Regular weekly application of the fungicide of your choice from the day of plant out is the standard recommendation. Daconil is the preferred fungicide.

Dave

Thanks Dave,

Is there anything that is organic and will not kill or harm bees?

We rotated our garden this year because we've had problems last 2 years. Made no difference.

Also started all my own plants. Did not buy 1 plant, not even my flower row.
DH put something on tomato plants too.
Still no difference. Dead leaves almost waist high!!

Will research that fungicide, thx.

Have been using Actinovate and Aerated Compost Tea with favorable results for last month.
I do find word èhateè overdramatic and better saved for something else, septoria is part of the life for every tomato grower, if I can get it down to nuisance level I will be happy.
Am researching BioSafe now.

I use - with excellent results - Copper (Bonide) fungicide. ItâÂÂs organic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Safe, organic treatment for Septoria (GardenWeb forum)

This post was edited by Daniel_NY on Wed, Aug 13, 14 at 7:38

Is there anything that is organic and will not kill or harm bees?

Lots of them. The various copper-based are probably the most common but there are many others as well. Just Google 'organic fungicide'.

As Linda said, Septoria, since the spores are air borne, is a fact of life when growing tomatoes.

Dave

Thanks Digdirt and others, always very helpful. Linda I tried to edit my title to "I strongly dislike Septoria Leaf Spot" but it won't let me edit the title. Yeah there are worse things but I very much dislike seeing the plants I grew from seed get taken over by disease until there is nothing left to the plant :(

SunshineZone7, did you mulch the soil ?

Did you spray fungicide from the day when you transplanted ?

This post was edited by Daniel_NY on Wed, Aug 13, 14 at 15:21

No I did not use fungicide, trying to avoid that. I mulched pretty heavy w straw last year and no mulch this year...same result. I plan to mulch next year.

The the septoria going to be in my soil?

Sunshine...I feel your pain...hate is an OK word to use....it's emotional when you try so hard and your efforts are thwarted.

I've never used a fungicide but will research it also. My problem is that it is very labor intensive to apply (especially with 76 plants) and every time I attempt to spray we get a downpour. Perhaps less plants and a concerted effort to find a good organic fungicide and apply it from the get-go will delay the inevitable...there's always next year.

Hang in there, you're not alone.

This post was edited by LKZZ on Wed, Aug 13, 14 at 21:49

Septoria is airborne but yes, it could overwinter in debris, not the soil itself so cleaning up will work.
If you are interested in using less fungicides, you might want to look into aerated compost teas... idea is simple- replace bad microbes with good and let them duke it out...

Here is a link that might be useful: Compost tea