grey mold after rain

[babice]

I've learned to check with you folks before I try something. Am looking for your advice on how to proceed! I knew yesterday I would likely start having issues because it was very humid yesterday and, for today, we were forecasted either rain or more very high humidity. --- grey mold forming on the ends of some of the leaves of almost every plant. I considered spraying a soapy solution to try to wash off any mold spores that are there. But, seems they are going to need Daconil to help them get thru the rest of this humid day.

[babice]

It's spreading fast. Already showing on some of the stems. Even infecting my basil! Holy cow. I sprayed Natria on them earlier today. I have fans blowing on them now and am deciding between either using Daconil or Actinovate/ExelLG to help. Feeling like this is a bad one though!

[b54red]

Gray Mold and lots of rain and humidity go together like peanut butter and jelly. Once it gets going good it is very hard to stop it especially if the weather stays wet and humid.
Are you certain what you are looking at is Gray Mold? It and Late Blight can be confused because they can be so similar in appearance; but Late Blight is far more deadly and acts faster to destroy a plant. Gray Mold usually makes its first appearance on the lower or mid portion of the plant where it is shadier and where less light and air can get to the leaves. I hope you are right and it is Gray Mold.

We have been having drizzly rain for about 24 hours now and I know without even looking that I will have Gray Mold on my plants in the morning. If the rain lets up just for an hour or two I will spray with the bleach spray and hope for the best. The bleach spray is the only thing I have found that works at all on Gray Mold once it gets started on a plant. If you can kill the mold back and then get some dry weather with lower humidity then Daconil will help stop it coming back.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by babice

Holy crap. I think I might lose a few of these. It's spreading fast. Already showing on some of the stems. Even infecting my basil! Holy cow. I sprayed Natria on them earlier today. Obviously not helping. Gosh. I may have to resort to the dreaded bleach spray. I didn't take the affected leaves off because by the time I got back out there, I realized all the leaves are coated with this. I have fans blowing on them now and am deciding between either using Daconil or Actinovate/ExelLG to help. Feeling like this is a bad one though! Oh my lordy.

I wonder if the fans are spreading the spores?

[babice]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

I wonder if the fans are spreading the spores?

eeek - hope not! The fan is pointing outward (toward the yard). I turned it off this morning because there was a nice breeze this morning. It's supposed to get uber hot the rest of this week. Hopefully it won't also be humid and the heat will just cook the crap out of those nasty fungi!

ginger - I started my toms on an every-6-week aspirin spray regimen way back. I was inspired by Mr. Ami as well as this article: http://www.plantea.com/plant-aspirin.htm . I do like it and plan to continue. Maybe it's worth doing again this week, though, to give them the extra boost? I put Maxicrop in with it too last time I sprayed -- maybe I should up the dosage on the Maxicrop since Darjones says it looks like I need more micronutrients. Maybe I should do an aspirin spray one day and then a couple days later do a Fish Emulsion/Maxicrop spray for the nutrient boost.

BLT - sounds wise. Since I used the Actino + 2TBS Exel on Sunday, I think I might do that again once more but with 4TBS Exel as Ami suggests. And then use Daconil (since I have it) on the 2nd time of the week.

Would it be okay to vary those 2 in the twice weekly regimen for a little while?

[babice]

MISSION: Rid babice's toms of foreign, bad-guy fungi invaders and provide toms with necessary nutrients to become healthier. Destroy the enemy! Save as many innocent tomato plants as possible.

CODE NAME: "Fungusamungus"

BATTLE PLAN

Sun 6/24: the day the invaders landed: (1) Natria spray at noon, (2) 6pm spray Actinovate + Exel LG (2TBSP) + molasses
Tue 6/26: (1) cut off as many infected leaves as possible without butchering the toms and(2) throw the infected leaves into a garbage bag
Wed 6/27: put down clean, pine bark mulch with goal of having remaining leaves 3-4 inches from mulch if possible
Thu 6/28: Daconil

Sat a.m. - Maxicrop/Molasses/Fish Emulsion soil drench

Sunday - more pruning

After - 3 more weeks of solid prevention: Actino/Exel, skip a day, Neem Oil, skip a day, Daconil, skip a day...start over.

Then I plan to to go to a twice-a-week preventative routine. Want to stop using the Daconil; rotate Actino/Exel with Green Cure and also use Neem Oil regularly due to the added insecticide benefits. I'll use the Daconil when I know it's going to be really humid or after a rain.

If you see any fungi stalking around my deck, let me know!

p.s. I also went ahead and planted the extra toms I had out front...."just in case".

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by babice

MISSION: Rid babice's toms of foreign, bad-guy fungi invaders and provide toms with necessary nutrients to become healthier. Destroy the enemy! Save as many innocent tomato plants as possible.

CODE NAME: "Fungusamungus"

BATTLE PLAN

Sunday - the day the invaders landed: (1) Natria spray at noon, (2) 6pm spray Actinovate + Exel LG (2TBSP) + molasses

Tue p.m. - (1) cut off as many infected leaves as possible without butchering the toms, (check) (2) put down clean, pine bark mulch with goal of having remaining leaves 3-4 inches from mulch if possible, (check) (3) throw the infected leaves into a garbage bag (check)

Wed a.m. - another Actinovate/ExelLG/Molasses spritz with 4TBSP of Exel

Wed afternoon- Maxicrop soil drench w/regular feeding of Buddha Grow + Buddha Bloom

Thu - wx fcst way too hot and humid - leave them alone

Fri a.m. - aspirin spray spritz using castille soap as sticker

Sat a.m. - Maxicrop/Molasses/Fish Emulsion soil drench

Sun a.m. - Daconil

After - 3 more weeks of twice weekly prevention (Actino/Exel one day; Daconil the next) then reassess.

OPERATIVES: babice; friendly t-ville peeps willing to listen and give feedback

FUTURE MISSION: prevention; make environment hostile to unfriendlies

Hopefully will be able to go to a once-a-week preventative routine. Want to stop using the Daconil and go to the Neem Oil in rotation with the Actino/Exel. And then use the Daconil when I know it's going to be really humid or after a rain.

If you see any fungi stalking around my deck, let me know!

Babice, you are hilarious!!! this was such a cute post. Glad to see you back to your usual funny self.

[amideutch]

Go with the EXEL LG and Actinovate. Use the bleach as a last resort. Apply your EXEL LG using 2 Tbls per gallon of water. Later on if needed you can bump it to 4Tbls per gallon. Once the plants are infected Daconil won't do anything as it is a protectant and not an eradicator. Ami

[babice]

ami - thanks. I had suspected this so I did go ahead with the Actinovate/Exel LG and I went with the 2 TBS of the ExelLG since it seemed to call for a good dose. I used molasses as a sticker. I had some left over so used it as a soil drench around the base of the worst plants.

B54 - no - I really don't know. I've spent the good part of this past night reading and trying to figure it out. It truly happened over night. It's on some of the stems and all over the affected leaves. Some of the leaves ends are turning black. Oddly as the day wore on I noticed my basil has brown patches now. Then I noticed that some of my flowers (which have been growing nicely with no problems) have the spots, as well as a bee balm I brought home from the nursery on Saturday. So I moved those flowers and the bee balm far away from the toms and sprayed them with the Actinovate/ExelLG too.

Humidity is 86% right now (it's 1:45 a.m.) Should get better (like 58%) by 8am and then keep going down throughout the daytime hours, so I'm hoping that is going to help. It goes back up again over night tomorrow night.

Ami and/or B54 - do you think I should spray the Daconil tomorrow before the humidity climbs back up again? Or give them a day of rest from any intervention (save maybe cutting off the worst leaves/stems)?

thanks!

[BLTLOVER]

I'm in zone 5b also and had the heavy rains. Immediately after the sun came out I sprayed with Daconil. There were some leaves curling but no mold. You didn't mention if you have been spraying up to this point. I've learned that it's best to have a regular treatment program. I start spraying a couple weeks after I put my plants out and then about every 10 days or immediately after rain throughout the season. I do that even in dry years and it keeps it from getting a foothold.

[babice]

ami et al -- in my panic yesterday I had started another thread on this subject in the Gen Disc forum. I posted pics over there. If you'd like to look at those here's the link: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...212#post286212

This morning I didn't have much time so wasn't able to get more pics yet but I will post more later today. The worst of the worst plants leaves are wilting inward now and generally looking sad. The other plants still have leaves with brown specks all of them but the plants aren't looking bad themselves at this point. Still don't know what this is.

Thanks!

[babice]

Originally Posted by BLTLOVER

I'm in zone 5b also and had the heavy rains. Immediately after the sun came out I sprayed with Daconil. There were some leaves curling but no mold. You didn't mention if you have been spraying up to this point. I've learned that it's best to have a regular treatment program. I start spraying a couple weeks after I put my plants out and then about every 10 days or immediately after rain throughout the season. I do that even in dry years and it keeps it from getting a foothold.

Hi BLT - leaves didn't start out curled. Just covered in these brown specs. Almost like they had been splattered with dirt. I did the ami-dip when I planted these out. Then one weekend I used Neem Oil and the next I used this cinnamon-oil-soap fungicide. I had planned to start either the Daconil or the Actino/Exel spray this past weekend and get those into a 2 week rotation...was still trying to decide whether I really wanted to use Daconil or not. Mother Nature has intervened and made my mind up for me!

BTW - any clue if Eastern Iowa or Western Illinois has had any reports of Late Blight?
later: according to this map, there isn't any in reported in the Midwest yet http://usablight.org/

thanks!

[babice]

Pictures taken this evening. Got tons of them - I have 25 plants and it's affecting all of them. Thoughts on what this is? Recommendations on protocol? Thank you for your help and time!

[Fusion_power]

Babice, you have gray mold and septoria and a few spots that might be early blight though I can't tell for sure on the EB. All are fungals and can be controlled with a combination of copper, daconil, or Neem.

One thing I noticed with your plants is that they might have micronutrient deficiencies, especially of boron. I would suggest getting a micronutrient fertilizer to add to the soil. other than that, they could use a bit more nitrogen.

DarJones

[babice]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Babice, you have gray mold and septoria and a few spots that might be early blight though I can't tell for sure on the EB. All are fungals and can be controlled with a combination of copper, daconil, or Neem.

One thing I noticed with your plants is that they might have micronutrient deficiencies, especially of boron. I would suggest getting a micronutrient fertilizer to add to the soil. other than that, they could use a bit more nitrogen.

DarJones

Wow DarJones - thank you!! My gosh. How could I have all that and how did it look to me like it happened in just one night? I was spraying them with Neem Oil every other week and a cinnamon-oil-soap fungicide every other week. Gave them Actinovate/ExelLG yesterday (in addition to Natria). And I can do Daconil or Neem tomorrow. I don't have any copper...I do have "Green Cure" fungicide on the way, though.

I am glad to read, though, that it doesn't look like Late Blight because I don't want to leave those out there blowing in the wind and potentially spreading it to farms in Iowa.