Could be a fungal disease, particularly early blight. Do you spray fungicide regularly?

Actually, I haven't ever sprayed fungicide spray. This is my first year growing tomatoes, so I didn't realize I needed the fungicide spray. I found the link below for fungicide spray. Can this be used?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Safer-Brand-32-oz-Ready-to-Use-Garden-Fungicide-5450/205562169?cm_mmc=Shopping%7CTHD%7CG%7C0%7CG-BASE-PLA-D28O-OutdoorGarden%7C&gclid=Cj0KEQjw0MW9BRDxtYTn2_S699MBEiQAw33y4xeHsSmAMzn4Il8wzXh09M-cuGeuTTVeQMzNNvxuj2waApIK8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

Once you get a foliage disease, it's a matter of slowing it down so that your plant doesn't die before you can get a decent harvest. Most sprays available to the home gardener work best as prevention, not cure.

If you already have disease, then your best bet is to prune off all affected foliage (bag the prunings and throw them away--don't let them sit around your garden and release spores). Then spray with a fungicide and continue to spray regularly (weekly, adjusting for rain, which will wash off the fungicide) and check your plants daily for any additional affected foliage and prune that off right away.

Which fungicide to use depends on your growing philosophy. If you want to stay organic, there are biologicals like Serenade (IME better on things like bacterial speck and spot and mildews than on early blight), and then there is copper (pretty wide spectrum for fungal and bacterial diseases but not all formulations are organic). If you don't feel constrained to stay organic, chlorathonil (brand names Daconil, Bravo) and mancozeb are pretty wide-spectrum. Many people choose more than one option and alternate them. A very common combo is copper alternated with Daconil, for example. Once again, the spray may stop the disease, but it may not. If it doesn't, it will slow down progress of the disease significantly compared to not spraying. Spray all unaffected tomato plants as well to prevent/delay them from acquiring the disease.

In future years, it's a good idea to spray regularly with fungicide from day 1 of plant-out. This isn't guaranteed to prevent foliage diseases 100%, but it's likely to decrease severity and delay disease onset and progress. Some people don't want to do this because of a philosophy of not wanting to intervene if unnecessary. It's really a matter of personal choice and accepting the risks of your choices.

Also, concentrates are more economical than ready-to-spray formulas. Remember that you will need to spray weekly. That can get really expensive with ready-to-spray.

Thank you. I will try to buy some spray as soon as possible. Can it spread to other plants close to it too?

Yes it can spread to other tomato plants. So you need to spray ALL of them. But tomato diseases won't spread other vegetables , as far as I know . THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS.

Sey

Okay, thank you!!!!!!!! I was worried about that, because I have cucumbers, beans and lettuce, along with a ton of herbs (I know, herbs aren't vegetables). I'm going to order spray from Amazon ASAP.

Some diseases can spread to other kinds of plants, such as viruses, but most fungal diseases will not. Early blight is specific to tomatoes and potatoes. So if you also grow potatoes, you will want to spray them as well.

Okay. Thank you. I'm gonna go get some spray today instead of ordering it!

You can find all kinds of fungicide ( organic, synthetic ) in all BBS like Home Depot. I have and use these :

== Liqui - Cop ( copper base )

== Daconil

== Neem Oil ( Organic )

Sey

I used this spray:

The label should tell you if you need to wait a certain number of days to harvest. IIRC, Daconil has no wait time to harvest when used on tomatoes. It would be almost impossible to avoid spraying your fruit if you're spraying correctly. Remember that you have to spray all stems, foliage (both top and underside), and preferably also all developing fruit as well. If you can do that and avoid getting anything on mature fruit, you are very talented.

Thanks.