Septoria leaf spot?

6 years ago

Hi again all! Hope everyone's garden's are growin' and groovy right now! :D

I'm just looking for some input about my tomato plants. Sadly, I planted them (possibly) too early (mother's day wknd), and we've had some cool/rainy weather the last couple of weeks, so it appears that my tomato plants have developed some problems as a result.

They were doing 'ok' and there is only 1 plant that is actually doing well (store-bought 'bonnie' plant) the rest are nursery/homegrown and not faring so well.

Anyway, it appears that my sungold/early-girls have developed septoria leaf/bacterial speck, or something like that. I don't water overhead and have spaced properly/mulched...my only suspician is that the heavy rains/cool weather have encouraged this problem to occur.

Wanted to borrow some eyes to take a looksie at the plants and see what others may suggest of what to do. I have a small greenhouse with at least 30 replacement plants to put out if these are worthless, but I was kind of hoping to keep the sungolds, since, they are seemingly so difficult to come by these days...

Anyone have input/ideas as to what may be going on and what should be done about it.

TIA for any advice!!

Featured Answer

gorbelly

6 years ago

That looks more like speck to me, but it could be septoria.

How bad is it, and how big are your plants right now? Where are you located?

If you're not too far south (which I assume you're not by your original post), you might consider replacing the plants, as nothing you spray is going to be curative, and to get disease this early isn't a good sign.

If you want to try to keep them, prune off all affected foliage, stay on top of pruning off any new affected foliage, and start applying a fungicide on a regular schedule. But if a large portion of the foliage is currently affected, I would recommend replacing the plants.

Which spray you use depends on what you're willing to use. Copper and daconil (copper formulas are sometimes organic and sometimes not, daconil is not organic) will control septoria and delay its progress. Although bacterial speck isn't really supposed to have a treatment, it's a slow-progressing disease. Speck is a regular problem in my garden, and I've actually had good luck controlling it with Serenade, which is a biological. I usually alternate between Serenade and organic copper and spray one or the other every week or two, re-spraying if rain washes it off.

Good luck!

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Comments (6)

Garden Lover
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks so much for replying back to me!

Yes, it's pretty much throughout the plant(s). I'm in zone 7a/6b..I think...North of the mason dixon line, so our weather has been quite chilly/wonky/cold, for May.

Plants are maybe about 1.5-2 feet barely. Still small-ish. My greenhouse 'backup' plants look perfect and have not been affected at all.

Just a bit disappointed about the sungolds since we were looking forward to them this summer. Perhaps I can buy replacements at the local nursery, we will see. I'm thinking it may be the wiser choice to just go and replace the plants. Like you said, disease this early on is troublesome, and not worth the hassle, most likely.

My question though...would the new transplants need to be pre-treated with the fungicide before planting (since they will be 'moving in' so to speak, lol..) where the other sick plants were leaving?

Anyway, thanks for looking at the pics and the input! Hoping for better/sunnier/warmer weather in June!! :D Happy growing!!
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The reason I asked if there were divots on the leaf, is because there is a similar type of appearance to leaves worked upon by the four lined plant bug. I grew mums commercially for many years and one year had a good deal of damage to the crop, seemingly overnight, on a few benches, having never seen the insects on the plants I scouted regularly. The plant inspector was shown the material (entymologist) and identified it as four line plant bug aftermath. Sure enough, after scouting the crop, I found them. I am seeing them this year in my vegetable garden and suspect the pressure is high this year. I'm not saying your crop doesn't reflect ozone damage, but I've heard that diagnosis applied to plants before by experts and had it not be so. Is there a manufacturing facility nearby? I was a grower for a nursery once and pinpointed some foliar damage by industrial fumes on a particularly susceptible line of plants.
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Here's a good overview of the disease & its management: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/diseases/fungal-spots/septoria-leaf-spot-of-tomato.aspx Here is a link that might be useful: septoria on tomatoes
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I have plenty of leaves that look like that on my lower leaves. As the plant gets older the older leaves get leather and get spots. Chop them off if they bother you that much. You have a problem when the rest of the leaves start to spot and or die. Spray with daconil if spotted wilt or septoria is a prblem in your area.
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gorbelly
6 years ago
Garden Lover: Just a bit disappointed about the sungolds since we were looking forward to them this summer. Perhaps I can buy replacements at the local nursery

Sungold is a very popular variety, and it's common to find Sungold plants even at big box stores. Good luck, but I think you'll be able to find some.

Garden Lover: My question though...would the new transplants need to be pre-treated with the fungicide before planting (since they will be 'moving in' so to speak, lol..) where the other sick plants were leaving?

Fungal disease is so common on tomatoes, and available remedies are rarely curative, only preventative and for slowing the progression of disease. Therefore, many gardeners, myself included, spray tomatoes on a regular schedule from day one of plant-out as a preventative measure because that's how most fungicides available to home gardeners, especially the organic or biological ones, are supposed to be used. If disease has already shown up in your garden, I would definitely recommend it.
Garden Lover
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks a bunch!

Super helpful advice!

I will go ahead and pre-treat those 'babies' and replace the others!

Next year I will wait longer and be more vigilant!

Happy gardening!! :D
gorbelly
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
In your zone (which is also my zone), Mother's Day should normally be more than fine for planting out. But both last year and this year, we had a very wet, cool May. Last year some of my plants also got speck very early, during May. Replacement plants, however, that were very small and young when they went into the ground, caught up to the older plants easily after a few weeks and went on to produce just as much. Those didn't go in until after the first week of June.

Of course, we also had warm weather until late into fall, with a killing frost not hitting until November.

This year, I'm deliberately planting late. I have some tomatoes planted out, but not all yet.

The Drowns who run Sandhill Preservation in zone 5 IA say they now start their tomatoes in mid-May and put them out in mid-June (!!!) because they see less disease, and they still get plenty of tomatoes.

I'm a little too impatient to get tomatoes to wait quite that long, and we're a bit warmer here, but around the Philadelphia area, older gardeners still say Memorial Day is when you plant out tomatoes. The race to boast the earliest tomatoes may not be worth it here (well, not yet), since we're still not racing extreme heat and pests the way more southern gardeners are, and we do have a rather long growing season, unlike more northern gardeners.

Anyway, the short version is: I don't think you need to wait longer, but if you do, you'll have to spray your plants frequently during May if we get a lot of rain again. Or you can wait and set them out later. But if you go that route, prepared to be constantly tortured as others post beautiful photos of lush tomato plants they put in the ground early, LOL.
Garden Lover thanked gorbelly
Garden Lover
Original Author
6 years ago
LOL!

But if you go that route, prepared to be constantly tortured as others post beautiful photos of lush tomato plants they put in the ground early, LOL.

Thanks for the laugh!

I did end up replacing and planting out. Not going to wait longer this year, but I have a plan for them if it gets cold/rainy again. Figure i'll keep the tomato cages off for now, and cover them with home depot buckets in case the cold wet rain shows up again.

Thanks so much for the help/insight!

Looking forward to our yummy harvests!

:D

Septoria leaf spot?

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