Need help Early or Late blight

15 years ago

I loved joining this forum this year but I liked it a little better when I didn't know about all the problems I had and just thought thats the way it was. Any way I definatly have early blight and have lost the complete lower half of three of my plants. What can I do to slow it down so I can at least get to the end of the season. Should I cut of all the infected leaves? I read how to curb it off for next year but I really don't want to lose what I have worked on every day so far this year. The plants are staked and about 8 feet tall verities are beaf steak, champion and better boy. Cant figure out how to post pics yet so If anyone has any other questions I can answer. Thanks so much!

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Comments (8)

drtomato
15 years ago
What have you done to prevent any infestations, insects or fungal? What area in MI? Adding any nutriants? Pics would really help. You don't give anybody much info to go on. I've seen other gardens in my area with the samething happening, lower half of plants entirely dead.
penserosa
15 years ago
I just began to see early blight last week after we had heavy rains (and the only rains this summer). I removed the dead stuff at the bottom and then sprayed with chlorothalonil. I used Ortho Garden Disease Control. Follow directions on label...if you have only a few plants, you can put it in a spray bottle or maybe even buy it in a diluted spray formulation.

Good luck.
Pat
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Thanks, here is the answer from my local extension. I guess it is all over our area after 2 weeks of rain: Your tomatoes (and most tomatoes on farms) have septoria leaf spot, a fungal disease that is a little more aggressive than early blight. Most fungal and bacterial diseases start on the lower leaves and work their way up the plant. If you have the option to pull a few plants with this disease and plant some from a local greenhouse, that may protect the rest of the planting. If the spots are on too many plants to pull them all, then you can at least slow it down by removing lower leaves. Without a commercial fungicide, it may still spread.
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It is neither early blight nor late blight. Right now I would say that they have a bit of septoria. If I look closely at one or two of those photos, there are some signs of it. Also, there could be an issue with either over-watering or soggy soil that's not draining well. Of course, we can't do a lot about all this rain, *sigh*. For the septoria, which doesn't look horrible right now, I would use a fungicide for vegetables - one that contains Chlorothalonil (Daconil, Ortho Garden). Use according to package directions. All fungicides must be used as preventatives; none are curative. They will not kill existing disease but will keep it from starting and spreading. And, they must be applied regularly. If you are gardening organically, I would go with one of the copper-based fungicides. Follow package directions for dilutions and frequency of application. Now I'll let you in on a little secret here in the Northeast: :-) Septoria is usually transient. Once the weather dries out and the temps increase, it will stop progressing. It is the cool, wet weather that creates the environment for it to thrive. So, you don't normally get a fungicide just for septoria. However, a fungicide will help prevent early blight, which is very common and far more difficult to arrest. And, if there happens to be any late blight around, it will help to prevent that as well. So it's worth using to prevent other fungal diseases. You can remove the affected leaves, but don't feel that you have to remove every leaf that has a small spot or two. As the septoria stops, it will just leave a few spots on an otherwise perfectly good leaf. However, if you're looking at cool temps and rain for another week, you may want to be more aggressive about removing affected leaves. Some folks say that you should bag the affected foliage and throw it in the garbage to prevent the spread of disease. Do that, but don't think it will forever eliminate septoria and early blight. Those fungi are all over -- in the air, in rain droplets -- so you can be extremely fastidious and still get those fungus diseases. Just an FYI. Happy gardening!
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Carolyn, Thanks so very much -- I will do that. Couple of follow-up questions: -- When I sprayed the Daconil this morning I took great pains to make sure I also sprayed upside down with my pump-pressure hand sprayer in order to get the undersides of the leaves -- is this indeed necessary? It is surely not easy. -- Any idea what prospects I have for reasonable control at this point? I think I've caught the EB relatively early -- it was on about half of my 9 plants (spaced 3' by 3) but only about 3 or 4 leaves on each plant at most, and none of the leaves had extensive damage yet. I picked off all the infected leaves. The Massachusetts weather this year has been awful, of course, with all the wet and now the heat wave. BTW, it was thanks to the links in this forum's tomato problem solver 2 thread that I was able to make a positive ID of the Early Blight. Highly recommend them for anyone not sure which problem they have. You have to do some work but the info is there. Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Problem Solver 2
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Septoria as well. Although it makes little difference which it is since it is too late to prevent it now. All you can do now hope to to control it for long enough to get a harvest which is why spraying from day 1 of plant out is recommended. And just as in all the other posts here on leaf problems, the first question is why are the leaves still on the plants? They should have been stripped off and disposed of at the first sign of problems. They serve no purpose on the plant and since these are clearly well below the first fruit cluster they could have been removed before becoming infected. All you can do now is begin a regular spray program of fungicide as well as stripping off any and all affected leaves. Daconil is recommended but it is your choice of fungicide. That slows/controls (not prevents) all the various fungus and even some bacterial problems - which is why I say it really makes no difference which disease it is. Good luck. Dave
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carolyn137
15 years ago
Your thread title says Early Blight or Late Blight, two very different diseases, and then you say you do have Early Blight.

What am I missing here? ( smile)

Carolyn, who notes that both Early Blight ( A. solani) and Late BLight ( P. infestans) can appear either early or late in the season.
misterc007
Original Author
15 years ago
drtomatoe,

im in saint clair shores Mi, I use Tomatoetone only 1 application in the begining then i use MG tomato every 20 days. I have not used any fungicide or insecticide and i haven't had to water because of the rain that we have had. I have 12 plants 3 in one box 3 in another and 6 in containers i prune 3 The infected 3 and the other 3 I did nothing except I just started to cut the tops because they are to tall now. and I cant figure out how to get the pics in?????
penserosa
15 years ago
misterc007, to enter pics, they must first be at an online location such as photobucket or shutterfly. Then right click on the picture and select properties. This will show you the html code for the picture. Select the entire code (begins with http://). Then come back here and put it in this format:

img src="http://yourhtmlcode";

Important: Put a at the end.
drtomato
15 years ago
I'm only guessing- but, you could be root-bound. When you say you "have 3 plants in one box"- is that a earth box?
If so, you should prob have no more than 2 in there. Toms need a lot of area for rooting. If they are crowded they get stressed. Could be they are stressed. IMO- one plant in a eath box, but I'm not a fan of those since I live rurally and am not strained for area to grow plants.
misterc007
Original Author
15 years ago
I am guessing that it is early blight (I am no expert) I didnt know that there was a difference so you aren't missing anything. Aparently I am. The tomato plants are in raised boxes in the ground with plenty of spacing. They are very big like I said. There isn't anyone around me with taller or fuller plants. Every one on my street grows toms. I think I am going to try the ortho spray. do they sell that at home depot?
drtomato
15 years ago
Yep- HD sells it and so does ACO. Are you useing MG for toms? Also you might be watering to much. I've only watered 3-4 times this year and I think you got a few more storms than me. I grew up in Warren and owned a house in Fraser for 10 years. Know your area well. Toms are like weeds, you can kick them and abuse them and they'll still get backup and grow. But I think people try to hard and give them mega doses of ferts and waste them. Smaller and frequently is better than lots of ferts every so often.

Need help Early or Late blight

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Need help Early or Late blight

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