Septoria? Some other fungus maybe?

[drew51]

Originally Posted by Patihum

As hard as it would be to do the best choice is to discard all of the plants. The last thing you want to do is introduce it into your garden.

Once bacterial spot is introduced into the field, it can be difficult to control. The bacterial spot pathogen can also persist on infected plant debris in the soil for at least 1 year.

Last year I had a bacterial spot, although it was different from the one here, it had bigger lesions, and less of them. It only occurred in one corner of my garden. I refrained from growing any in the ground this year, or even near the corner it happened in. I tried straw bales this year for 4 plants. So how it goes. The rest are in containers. Which I do every year too, so just few more in 20-30 gallon containers with homemade mix.

[Mike723]

I think Linda is on to something (Hi Linda!), are those wood chips on the surface? If they are they could be causing the issue, along with all the water speeding their decay and causing an imbalance.. They look very wet.. I would get them in a new container with some fresh soil, free of any wood chips etc.. Try to find a dry spot for them in the mean time.

Uncleal,
I would steer clear of deliberately drenching the soil with the bleach solution, as it will destroy beneficial bacteria/fungi as well.. It'll also irritate and drive away any earthworms, arthropods etc in the area.. As a foliar treatment I've found it to work well (when necessary), but I'm careful not to over apply because of the issues previously mentioned. Just mulch the plants well (2"), with a 50/50 blend of shredded leaves and grass clippings to keep any pathogens from splashing up onto the leaves.

[uncleal]

Thanks for the input, Mike. I will most likely use the grass and leaf mulch as you suggested. I also will do a mycorrhizal soil drench when transplanting my seedlings.

[Mike723]

No prob! Just keep in mind that the spores need to contact roots within 24 hours; your best bet is to dust the roots directly when planting.

[uncleal]

I usually soak the root ball in the solution at planting time. I hope that will suffice.

[Mike723]

That's plenty good.. Would be helpful to start your own topic in the future, as you'll get more responses and you won't be taking attention away from other people's..

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by gvillemom

I found the spots on all 3 trays of Cherokee Purple, and one tray of Mortgage Lifter, which were side by side. So far I have not found it anywhere else.

FWIW, I'm in PA and I found what I'm pretty sure is septoria after this $#&*@! cold, wet stretch. It's only on my Cherokee Purple and Black Cherry, and possibly starting on my Dwarf Mr. Snow. I sprayed everything with copper, did some chanting over the Dwarf Mr. Snow (not really--I just have my fingers crossed, but I would use witchcraft at this point if I thought it would work), and decided to replace the CP and BC. I figure there's no way they're going to outpace the disease when it's started while they're so young, and new plants that get religious preventative spraying probably have a better chance. I started seed, just in case I can't find plants for those varieties at the local garden centers, but I'm just at the point where it's almost too late for that. We'll see.

I suppose it could be bacterial speck. The weather conditions were right for it. But I had something that looked identical last year, although it started much later in the season, and it never affected fruit, so it was almost certainly septoria. Of course, I could have really lousy luck and have bacterial speck now and get septoria at the usual time later in the season. Or maybe I should be positive and look on the bright side: maybe I had bacterial speck last year, but it miraculously spared my fruit!

[Mike723]

It's never a good idea to purposefully drench your soil with a bleach solution.. The leaves yes, but make an effort not to drench the soil..

[gvillemom]

Thank you to everyone who provided an answer here! I ended up spraying all my plants with a fugicide, just to be safe. For the plants that looked really bad, I used the bleach spray. I lost about 50% of the plants, 3 trays of 18. The plants that survived look great so far. No spots or yellowing on the new growth.
I also am not finding any new infection in any of my other plants. Here are a couple pictures taken today, which is about 3 weeks after the bleach treatment. Thankfully I was able to save 3 types of Dwarf tomato, as well as my Cherokee Purple, which were the ones I was really wanting. I lost my Mortgage Lifters.

[Fred Hempel]

Gvillemom -- I can't help but notice your potting mix. It looks very woody, and the high carbon::nitrogen ratio of a mix like that will make it hard for the plants to get nitrogen.

Sometimes a poor potting soil will put the plants under stresses that can make pest and pathogen attacks more likely and more severe.

[gvillemom]

I am planning to repot them today, I had to wait till I could buy something different. Thanks for the info! Now if it would just stop raining in VA I could actually put them in the ground!

[Fusion_power]

Those plants show severe nutrient stress. They are particularly deficient in nitrogen and potassium. Get a good tomato fertilizer with micronutrients and use it per directions. My rule of thumb is that 1/4 teaspoon of fertilizer is just about right for a tray of 18 plants in 4 inch cups. This amount can be given every 3rd week. The clue that nutrient stress is a problem is the number of yellow leaves at the bottom of the plants.

I have seen spots on the leaves similar to what you show from drops of rain followed by direct sun. The raindrops focus the sun into a small area on the leaf and kill the leaf tissue. The result is black spots on the leaves. This is the reason I NEVER top water tomato seedlings. I always put water straight into the bottom of the tray with a nozzle. Do NOT presume this is the cause of your leaf spotting, it is still highly likely that you are dealing with a leaf disease.

[gvillemom]

I haven't watered these plants in 4 weeks. We have literally has that much rain. I shelter them so they dry out. I believe I was dealing with a disease of some kind, which is why I tried the bleach treatment. Hopefully after a few days of sunshine, new soil, and some fertilizer they will be good again.