneficial insects - especially whole hives of bees and the lady bugs and lace wings - than it does any bad guys. But if you feel you must use Sevin rather than any of the other products available then consider the liquid spray instead of the dust as it is marginally less lethal to beneficial insects.

nkessler - *There are 3 to 4 plants per huge 40gal(ish) Rubbermaid tub money maker

That is your problem IMO. What you are seeing is marginal leaf death due to rootlet death and it is because your plants are heavily over-crowded in the container. They are likely already, or close to being, rootbound. 2 of those listed plants per container would be the max possible and then only with either self-watering at at least very regular watering and weekly feeding.

Better yet, check out the many discussions here called 'Earthtainers' for pics and great discussions on how to successfully grow tomato plants (2 max.) in the large Rubbermaid containers.

Dave

Marginal dieback such as in your leaves is consistent with drought stress. As was said, you have a lot of plant in a small container.

Try a fertilizer higher in phosphate this should eliminate the purple you are seeing. Also drench your soil often when fertilizing because it looks like you are getting too much salt build up, causing the leaf edges to burn. Perhaps this plant got more salt build up than the others explaining why "just this plant".

@preston- the test showed i had very high levels of phosphate and potassium. not sure i should add more? salt build up may be a different story tho. im looking into it.

@jean001- possibly, but the soil stays very moist. i actually thought i watered too much! maybe im not :)

@dig dirt- thanks for the info. it makes sense..i just hadn't thought about it since i was told i could put one plant into a 5 gal bucket. my thinking was...40 gal=8 5 gal buckets. so surely 3 or 4 plants would be fine! lol. man, hindsights 20/20.

@beebiz- i have family that have used sevin for a couple generations too, with great results. thats why i chose it. but after all this, i did the research, and found out about it killing *everything* good or bad. while i hate insects of any kind, i know some are beneficial, and if i can do it organically, i would rather. i know it works, just maybe too well!

About the blight...the description and pictures i found just didn't match "all the way". It very well could be, but i didn't want to just guess at something without a second or third opinion...which i have :) Should I just be trying a fungiside? removing one per container, water it a little more, and get better fertilizer? lol sounds like a winning idea to me! :)

I've tried the "organic" insect control route before. I found it to be extremely labor intensive and with a small percentage of the results that the Sevin Dust gives. It is probably true that only 5% of the garden insects cause 100% of the damage. But, that 5% can destroy a crop before you can bat your eyes!! I know... been there and done that!!

I believe very little of the so called "research" that I read concerning anything to do with gardening. There is too much money that is used too often to skew the results... if you can find results that weren't achieved by those using their own bias to "set things up" so they get the "proof" they desire!!

I will not do the work required to have a garden, then simply stand by as insects destroy it!! I don't have the time to inspect each and every leaf or to squash every bug between my thumb and forefinger!! So, I'll use the Sevin Dust!!

By the way, between the time they get their driver's license and the time they are no longer licensed drivers, do you know what percentage of people in the United States will be involved in a car crash in which they will be permanently disabled or die? I'd wager the number is higher than the percentage of people who will be permanently disabled or die from the use of Sevin Dust!!! Yet, you continue to drive... don't you?????

Guys... put things in perspective... gees!!!!

beebiz

I'm glad you aren't my neighbor, that's all I can say. Sevin is not good for life, and if you're too lazy to take care of your garden as the rest of us do and would rather kill every insect that comes into your garden, that doesn't say much for your gardening skills OR your concern for the rest of us.

"I believe very little of the so called "research" that I read concerning anything to do with gardening."

Ignorance is bliss right?

Beebiz - you are the one who asked. Sorry you don't care for the responses you got.

You are apparently assuming we are all "organic" gardeners and that isn't so. In fact the replies were directed specifically at Sevin Dust, not organics or synthetics. None of us even mentioned the term "organic" except for the last reply from the OP.

But there are many less-toxic than Sevin insecticides available, both organics and non-organics. Not to mention that Sevin isn't even effective on the worst garden pests due to developed immunity, so perhaps you need to expand your gardening horizon a bit more.

Dave

Ever since I married my husband our backyard has been insecticide and herbicide free. This is the third year.
My husband commented yesterday that he's never seen so many bees, bumblebees, dragon flies and even birds. The yard is filled with life and very little to no insect damage in the garden. Less cockroaches too. Maybe thanks to all the birds?
Saw a dog with seven dust poisoning. It wasn't pretty.
The only "cide" that I use is BT dust and serenade.

I'm avoiding the whole organic / non-organic debate and plan to just address the issues I see in the pictures.

Things I'm fairly sure of:
1.) It is not any form of blight (late or early). There are no dark colored lesions on the stem (late blight) and there is no yellowing on any of the leaves - also no bulls eye type marks (early blight).
2.) It is likely one of these things: drought stress, fertilizer burn, or insecticide burn. More than likely it is the fertilizer or the insecticide and I'm thinking it's the fertilizer - It could be any of those things though so keep an eye on them.

Also, I just want to mention that I feel that a weekly feeding of NPK of 24-8-16 is way too high for a container tomato at full strength, imo. I use weekly feedings of 3-4-1 fert and alternate with a 2-4-6 fert for my container plants and I have 6 foot plants with fruit that has started blushing today (finally *cheers*). Occasionally, during periods of high heat and extra watering, I'll add a shot almost pure nitrogen (9-0-0) since that can leach out of the soil easily with heavy watering. I'd suggest holding off on fertilizing for a little bit and then cut back on the fertilizer and use it as 1/2 to 1/4 strength max.

*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?

nk said re my comment about potential drought stress: "@jean001- possibly, but the soil stays very moist. i actually thought i watered too much! maybe im not :)"

Soil -- what did you use to fill the pots?

Root damage is one reason the potting mix or soil stays very moist. And that's another reason for drought-stress.

I wonder if that could be that you water when the top surface is dry. Could be too moist. Stick your finger in it. Should be dry knuckle-deep or so -- just how deep depends upon the size & depth of the container.

I still say it's much more likely to be cultural/environmental glitch rather than a disease.