It has been terribly sultry here. The rain has slowed down but the heat and humidity is really just awful. I think it was mold given the blackening stems. If it is the mold, I've never had it before and I had no idea it was on my plants. I thought I was just treating a little bit of early blight. I pulled three plants yesterday - both of my Cherokee Purples and a Dester. They were still alive, but I have plenty of other plants/varieties and knew they were just going to be a pain to deal with all year. More than half of the 29 plants I have left are Prue and Wes and they are actually doing much better than the rest. Those two are my mainstay varieties b/c my family loves them both. Prue has been trouble free for me. It has extremely sparse foliage so lots of air between leaves. Wes seems to get disease later in the season, but always pumps out plenty of tomatoes for me. I think it will be an okay season in the long run.
I spray the bleach solution (and most other things) as the sun is going down. I'm familiar enough with your bleach spray to know that the bleach just uncovered the problem and did not cause it.
BL
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