I wouldn't pull it up yet. Wait and see if it puts on healthy growth when the weather is stably warm. Some tomato plants obviously don't do well in cool rainy weather, which CAN be an environment where disease takes hold. But since you've been doing preventive spraying, the leaf distortions, colors, and the plant's slow growth might just be due to the weather for that variety.

Hopefully it is just the cool weather, and the plant will rebound now the we are getting warm sunny weather.

It does look a bit like one of the bacterial spec pictures in the at this link
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Tomato_Bacterial.htm

I would hold off on the Daconil (I personally wouldn't use it at all), then flush the soil on next watering. Early on a sunny day, spray (mist) the whole plant down with water. This will rule out a few things, including fungicide drift...

- Steve

I, too, would forego the Daconil. With our aridity, diseases are not nearly the problem they are in other places and you did not get them from a nursery. Yes, it has been wet and cool of late, but prior to that the wind was rather fierce. Those kinds of weather extremes can take a toll on young plants. Just be patient. :) Warmer weather is coming and you should be able to tell more from the plant's behavior and appearance. I'm droopy too after all this grey cloudy stuff. :)

Patience it is... I did notice that the new growth looks more healthy.

My biggest concern was that it had something that would spread to my other tomatoes. Sounds like this isn't likely.

Thanks all for you comments.

daveinco

When it looks like your plants could tolerate it, gradually remove the branches with the discolored leaves, just in case you do have a controlled fledgling virus or fungus on them.

You did say

"It has been unusually cool, rainy, and overcast lately for the past couple weeks. "

perfect for disease- So you are right on by spraying with Dalconal.

Use the spray- you won't regret it, when everyone around you has dieing plants and don't know way?

DrTomato:

So, Daconil is effective on bacterial and viral tomato diseases, too? Like bacterial speck or tomato spotted wilt virus?

drtomato

I agree. Some people spray their tomatoes (and cucurbits) with Ortho Garden Disease Control, which contains Daconil, all season to kill fungus spores. Instructions call for spraying every two weeks to keep tomato plants fungus-free. As I'm sure you know, it doesn't kill funguses, IIRC, just prevents them from spreading through the spores.

I finally smartened up and sprayed my second tomato planting with GDC from the get-go. I'll be VERY interested to see if they remain without blemish. The first set of tomatoes had one really damaged tomato plant from something that I'm almost certain was disease-weather-related. I rooted one of the lateral branches from it, and it was included in the second planting and is sprayed on a bi-weekly basis or more often if there are heavy rains. It's growing enthusiastically with none of the symptoms its parent had.

I'm also spraying all the others on the same schedule, a couple of which have some questionable leaf-symptoms.

... doesn't kill the spores and doesn't prevent new spores ... prevents the fungus spores attaching to or entering the stoma and causing leaf tissue degeneration.

pennyrile

Thank you! I guess I didn't "recall correctly" after all.

So, to be most effective,the spray should cover the upper and lower portions of the leaves to prevent the spores from entering them through the pores. It sounds like it's only a barrier to the disease spores, not a disabler of the spores. I've always wondered if that kind of spray (have understood that Serenade is a barrier) was perhaps hard on the plant's respiration if applied often.

Anney and DrTomato, do you realize, that despite our recent bout of wet stuff the average relative humidity in CO is around 10-15%? That really doesn't foster a lot of fungal problems unless someone over-waters or waters from overhead sprinklers. It is a very dry environment. We have problems in our climate, but that isn't a prevalent one and preventative Daconil isn't necessary. Just because your environment is such that it is warranted, doesn't mean it is elsewhere. One size does not fit all tomato growing conditions. And as Pennyrile said, Daconil does nothing for viral diseases.

You may be right about the unlikelihood of funguses and viruses that need cool wet conditions to take hold in CO.

The question is whether they can get started with the couple of weeks of cool, wet and overcast days that the OP mentions.

As I said earlier, I'd advise the OP to wait and see if the plants begin new green growth without the marring with warmer sunnier days before pulling them up. Because of the weather conditions mentioned, I'd probably do the preventive sprays, too, since diseases can be real plant-killers. If the plants aren't diseased, it's wasted effort, of course, but better safe than sorry!

Dave,

Have you actually determined that you have a fungus problem? Have you determined that you COULD have a fungus problem in the future that you need to guard against?

I'm not a big fan of the 'organic' no-spray method and firmly believe in 'better living through chemistry', but you should actually only use it if and when you have determined that is actually a fungus problem. Daconil and the other crap often recommended to be sprayed are poisonous you to and everything else around you. Why saturate your environment when you don;t really need to.

Many of the people on GW live in environments where gardens were never intended to grow and they are fighting an uphill battle all the way. On the other hand, we have this wonderful semi-arid desert to grow in, and we have out own problems, like high winds and hail infestations :) We rarely ever have problems with the bacterial infections because it is just too dry.

I have lived here all my life and the only thing me or my family has ever had to deal with were mosquitoes and miller moths.

--->Rob

Rob- Daconil is not crap, and show me where it's "poisonous" to humans.

After all I'm not drinking it.

Definitely don't look like a fungal infection to me and I would never spray that crap in my vegetable garden.

I should probably take a leaf cutting to the extention office and see what they say. But to rephrase your second question, I have determined that I CANNOT guarantee that I WON'T have a fungus problem.

I'm of the opinion that the preventative spraying causes no (or minimal) harm and can protect against certain diseases. The cost/benefit analysis may be different for others. Analogous to vaccines or insurance, how likely are we to get the conditions we're vaccinated against but we do it anyway because they are low risk and the diseases have terrible results (This is just an example, let's please not go way off topic and debate vaccines)

I guess for me its an insurance policy. I pay a bit and hope it is never necessary.

I've been lucky with the hail so far this year...last year all of my winter squashes were devastated by a late summer hail storm.

I agree with anney on one point. When the plant shows a lot of new growth, you can remove (one or two at a time) the branches with the spotty leaves. One thing she says, I feel I must clarify, "I agree. Some people spray their tomatoes (and cucurbits) with Ortho Garden Disease Control, which contains Daconil, all season to kill fungus spores. Ortho Garden Disease Control, previously known as Ortho Daconil Fungicide...recently renamed. I know the old name contained "Daconil". The Fungicide part may be wrong though. May have been something like Ortho Daconil Disease Control.

I myseld refuse to use it on anything. It's obviously a personal choice, but I tend to research chemicals a bit before putting them on food I will eventually eat.

Wikipedia Daconil

The Skull/Crossbones on this link didn't help its case...lol.
Pesticideinfo.org

I won't continue to post links that may dissuade you from using this. It's your choice. Google Daconil & read the links you feel are important/trustworthy & decide for yourself. =)

- Steve

But why use it if the chance you get fungal disease is so minute given your environment. You have more chance of having flea beetles or psyllids attacking your plants. That happens. And hail happens with great frequency and not what people in other areas think of when we say hail. We are talking call out the snowplows kind of hail. I know Daconil is a useful tool to many. But in our environment,all you are doing is helping Ortho's bottom line -- you really aren't doing much for a problem that is highly improbable.

Good point Steve... To clarify, I am spraying Ortho Garden Disease Control, which according to Ortho's website contains Chlorothalonil as the active ingredient.

Drtomato,

I won't butt heads with you, but I will read the MSDS. There are hazards associated with using it, such as silica inhalation, and the kaolin clay inhalation. You may not be affected by it, but others might be. The active ingredient is not benign either. The manufacturer says it is a possible skin and respiratory sensitizer. If it was non-toxic, they wouldn't tell you to keep it away from fish. If it was non-toxic, why would it work? You may not react to it now, but you might in 5 years.

The main point I was trying to make is when you have 10% humidity, the odds are, you don't have humidity related fungal infections. It's not rocket science, it's common sense.

Daconil:
http://www.engageagro.com/media/pdf/msds/daconilultrex_msds_english.pdf

Chlorothalonil:
http://www.sdix.com/TechSupport/msds/9998026.1.pdf

--->Rob

DrTomato: again ... does Daconil arrest bacterial or viral tomato diseases? Because the symptoms look more along those lines than fungal.

What is your diagnosis of the disease shown in the photographs in the original post?

If it's not a fungal disease, will Daconil help?

If someone has a red face, would you immediately prescribe high blood pressure medicine as a preventative? He might just have a sunburn. Or better yet, if someone were fat and bloated, would you prescribe high blood pressure medicine without first taking a blood pressure reading?

I guess I'm just not one who runs to the shed and grabs a can of Daconil after every rainfall event with the idea that Early Blight or some other fungus is an imminent threat.

Oh yeah Doc,
The active ingredient, Chlorothalonil, notes it *is* toxic and is subject to reporting requirements under various federal laws...

"[1]NOTE: This is a toxic chemical and is subject to the reporting requirements of section 313 of Title III of the
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 and 40 CFR Part 372."

http://www.cooperseeds.com/MSDS/HY_Daconil_Fungicide_MSDS.pdf

It's not poisonous according to you...

Besides, who wants to eat that?

--->Rob