Pink Brandywine

[Bubbagun]

I first seen this on my pink brandywine, now I see it on my early girl, I have look at many posts but have not found anything like this, what can I do to stop this, I started spaying copper fungicide mix two days ago, Temps here are between 97 and 103 for the next 5 days.

[RayR]

Looks like bug damage to me, not fungal.
Copper won't help with that.
Did you look on the bottom of the leaves? It appears that is where they are chewing.
Thrips maybe?

[tam91]

I was thinking bugs too. I'd get out the Sevin or something.

[Bubbagun]

I looked on the bottom and I did see a few very small black spec,my eyes aren't that good anymore,I have been spaying neem oil once in a while at the end of the day, but guess it's not working for this,I will get some sevin, I have to stop this,...I have some Malathion which I have never used on my tomatos, but it say it's ok for Vegies. I have only used neem oil,Actinovate and a copper mix all season, I will use sevin if I have to,but is there anything else I could try first.

[Dark Rumor]

I am in North Florida and I have had something similar on some plants that are less than a month old and younger. The ones that are a month old are recovering and I have not seen the holes on the new growth, "YET". I did not treat them cause I thought it was fungal at first, but it may be insects.

The youngest plants were not able to recover.

[RayR]

Neem should work but you have to spray the bottom of the leaves where the insects are feeding, but that would be true for an application of any insecticide

[Heritage]

It looks like worm damage to me. Worms will be on the underside of the leaves but can be difficult to see. Usually you can see worm droppings (looks like round pepper granules) on leaves below the damaged leaf.
The cure is any organic pesticide containing BT (Bacillus thuringiensis)

Steve

[Bubbagun]

thanks steve, i looked at the bottom leaves really close and i did see a very small worm and they are green which makes them harder to see, i dusted them with sevin and sprayed them with neem oil but I still found a few, I tryed to find something local that had (Bacillus thuringiensis) in it, but none of the big stores had it, I guess I will have to order it online.

[MissDixie]

Bacillus thuringiensis is also available in commercial larvaecides like Mosquito dunks- they look like grape nuts formed into a doughnut. If you buy it this way and want to make it into a liquid form you just have to let it sit in water over night and shake it a bit before you use it. They're meant to be a slow release product, usually for me they last quite some time.
Around here most of big chain stores carry them next to the other bug killers. I use it in a watering can to treat my gnasty gnats.

Dixie

[Bubbagun]

Thanks Dixie, I just happen to have a few of the Mosquito Dunk's and didn't know they had that in it, had a problem last year with the house next door empty and the pool was turning green and I bought them to throw in the pool because we were worried about the mosquito's, how many should I put in, and how much water, to make up a gallon of mix.

[Heritage]

Until now I didn't know that mosquito dunks are the way to go for mosquito larva and fungus gnat control. However, they contain a different strain of BT than the one that works on worms. It is Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis (or BTi). For worm control use plain old BT, I see it called Thuricide and Dipel. Now I know why my BT never seems to work very well on fungus gnasties, thanks Dixie.

If you keep bugging your big chain store garden manager they will eventually order it.

[MissDixie]

For my 1 1/2 gallon watering can I have half a doughnut, on the package half of one treats 5-25 square feet of surface water.

I'm not sure what dosage would be good for your bugs. I don't think it would hurt anything to soak a full dunk in the water.

Depending on how much spray you will need you could soak a dunk in a 5 gal bucket and then fill the sprayer from that.

Hope it works for you!

Dixie