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Growing Tomatoes

Early blight or leaf spot? (Or does it even matter?)

Sandpaper Tongue

9 years ago

Found a few leaves near the bottom looking like this when I went to check on them this morning. It is a yellow pear that is over 5 feet tall and having been growing and fruiting well. It looks more like early blight to me but it seems to be mainly on small, young leaves instead of the older ones. I removed them immediately. Do you think I can get away with not spraying and just removing affected leaves? How serious is it? I have a layer of mulch but it is getting thin and I need to add more.

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Comments (8)

edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
9 years ago
Definitely spray as soon as possible.

Things are wet and soupy and rainy here. As soon as things dry out a bit, I'll begin some preemptive spraying of my own.

This post was edited by edweather on Wed, Jun 25, 14 at 15:52
centexan254 zone 8 Temple, Tx
9 years ago
You can spray a fungicide if you wish to. Do remove the bad looking foliage. I have a yellow pear that has had a couple of branches that look like that for the whole season.(Note not the same couple of branches. I cut the bad looking ones off when I can.) It seems the plant is oblivious to it though. It is still setting fruit in the sweltering humid weather here. It is also growing quite large as well. It seems the heat has made it take off for growth.

Oh and I have used neem oil twice. I have some daconil, and will be using it to slow things down once it will stop raining every other few hours here. Though I am not complaining about the rain. We have had a bad drought going for a while. Though we have been getting rain it seems to be very little, and far apart when it happens.
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I told myself I was going to go 100% organic this year....until this crud started showing up. It just seemed to come out of nowhere like you said and started spreading pretty rapidly. I finally broke down and sprayed them with Ortho Garden Disease Control several days ago which put a halt to the spread. With rain on the way, I'm sure I'll be spraying again soon. My tomatoes look so good this year with what should be very good yields - I just couldn't sit by and watch them deteriorate. I'm growing Anna Russian, Better Boy, Brandywine, Brandywine (Sudduth Strain), Cherokee Purple, Gardener's Delight, Marianna's Peace, Opalka, Sioux, and Stump of the World. All are affected with Stump of the World getting it the worst, but the spray has helped tremendously, and everything is growing without any apparent adverse impact.
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Dave, I googled this disease and you're right. It looks exactly like that. Going to get some fungicide today. Thanks!
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digdirt2
9 years ago
does it even matter

In some ways, no. Regardless of which disease it may be the treatment is the same - strip off affected foliage and spray with your choice of fungicides.

And once plants have reached a certain age and level of productivity it is often easier, cheaper, and more effective to just pull and replace them rather than try to nurse them along since even the strongest fungicides are only controls, not preventatives.

So whether to spray or not boils down to your choice. It won't save the plant but it can buy you some time.

Since it is a Yellow Pear - the brunt of so many negative critiques - only you can decide if it is worth it. :)

Dave
Sandpaper Tongue
Original Author
9 years ago
only you can decide if it is worth it

LOL! Ain't that the truth. I don't own any spraying equipment and I just don't know if Yellow Pear deserves a $20 bottle of copper and a $15 sprayer. Now, if it were my beefsteaks...
digdirt2
9 years ago
Use it as a test plant. See how long you can keep it going by just removing the affected leaves. That could be useful info for other varieties in the future. And being a 1/2 naked guinea pig test plant is about all a Yellow Pear is good for. *grin*

Dave
edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
9 years ago
I wouldn't be without a sprayer after losing my whole crop a few years back. A $15 sprayer lasts many years, and my bottle of fungicide is still going. If I look at all the money I spend on my gardening hobby, a cheap sprayer and bottle of fungicide is a small price to pay. I believe I have saved plants by using fungicide.
Sandpaper Tongue
Original Author
9 years ago
What brand of fungicide do you use?
seysonn
9 years ago
Like has been said, you don't "spend" $15 + $20 (sprayer + fungicide) on one plant. Out of that $35 you spend maybe less than 10 cents per plant, per application. If you do it 5 times in a season, that will be 50 cents per plant.

BTW, yesterday I spray all my tomato plants with Daconil for the first time this year, as a preventive measure. It took only 2.5 tsp of fungicide to do about 20 plants. I promised myself to repeat in 2 weeks. Prevention is always better than fighting. It is in a way like insurance policy.

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