Leaf disease

[MarlynnMarcks]

My fall tomatoes are doing extremely well and already have some flowers. I am in South Florida and have seen something I never had trouble with growing tomatoes in Michigan. Almost overnight 1/3 of my healthy plants became covered with a white almost furry substance. The leaves cured up and the tomatoes looked dead or dying. I threw them away but am afraid the same thing will infect my remaining tomatoes. Does anyone know what it is and how to get rid of it?

[greenthumbomaha]

I'm not going to be a help with this but thought I would bump it for you. Perhaps some of our warm climate growers have experience with this. How big/mature were the plants and was it all over , top to bottom?

- Lisa

[carolyn137]

I think it would be best if you posted in the Tomato disease Forum where questions and diagnoses are given.

it's just a coupleof forums below this one and the link is

http://tomatoville.com/forumdisplay.php?f=63

Carolyn

[AlittleSalt]

I have DSL which should have been called DRS = Download Really Slow, or IDSR - Internet in Distress.

I'm wondering if Grey Mold is a possibility? I'd look it up but our DSL is being tied up by neighbors watching Barney Fife on Netflix.

[Fusion_power]

Pictures would help quite a bit. Your description could be powdery mildew, white fly infestation, possibly gray mold, and possibly one of the tospoviruses such as yellow leaf curl.

[b54red]

If it is any type of mold or mildew I recommend the diluted bleach spray. Here is a link to the discussion of it.
http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...t=bleach+spray

If it is whiteflies they will fly up and swarm if you shake the plants. If that is what you have you need to try this solution:
one gallon of water
tablespoon of dishwashing liquid
2/3rds cup of food grade diatomaceous earth
Permethrin (at recommended rate or slightly higher)

Be sure to mix the DE in water with the soap and shake it well in a separate container before straining it into your sprayer then add the poison. Make sure to spray all surfaces particularly the underside of the leaves. Only one day waiting before harvesting but you might want to wash off the DE before eating.

Bill

[MarlynnMarcks]

Thanks

[MarlynnMarcks]

They were about 3-4 feet tall and the disease was from top to bottom, mainly on leaves but a little on stems. Any help would be appreciated. I am new to this type of thing. Pictures on google images seem to indicate it might be powdery mildew, but it's not the exact thing I am seeing. I am heartbroken. First I lost my spring crop to nematodes which I didn't have in Michigan and was unfamiliar with. Now this even though plants are in pots with fresh potting soil from Home Depot.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by MarlynnMarcks

They were about 3-4 feet tall and the disease was from top to bottom, mainly on leaves but a little on stems. Any help would be appreciated. I am new to this type of thing. Pictures on google images seem to indicate it might be powdery mildew, but it's not the exact thing I am seeing. I am heartbroken. First I lost my spring crop to nematodes which I didn't have in Michigan and was unfamiliar with. Now this even though plants are in pots with fresh potting soil from Home Depot.

If it's from top down and in pots then it has nothing to do with with fresh potting mix in the pots.

It's probably one of the four most common foliage diseases of tomatoes,which are:

Early Blight, Alternaria solani, fungal
Septoria Leaf Spot, ditto
Bacterial Speck and BacterialSpot.

All of them are transmitted via air and in raindrops and all of them infect from the top down and all of them can have lesions on the stems.

If they were inground there could be the possibility of what's called splashback infection, but they were in potswith fresh mix.

The best way to prevent the fungal infections IMO is to use a good anti fungal spray, I prefer Daconil, the concetrate to bediluted and with about 28% active ingredient and start when the plants are first put out. There is reallyno good product that home groweers can use for the bacterial ones, although you could try a copper product or Mancozeb or Maneb.

Here's a link to Early Blight which will show you what the leaf lesions are like and if you click on more images you can see the lesions on the stems as well.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...atoes+pictures

If you want to Google Septoria Leaf Spot as well, you can see pictures of that as well,same with the two bacterial ones but I have a hunch it's one of the fungal ones, but, it's not that unusual to see more than one foliage disease on single plants

Hope that helps a bit,

Carolyn