What if I do nothing to combat fungus?

per2012 · July 28, 2015

I'm in zone 7, Baltimore, MD. My 3 container balcony plants are 8+ feet tall, laden with fruit and are just now beginning to show signs of fungal disease, a few spots here and there moving up the plants. The affected leaves are mostly green so I assume they are photosynthesizing even with the fungus on them. They are also protecting the fruit from sun-scald. If I use the bleach spray (or any of the other recommended sprays) the affected leaves will be destroyed. If I let nature take its course will I be able to "run out the clock" until late September, or will the fungus overcome the new growth killing the plants altogether?

Tracydr · July 28, 2015

You may do okay Using just kelp, worm tea and neem. Can keep the immune system up Nd if you have tough varieties, get lucky with weather, you might be okay

RayR · July 28, 2015

The fact that you are just seeing fungal disease (have you diagnosed what it is? Early Blight, Septoria?) tells me you have a good chance of controlling it since your plants are large. I'd rather have your problem than the virulent race of Septoria that has been hitting my tomato plants early in the past 2 seasons. If you do nothing your plants are going defoliate and die before September. Prune the infected leaves and throw them in the trash, Use a protective fungicide, a Copper or Chlorothalonil (Daconil) are your basic choices for that at this point to help keep it from spreading.

feldon30 · July 28, 2015

Anthracnose can be a real problem as your tomatoes start to get sunken, rotten spots. You can cut off the spots and still use the tomato, but still it's frustrating and hurts shelf life and presentation. I went without anti-fungal this year and the anthracnose is enough of an issue that I'll be reverting to spraying next year.

Gerardo · July 28, 2015

I left a Black from Tula untreated as an experiment and it was an ugly, dark, spotty, defoliated death. The spots will begin to climb, sometimes they can go a whole internodal distance in less than a day. If the humidity increases, you'll see them climb even faster.

And those are the ones you can actually see, if you could up the magnification like Lee Majors could back in the day, I'm sure you'd want to spray them with something.

Neem and Daconil have worked great for me. Cooper for the advanced cases. Bleach spray when humidity rears its head only.

I hope they blush well before labor day.

EDIT/sidebar: And now that i think about it, i was little young when that show was on, and I can't remember. Did the SixMillionDollarMan see far away and microscopically? or just telescope vision? (sorry for off-topic nature of this).

b54red · July 28, 2015

Since your problem seems minor right now I would agree with Ray. Clip off the infected leaves and spray with Daconil since what you describe sounds like Early Blight. If it looks to be something like Septoria you should use a copper spray at the lowest recommended rate to start with. Look up tomato diseases and compare what your plants are doing to the pictures that they have as examples. My bet is it will be one of the two mentioned above. If it is Gray Mold then use the bleach spray immediately.

Good luck.
Bill

July 28, 2015	#1
per2012 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2012 Location: baltimore Posts: 4	What if I do nothing to combat fungus? I'm in zone 7, Baltimore, MD. My 3 container balcony plants are 8+ feet tall, laden with fruit and are just now beginning to show signs of fungal disease, a few spots here and there moving up the plants. The affected leaves are mostly green so I assume they are photosynthesizing even with the fungus on them. They are also protecting the fruit from sun-scald. If I use the bleach spray (or any of the other recommended sprays) the affected leaves will be destroyed. If I let nature take its course will I be able to "run out the clock" until late September, or will the fungus overcome the new growth killing the plants altogether?

July 28, 2015	#4
feldon30 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 5,346	Anthracnose can be a real problem as your tomatoes start to get sunken, rotten spots. You can cut off the spots and still use the tomato, but still it's frustrating and hurts shelf life and presentation. I went without anti-fungal this year and the anthracnose is enough of an issue that I'll be reverting to spraying next year. __________________ [SIZE="3"]I've relaunched my gardening website -- [B]TheUnconventionalTomato.com[/B][/SIZE] * [I][SIZE="1"]*I'm not allowed to post weblinks so you'll have to copy-paste it manually.[/SIZE][/I]

July 28, 2015	#5
Gerardo Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: San Diego-Tijuana Posts: 2,594	I left a Black from Tula untreated as an experiment and it was an ugly, dark, spotty, defoliated death. The spots will begin to climb, sometimes they can go a whole internodal distance in less than a day. If the humidity increases, you'll see them climb even faster. And those are the ones you can actually see, if you could up the magnification like Lee Majors could back in the day, I'm sure you'd want to spray them with something. Neem and Daconil have worked great for me. Cooper for the advanced cases. Bleach spray when humidity rears its head only. I hope they blush well before labor day. EDIT/sidebar: And now that i think about it, i was little young when that show was on, and I can't remember. Did the SixMillionDollarMan see far away and microscopically? or just telescope vision? (sorry for off-topic nature of this). Last edited by Gerardo; July 28, 2015 at 10:33 AM. Reason: 6 million man ????

July 28, 2015	#2
Tracydr Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2011 Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7 Posts: 3,207	You may do okay Using just kelp, worm tea and neem. Can keep the immune system up Nd if you have tough varieties, get lucky with weather, you might be okay

July 28, 2015	#3
RayR Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Cheektowaga, NY Posts: 2,466	The fact that you are just seeing fungal disease (have you diagnosed what it is? Early Blight, Septoria?) tells me you have a good chance of controlling it since your plants are large. I'd rather have your problem than the virulent race of Septoria that has been hitting my tomato plants early in the past 2 seasons. If you do nothing your plants are going defoliate and die before September. Prune the infected leaves and throw them in the trash, Use a protective fungicide, a Copper or Chlorothalonil (Daconil) are your basic choices for that at this point to help keep it from spreading.

July 28, 2015	#6
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Since your problem seems minor right now I would agree with Ray. Clip off the infected leaves and spray with Daconil since what you describe sounds like Early Blight. If it looks to be something like Septoria you should use a copper spray at the lowest recommended rate to start with. Look up tomato diseases and compare what your plants are doing to the pictures that they have as examples. My bet is it will be one of the two mentioned above. If it is Gray Mold then use the bleach spray immediately. Good luck. Bill