The Fungus Among Us - Tomato Expert Advice Please

[usamka]

Hey folks,

This entire summer I've been battling (and losing) to some kind of fungus. I've got (er had) potted disease resistant hybrids like Better Boy, Beefmaster and Celebrity and all have succumbed to what might at least be powdery mildew (I'm guessing) and who knows whatever else in the fungus department.

I plant in my bleached/clean pots, fill with vegetable soil, fertilize appropriately then watch in silent horror after a few weeks when...

Yellowing of leaves starts at the base of the plant then rapidly spreads upwards. I slow water without splashing, use, mulch, have tried preventive spraying with Neem Oil, Sesame oil, copper based sprays and heavy artillery like Daconil (not all at once) to no avail. I even used diluted bleach killing off all infected tissue and decimating the plants which came back only to be ravaged yet again by the nefarious fungus. I live in SoCal and it's been hot and dry this summer. Pics are attached. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear 'em since this operation is getting to be cost prohibitive, not to mention the emotional toll it takes on me daily.

Thanks all.

[b54red]

That doesn't look like any fungus I am familiar with. You may be dealing with a mite problem or a mineral deficiency or too much of a mineral.

Bill

[Gerardo]

Could it be Bacterial speck + a deficiency. Are the fruit affected also or just the leaves?

[RayR]

I agree with Bill, it looks like mites, Spider Mites or Tomato Russet Mites. There is also one Leaf Miner trail in the first photo.

[ContainerTed]

Where did you get the plants?? Are they commercial or seed that you started? They look like they are water deprived to some extent, and maybe sunburned. With the SoCal weather lately, it's impossible to water containers too much. The solution I would recommend would be to spray with "Garden Safe", which is organic. This will take care of fungal problems and also mites and other insects. I agree that there is one leaf miner in the first picture. Garden Safe 3 will take care of them as well.

It is my opinion that the plant is too dry. A plant struggling to just stay alive has greatly reduced capability to fight off the things that kill it. I always water completely at least once a day and when the sun is high and dry, I may water twice or more each day. Is your growing medium in the containers just sterile mix, or does it include some humus? My formula for mix includes some composted manure and dolomite lime, along with Tomato Tone and some 10-10-10 general purpose fertilizer which gets supplemented a couple of times during the growing season along with Miracle Grow for Tomatoes every two weeks.

Watering containers "washes out" all the nutrients and those nutrients must be amended to the growing medium frequently for healthy plants to thrive.

[Cole_Robbie]

My first guess was septoria, but it's hard (for me anyway) to tell the difference between spot, speck and septoria. Here is a link about them:
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/...cts/05-069.htm

I think you were on the right track with the bleach, but you have to get the strength of it right. If you only have a few plants to spray, it's easier to use hydrogen peroxide. The drugstore stuff is 3%. Dilute that 50/50 with water.

[ginger2778]

http://agrilifecdn.tamu.edu/etg/file...upper_leaf.jpg

This page shows classic spider mite damage, which has a stippled speckled leaf with the yellow. Nothing else looks like spider mite damage, and I dont think yours has it. The yellowing is only going up one side, and I see a brown on the stem base area.
Have you cut it open to see if the vascular tissue is brown? That would be the very unlikely scenario of Fusarium. Usually potted don't get this, unless the soil was taken from a fusarium area. But it can happen....

Not Septoria, wrong kind and number of spots.

I think you should slice open an infected stem and see if you see brown just under the epidermis. If you do, throw that plant out!

[Lorri D]

One quick test can narrow down your problem for you. Just cut a piece of the leaf or stem and sink it into a clear, see-though glass of water. If it is bacterial, you will see what it called bacterial streaming, milky wisps of bacteria leaking out into the water. Badly infected stems will stream in less than a couple minutes. Less infected material may take longer. If you have no streaming in 45 minutes to an hr then the test is negative and it is not bacterial. You should choose a badly infected piece of material to get the most accurate and fastest results.

Examples from the internet are below.

[RayR]

I'm sticking to a mite problem until USAMKA can prove otherwise. Some of the tissue damage on top of the leaves may be attributed to the bleach spray, I don't know.
A very common mistake that gardeners make is to try to diagnose symptoms by looking at and showing pictures of the top of the leaves. If you have a bug problem it is very rare that they will be on the top surface of the leaves. Mites and aphids will be doing their dirty work on the bottom of the leaves, what you see on top of the leaves is just the symptom of the tissue damage on the bottom of the leaves.
The 2 indispensable tools I use are a digital camera that can do a decent close-up of a leaf and a strong jewelers loop. Aphids you can generally see with the naked eye especially if they are moving but I've taken pictures with the camera and put them up on the computer screen and saw there were a lot more than what I saw with my own eyes. Mites you cannot see with your eyes so you need at least a 10X magnifier to just make out any movement of what looks like dust, so he stronger the magnification the better.

[usamka]

Wow everyone thanks so much for weighing in I really appreciate it!

I've only been checking for aphids so mites weren't even on my radar. The 3rd plant now has serious leaf miner action so I'll try Garden Safe to combat them as well as the mites.

Container Ted I bought them as commercial plants from Armstrong and I used Edna's Best Potting soil and then some organic fertilizer (about 4 tbsps) every month no humus so thanks for the formula tips.

From Bill's first comment it occurred to me maybe I was over fertilizing since the potting soil was also nutrient rich but after reading Container Ted's protocol I'm guessing that's not the case and may actually be a deficiency since I wasn't aware that containers wash out so quickly. Plus I'm definitely not watering enough. I had been told to bear more fruit water less which will stress the plant into producing but looks like I've been stressing it too much!

Lorri D/Ginger2778 I did the stem test in water and and the vascular tissue looks healthy with no milky wisps or brown epidermis. Gerardo the fruit aren't affected just leaves.

Cole_Robbie - If the Garden Safe doesn't work I'll try the diluted bleach again or Hydrogen Peroxide.

RayR I'll check back in after stepping up the watering and using Garden Safe to ward off any potential mites. I actually didn't use diluted bleach spray on this specific plant (with these pictures) since that one died fast so sorry for the confusion. I'll definitely try using the digital on the underside of the leaves to see if I can catch any mites in action.

Thank you all again for your feedback.

[VC Scott]

It has been a very bad year in Southern California for tomato russet mite. You need a 30x magnifying glass to see them. Look on the underside of the leaves.

Do the affected leaves turn brown and crispy? Do you see bronzing on the stem?

If you confirm the diagnosis, you can try to control by spraying with wettable sulphur. I have also had some luck with Take Down, but that will also kill beneficial insects.

[usamka]

Originally Posted by VC Scott

It has been a very bad year in Southern California for tomato russet mite. You need a 30x magnifying glass to see them. Look on the underside of the leaves.

Do the affected leaves turn brown and crispy? Do you see bronzing on the stem?

If you confirm the diagnosis, you can try to control by spraying with wettable sulphur. I have also had some luck with Take Down, but that will also kill beneficial insects.

VC Scott Yes they do turn brown and crispy and the stems are bronzing. I haven't tried wettable sulphur yet so maybe that's the magic bullet. I'll also have to grab a magnifying glass to confirm. Thanks very much for the suggestions.

Matt

[Fusion_power]

This is a combination of four or five different things. Most likely you will find russet mites under the leaves and leaf miners on some of them. On top of the leaves, you have what looks like septoria. The leaves and plants also clearly show excess stress to the point the leaves are dying. The combination of stress plus mites plus septoria is about to kill them. The fertilizer is unbalanced. I don't know what it has, but it is inadequate nitrogen.

To treat the mites, I use Pyganic. It is expensive, but very effective on most plant pests.

To treat the fertilizer deficiency, get some liquid seaweed emulsion with at least 2% nitrogen and apply 2 tablespoons in 1/2 gallon of water per plant. Also get a micronutrient fert to address the micronutrient deficiency, especially magnesium, that I see on the leaves. They will need repeat fertilizers in about 3 weeks.

To treat the water deficiency, either put a timer on the water or else set the containers in a water tray.

Septoria is tougher to deal with. It helps if the plants are healthy. The best treatment is a combination of Agrifos and Azoxystrobin. If you can keep the plants dry and the humidity low, Septoria will pretty much become a non-issue. Plant stress plus High humidity and high temps encourage it to spread.

[usamka]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

This is a combination of four or five different things. Most likely you will find russet mites under the leaves and leaf miners on some of them. On top of the leaves, you have what looks like septoria. The leaves and plants also clearly show excess stress to the point the leaves are dying. The combination of stress plus mites plus septoria is about to kill them. The fertilizer is unbalanced. I don't know what it has, but it is inadequate nitrogen.

To treat the mites, I use Pyganic. It is expensive, but very effective on most plant pests.

To treat the fertilizer deficiency, get some liquid seaweed emulsion with at least 2% nitrogen and apply 2 tablespoons in 1/2 gallon of water per plant. Also get a micronutrient fert to address the micronutrient deficiency, especially magnesium, that I see on the leaves. They will need repeat fertilizers in about 3 weeks.

To treat the water deficiency, either put a timer on the water or else set the containers in a water tray.

Septoria is tougher to deal with. It helps if the plants are healthy. The best treatment is a combination of Agrifos and Azoxystrobin. If you can keep the plants dry and the humidity low, Septoria will pretty much become a non-issue. Plant stress plus High humidity and high temps encourage it to spread.

Thanks for all the advice Fusion_power. The fertilizer I used once when first planting was EB Stone Organic Tomato and Vegetable Food 4-5-3 but I've ordered some of the liquid seaweed emulsion off Amazon and bought a micronutrient fertilizer as well comparable to the Miracle Gro for Tomatoes which Container_Ted suggested which is called Tomato-Food 18-18-21 Fertilizer Mix. Keep you posted on my progress with the bugs, watering and fertilizing to bounce these plants back - thanks again everyone.