Disease concern turning to panic. Help appreciated!

[Dewayne mater]

Oh greatness of collective wisdom of T-ville, I call on you once again for assistance! I would greatly appreciate you helping me identify diseases as well as any recommendations for treatment you may suggest.

I have uploaded the max number of pictures allowed for your perusal. In 233 I show you the good news...many plants have excellent growth and flowers and fruit set. However, in 234 I show the tainer with two very sick plants. If I lose them, I will be sad but so be it. However, every other tainer is now showing disease, at least two types I believe are different.

Pics 227, 228 are from the sickly tainer and are examples of the worst looking foliage. What do you think is going on here? My greatest fear is if this is TSWV. I've had a battle with flea beetles this year and they drink neem and insecticidal soap for breakfast because it makes them stronger! Fear - they bite infected plants, jump to next plant and spread infection(s).

229, 230, 235 show what seems to be a gray mold. What do you think?

237 and 239 are more of the disease that causes a yellowing leaf and in some instances, the leafs become witly before it dies...but strangely, most of the ones turning yellow don't wilt. I suspect this disease is the same as what is infecting the sickly tainer, but, so far there is less of it, it is starting at the bottom and moving up and not turning dark brown like some of the ones in the sickly tainer. Thoughts?

241 shows a leaf tip browning and some leaf curl. Could this be a 3rd problem! I have a total of 7 tainers, but it looks like I'm a lab for the CDC I've got so much disease!

This year I've used thrive plus actinovate dip to plant out, tomato tone fert, daconil, serenade, exel lg, (both Ser and Ex in combo with Act as foliar), seaweed, garret juice, neem oil, insecticidal soap, BT, and spinosad that I can remember. Still, the non winter plus warm humid spring results in terrible bugs and disease. Sigh. (bought but haven't applied a Bonide product with permethrin, since believe it or not, I try to put as few bad things out the tomatoes as possible)

Ami - do you think azoxistrobin (Sp?) could provide healing help? Excel lg doesn't seem to have reversing powers this year. I'm getting a little concerned that I could get to the cusp of success and lose it all, so, I'm willing to try all remedies possible.

Thanks for your input folks! Invaluable and calming to know the great minds and caring folks on this site!

Dewayne mater.

PS my ground garden is on the opposite side of the house and though the plants aren't as advanced, they show no signs of any of this! Weird.

[b54red]

Dewayne, some of those pics certainly look like Gray Mold. I have only found one treatment that works and it only works if you don't wait too long to do it and that is spraying with a dilute bleach spray late in the day and then usually repeating it 4 or 5 days later. That usually stops it in its early stages. After the first spraying has been applied wait a day or two and prune out some of the damaged leaf stems to open the plant up some before the next spraying. The dosage I use is one full gallon of water to which I add 8 ounces of regular strength Clorox bleach and a bit of dishwashing soap. Apply late in the day with a fine mist coating all surfaces of the leaves and stems and even the ground or mulch under the plant. Make sure to wash your sprayer thoroughly afterwards as bleach is highly corrosive to any metal and many other materials.

As to the other problems if they are non systemic foliage diseases or fungus then the bleach treatment will usually stop or slow them. The bleach treatment will have no effect on systemic diseases and is slow to work on Septoria which seems to take repeated applications.

Be warned any infected leaves will shrivel up and die after the bleach treatment. The healthy growth should not be affected unless you spray when the sun is shining.

[sfmathews]

Dwayne, I'm seeing some of the same issues as you, so I appreciate you posting. And Bill, thanks for your valuable insight. I will try the bleach spray solution. I usually don't have this many fungal issues, but the wet and humid spring we are having this year have certainly allowed them to flourish.

[lapk78]

Dwayne, I am in San Antonio, and for a moment I was sure you had sneaked onto my apartment balcony and photographed my plants. (Is this a Texas problem?) It all started about 2-3 days ago. I have sprayed once with b54red's bleach solution and suppose I'll do it again later today. I haven't sprayed very much of anything else; just one application of BT a few weeks ago and, about a week later, a spraying of diluted Neem oil.

I'm wondering if the yellowing is due to a nutrient deficiency. My EarthTainer's fert. strip is simply TomatoTone. I'm wondering if I should feed the 'Tainers a 'snack'. Although I'm unsure what the snack should be. Have you used a 'snack'? If so, maybe it is causing some build-up of salts or some other 'overdose' of a nutrient. Just a thought...

Also, ALL of my Black Krims and a fair amount of my other tomatoes have developed blossom end rot. Are you having this problem as well?

Good luck. Keep us all posted!

-Lyle

[Dewayne mater]

Thanks Bill. Guess I will try the bleach thing...though it scares the heck out me to spray something so caustic on them...I'm sure the dilution helps with that.

The scary thing is to pull yellowing leaves (or gray or shriveled) then a day or two later there are more. This makes me suspect a systemic issue, but, who knows? If so, does anything help? I'm almost certain this is at least 2 processes working and gray mold (some mold anyway) seems to be the diagnosis of one of them. The scary one is the yellowing that sometimes also wilts. That isn't typical of early blight in my experience.

Susan and Lyle, sorry you are experiencing this too, but thanks for letting me know I'm not alone!

Is anyone looking at the pics and thinking they see signs of TSWV?

Dewayne mater

[JamesL]

Dewayne,
Wow. It appears you have tried just about every cure.
Early blight and septoria would seem to be the obvious choices.
Diluted bleach as suggested, and maybe some serious pruning.
Clean your shears in between cuts with alcohol or bleach to avoid possible additional transmission.
Here is a pic of TSWV - doesn't quite look like it, but I am no expert.

What are you using as a spreader sticker for your foliar sprays? liquid soap? molasses?

lapk78,
General leaf yellowing could be too much water, or a nitrogen deficiency.
Yellow leaves at the bottom of the plant only could just be normal aging.
Fox farm makes a host of liquid ferts that people love. you could use one to give it a boost.
BER - Did you add lime into your earthtainer media mix?

If you haven't seen these - Raybo did a test on Ca - worth a read.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=19973
He did a related one on Epsom salt (Mg) as the relationship between Ca and Mg are intertwined.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=19955

[rnewste]

Dewayne,

I don't want you going on a Snipe Hunt, but you might want to read up on a fungicide called Honor Guard:

http://www.amazon.com/Honor-Guard-Pr...pr_product_top

It is a systemic treatment which addresses a number of your symptoms. Some folks use it in con★★★★★★★★ with Mancozeb, which is a topical-only fungicide.

EDIT: You might also want to check out Agri-Fos at the same time.

Raybo

[Keger]

If this helps... Down in SE Texas here. I had leaves that looked like some of yours, and heres what happened. I lost a couple Brandywines and Cherokee Purples, so I did the Daconil, and as soon as the wet weather stopped the plants that made it are all fine, a couple hundred or so. The Aggies said there has been a lot of fungus going on due to the conditions you describe, and something they said about Triphs (SP?) Hope this is of some benefit.

[tam91]

Raybo, that product says "Landscape, turf, ornamentals ". It's safe on edible plants also?

[b54red]

[QUOTE=Dewayne mater;272252]Thanks Bill. Guess I will try the bleach thing...though it scares the heck out me to spray something so caustic on them...I'm sure the dilution helps with that.

The scary thing is to pull yellowing leaves (or gray or shriveled) then a day or two later there are more. This makes me suspect a systemic issue, but, who knows? If so, does anything help? I'm almost certain this is at least 2 processes working and gray mold (some mold anyway) seems to be the diagnosis of one of them. The scary one is the yellowing that sometimes also wilts. That isn't typical of early blight in my experience.

Dewayne, you can't stop Gray Mold by pruning it out because it sends out spores that will develop new sights of infection constantly. Once it gets to the stage where the leaves start melting you have to spray it with something that will stop the spores from spreading. That is why I say to spray all sides of the leaves, stems and even the mulch underneath. I also spray any plants next to the tomatoes to be sure. I have tried a milder solution than the one I recommended but it was not sufficiently strong to kill back Gray Mold. If it is rainy I will even add another ounce of bleach to the mix but once you go over 8 then you increase the risk of leaf burn on the healthy leaves.

The yellowing you are describing with the sometimes wilting sounds just like fusarium wilt; but I think it is not very common in container plants. If it is fusarium the yellow will continue up the plant, sometimes just one main stem until it suddenly wilts. If you cut the stem off and see brownish or dark yellow looking spots inside the cut stem then it is probably fusarium.

[rnewste]

Originally Posted by tam91

Raybo, that product says "Landscape, turf, ornamentals ". It's safe on edible plants also?

That is why I suggested doing some research on the product for tomatoes. While it looks like it addresses some of the fungal issues like leaf mildew, I don't know about its restrictions. One would have to look at the related Datasheet to study its proper use and application.

Agri-Fos on the other hand, appears safe for use on vegetables.

Need to study options further.......

EDIT: Here is the link to Agri-Fos: http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/ms...de_suppl01.pdf

Raybo

[JamesL]

Just stumbled across the attached.
A lot of good info. Photo identification and treatment suggestions.
https://utextension.tennessee.edu/gr...l%20Manual.pdf

[Fusion_power]

Gray mold and Septoria. Both treatable with fungicides.

Suggest you also water with a good nitrate source since vigorous growth tends to overcome fungals. Don't overdo this!

DarJones

[Dewayne mater]

DarJones - Do you mean a nitrate in the fill tube/water reservoir or foliar? I'll head the stores that sell these products for other types of growers today to get it.

Do you have a fungicide(s) in mind that treats gray mold and Septoria? Thanks much.

Bill and Ray - thanks! Agrifos looks like a good one, but, it doesn't mention treatment of Septoria...just late blight. Is it good for other blights etc, such as Septoria?

Keger - (as in we're having a kegger?) I think he said Thrips. Those little buggers carry a lot of diseases and spread them with their eating habits. One such disease is TSWV and was a reason for my paranoia...if you get that, it is over.

James - thank you as well.

Dewayne

[rnewste]

Dewayne,

I hadn't thought much about it until your Thread, but treating BOTH topical as well as systemic fungal issues needs to be done, from a preventative standpoint. At least, this is the conclusion I've come to today. So, it looks like a topical product like Mancozeb (or Daconil) - coupled with a systemic product like Agri-Fos has merit.

I think Ami has referenced Agri-Fos in other Threads, from memory. Maybe he can comment. I've looked more at Honor Guard and have concluded it is not applicable for vegetable crops.

Raybo