help with leaf diseases please

rwsacto · June 7, 2016

I am having trouble getting a handle on this.
The first three photos show the yellow and brown discoloration that travels up from the bottom of the plant.
I removed affected leaves and sprayed periodically for fungal issues (daconil, green cure, serenade) and most recently spinosad for thrips.

The fourth and fifth photo shows leaves that desiccate without much discoloration,
and located on the interior and exterior of the plant, not necessarily near the bottom.

The growing tips are healthy but I am getting less than normal fruit set (e.g. photo 4).
A few plants still have no tomatoes yet.

Sticky traps show a few thrips and very few white flies.
Shaking leaves on white paper yield a few thrips, no spider mites (yet)

Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you,
Rick

ginger2778 · June 7, 2016

I see a little early blight, a whole lot of Septoria, and possibly some grey mold. I would break out the "curative" fungal controls now, you are well past the stage where preventives like Daconil will work. This is a job for liquid copper fungicide if I ever saw one. Be careful, more is NOT better with the liquid copper, just trim all infected leaves off best you can, bag em up, get them out of your garden. Make sure not to spread the disease from plant to plant by wiping your trimmer/pruner with a Lysol wipe or alcohol between plants. Then spray the copper with their weakest recommended dose for tomatoes. If it looks blue on the leaves it is far too strong and will stunt the new growth for about 3 weeks.
Be thorough about spraying under and over the leaves, and all stems down to the soil line.
Once you do this, you should get on a control regimen of copper spray at 1/2 of the weakest recommended dose every 7-10 days.
They are not too far gone yet.

Bill may recommend his bleach spray here. It didn't do well in my hands, but
YMMV. He thinks I mixed it too strong. Maybe?

Patihum · June 8, 2016

What Marsha said! Be sure to spray ALL the plants not just the ones that are showing problems.

Dewayne mater · June 8, 2016

I agree with the advice given. I would throw out a warning that especially with mold, which I think I see, it is FAR more present than what shows up on the few clearly dying leaves. I went out this morning, the 2nd day after the bleach spray, and discovered that on a few plants that had a few leaves obviously affected with mold, that in fact probably 40% of the leaves were affected. How do I know? Because after the bleach spray the infected leaves die and do so rather dramatically after about 48 hours or so. It is shocking and depressing to see what had appeared to be healthy leaves die in large numbers. But, what you have to realize is, these problems existed and you didn't know it. The bleach spray just speeds up the process that the mold would have taken days or weeks to kill. Ultimately, that is a good thing because you can remove the infected, now dead or dying leaves and the plant will start to focus on new, healthy growth. Good luck!

Dewayne

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June 7, 2016	#2
ginger2778 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Plantation, Florida zone 10 Posts: 9,283	I see a little early blight, a whole lot of Septoria, and possibly some grey mold. I would break out the "curative" fungal controls now, you are well past the stage where preventives like Daconil will work. This is a job for liquid copper fungicide if I ever saw one. Be careful, more is NOT better with the liquid copper, just trim all infected leaves off best you can, bag em up, get them out of your garden. Make sure not to spread the disease from plant to plant by wiping your trimmer/pruner with a Lysol wipe or alcohol between plants. Then spray the copper with their weakest recommended dose for tomatoes. If it looks blue on the leaves it is far too strong and will stunt the new growth for about 3 weeks. Be thorough about spraying under and over the leaves, and all stems down to the soil line. Once you do this, you should get on a control regimen of copper spray at 1/2 of the weakest recommended dose every 7-10 days. They are not too far gone yet. Bill may recommend his bleach spray here. It didn't do well in my hands, but YMMV. He thinks I mixed it too strong. Maybe?

June 8, 2016	#3
Patihum Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Southeast Kansas Posts: 878	What Marsha said! Be sure to spray ALL the plants not just the ones that are showing problems.

June 8, 2016	#4
Dewayne mater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: DFW, Texas Posts: 1,212	I agree with the advice given. I would throw out a warning that especially with mold, which I think I see, it is FAR more present than what shows up on the few clearly dying leaves. I went out this morning, the 2nd day after the bleach spray, and discovered that on a few plants that had a few leaves obviously affected with mold, that in fact probably 40% of the leaves were affected. How do I know? Because after the bleach spray the infected leaves die and do so rather dramatically after about 48 hours or so. It is shocking and depressing to see what had appeared to be healthy leaves die in large numbers. But, what you have to realize is, these problems existed and you didn't know it. The bleach spray just speeds up the process that the mold would have taken days or weeks to kill. Ultimately, that is a good thing because you can remove the infected, now dead or dying leaves and the plant will start to focus on new, healthy growth. Good luck! Dewayne