Leaf Diseases

[FilthyRich]

I do concur; This treatment does work! I have taken things a step further. I apply the lower dose every 4 days and find if anything, each plant that was destined for removal from the bed has actually behaved as if fertilizer were added. Fantastic, strong, new growth, clear of any infection. If anything I would say that the treatment does not only treat and remove certain plant infections but actually improves the health of the treated plant. Skeptics should give it a try. As a prophylactic treatment I don't think anyone could go wrong. This really is the answer..............I think.

[b54red]

I'm glad to hear it's working for you.

[Garf]

My only concern is getting the mix right. I use a 1qt spray bottle.

[b54red]

Garf, just use slightly less than 2 oz and fill up the bottle. It doesn't have to be exact so long as you don't miss too much one way or the other.

[Garf]

I mixed up a batch of Publix brand bleach and sprayed all diseased plant parts. The Publix bleach is also 6% sodium hypochlorite. How long is a mixed batch good for sitting in a sprayer?

[b54red]

Garf, don't try to save the mix. You need to spray the whole plant because you can't see all the disease. If you are worried use the milder mix to start with of 7 ounces to a gallon of water. Add 1 3/4 ounces to a quart for a smaller batch. If you need the stronger solution add 2 ounces to a quart of water.

[Dewayne mater]

b54red - I sprayed a 6 oz per gallon bleach solution on my fall plants on Monday and quite a few, the majority, of leaves seem to be suffering. Even leaves that had appeared green and healthy look kinda burned. Do you think they will recover or shrivel up and die? Should I hit them with some seaweed solution or something to try to aid their survival? We may only have a couple of weeks before a freeze and I figure I need all the leaves possible to aid in the leave to tomato nutrient exchange. Some leaves have shiveled and died, I will remove those. What about the others that look affected to but not dead? I'm wondering if I should have just used daconil or something that would slow but not eliminate leaf disease this late in the season? Any thoughts appreciated.

[b54red]

Garf if you used the milder solution correctly diluted and had that much leaf damage then you had plenty of disease. That is why I tell people not to wait too long after seeing the emergence of the disease to start spraying. Usually there is much more disease present than you can see. Is any of the new growth shriveling up? Usually the disease has not progressed that far unless it is something like Late Blight or TSWV which both seem to hit the new growth early on. I had some plants that got hit with both this fall but the spray seemed to stop the spread of the Blight to nearby plants. I still have nearly a dozen very healthy looking plants and about a dozen hanging on but still producing and nearly two dozen that are nearly dead. Besides all the diseases we had two nights of freezing weather that hit quite a few of my plants rather hard and even killed a couple.

Did you wait til late in the afternoon to spray?

I would just give it a few days, water them and see if the plants seems to be perking up.

[Garf]

I mixed the Clorox at 1oz to 15oz water. That is slightly strong. I killed 3 plants, most likely I didn't shake the mix well enough. The pics show the only green left on 2 of them. The third one is gone.

[b54red]

I'm sorry to see those pictures. I have never had that kind of result but I guess it's possible if the bleach was strong enough it might happen. When I was first experimenting with the bleach spray I used a 10 % solution on some plants and did have some significant leaf burn, especially when sprayed in the middle of the day in bright sunlight. The mix you describe of one ounce in 15 ounces of water is about the same as I would use or maybe a little stronger since that is around a 6% solution as long as your bleach is the strength with 5 1/4% sodium hypochlorite. Recently I have been getting some Clorox with 6% sodium hypochlorite and I use less, mixing 7 ounces to a gallon of water to give me the same solution I have found to be most effective with negligible leaf burn.

[Garf]

The bleach is a store brand marked 6%. There are still signs of life on some of the other plants. Not much, but we will see what happens. The diseases are still there. Maybe Clorox doesn't work on Bacterial Spot.

[b54red]

I have the same stuff on a couple of my plants. I have been spraying them every 10 days or so and it seems to have stopped it's spread. The top 3/4 of my plants show no signs of it but it does seem to remain on the lower leaves. When I first noticed it it was half way up the plant and now it is only on the oldest leaves so I guess the spread has stopped or slowed. I'll try to remember to take a picture of one of the plants in the next day or so and post it. I'm going to spray mine again tomorrow after I pull out some of the ones that got badly damaged by the two nights of freezing weather we had a week ago. Green Zebra and Akers West Virginia got hammered by the frost while some like BTD Pink didn't seem to be affected at all.

[Structure]

I tried the Clorox method this year too. Mostly curious. Had some early blight on a few plants. Anyhow, the spraying with Clorox wiped out ALL the sprayed leaves. (Yes, I diluted it...think I had it "right" based on what I'd read in various posts....4 ounces of 6% to 1 gallon?) All the plants eventually sent out new growth, but it was overall kind of a bummer. I'd expected only the diseased leaves to die, but not everything. Guess that's silly though. No reason the bleach would just kill leaves with early blight and leave the others alone. I suppose B54 only sprays the infected leaves and therefore having them die isn't a bad a hit to the overall plant. *shurg*

Not saying I did it right, or that it might not work for others. Just my experience. I think I'll stick to various organics and let the bleach solution mature.

[Dewayne mater]

I'm having a similar experience to Structure. I had about 10-20% of leaves with visible disease on most plants (2 were worse) and I'd been using various controls often recommended on T-ville. Overall, most of the leaves on my plants looked robust. I also had tons of fruit, much of it full sized (for fall plants) and probably about a 3 week window to get it ripe enough to pick. I was worried about the spread of disease as I clearly had multiple disease processes working and chose to try to the clorox method discussed above and else where. I used the 6 oz to gallon concentration. 5 days later, I would guess about 80-90% of my leaves are now dead. The plants are living, but look awful. I suspect I won't have enough leaves to get the fruit energy to ripen before a freeze, now predicted about 2 weeks out. So, I have to say for me, this was a disaster and I won't repeat it. I hope it works for everyone else, but, If you try it, I would suggest caution and try it on a plant or two to see how it works for you.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Structure

I tried the Clorox method this year too. Mostly curious. Had some early blight on a few plants. Anyhow, the spraying with Clorox wiped out ALL the sprayed leaves. (Yes, I diluted it...think I had it "right" based on what I'd read in various posts....4 ounces of 6% to 1 gallon?) All the plants eventually sent out new growth, but it was overall kind of a bummer. I'd expected only the diseased leaves to die, but not everything. Guess that's silly though. No reason the bleach would just kill leaves with early blight and leave the others alone. I suppose B54 only sprays the infected leaves and therefore having them die isn't a bad a hit to the overall plant. *shurg*

Not saying I did it right, or that it might not work for others. Just my experience. I think I'll stick to various organics and let the bleach solution mature.

I can assure you that one of four things happened. One you mixed up a solution that was too strong. Two, you got hold of some bleach that was way too strong. Three the diseases were totally infecting the plant. Or four, the plants were sprayed in the bright hot sunshine with a fairly strong solution.
I only use Clorox brand bleach and I always check for the percentage of sodium hypochlorite and adjust accordingly.
I went out an hour ago and took these pictures of some of my plants. All of them have been sprayed at least 3 times and some 5 or 6 times since they were planted.
As you can see some like the Linnies Oxheart have lost a great number of their lower leaves but are still producing even after two freezing nights. The container plants are the youngest and were set out in mid to late September and have all been sprayed. I spray the complete plant not just the visibly diseased portion, though I am more thorough where I see disease and will only lightly spray the new growth.

I have been fighting a plethora of diseases this fall TSWV, Fusarium wilt, several leaf spot diseases, Early and Late Blight and a couple of leaf molds. There was a period of nearly a month when I was unable to get out and spray with either Daconil or the bleach solution and I paid dearly for it. I have been trying to spray more regularly since then but today was the first spraying in two weeks.