Disease Identification
 

Hello Tomatoville,

I am attaching pictures of my Donskoi plant. The plant is pruned to three stems and two of the tops are showing disease. I get worried when a disease first demonstrates itself up top. I am hoping this is not TSWV. The first two pictures are of the same section of the plant one day apart. Do these pictures suggest a certain disease? The last picture is of a small insect. Is that a thrip? Does anyone know if a thrip that previously was not carrying TSWV can transmit the disease from an infected plant to a healthy plant?
Thanks,
Jake

Not a thrip. A is probably about 5% that size - super tiny! And, they hang out in the flowers mostly from my experience. I believe that is a winged aphid. Not problem unless the numbers get huge.

That could be a type of mold, but, I'm uncertain. Have you been using fungicide or some sort of protectant like Daconil? If not, (or even if so) that could be a gray mold or black mold. Either one is bad news because they are almost always more wide spread that what you see. They are difficult to treat if established. You could try removing all affected foliage and spraying with a funigicde, copper for example and see what happens. Bill in Alabama uses his bleach spray immediately. It will kill molds, but, it will taken down all affected foliage and that could be a significant amount, based on what we see in these pics.

Thanks for the reply.

I have used the Bill Bleach treatment in year's past. It works well.

For now I am going to stick with my normal copper spray routine. After cutting off all the bad looking spots the plant seems to be doing OK.

The worst possible scenario is that it is the early signs of Late Blight which usually hits the top third of the plant first. I have seen it a couple of times in early summer or late spring and it looks similar to what you are showing in those pictures. Keep a close eye out for any signs of a light colored fuzzy looking mold showing up under those kind of spots or lesions on the stems. It probably isn't Late Blight but I never rule it out too early because it can hit any time of the year down here. A friend of mine lost his whole tomato patch to it one year in early June.

I don't think that is gray mold which usually starts in the shady lower portion of the plant first and moves up. It could even be spray damage or some kind of wind damage from all the high winds we have been having lately. It doesn't look like TSWV either but if the plant stops growing and further spots show up I would pull it.

I think using the copper spray is wise and if it is one of those pesky spot or speck diseases it could very well cure the problem. Good luck.

Bill