What is this disease

[NewbieGrower]

My friend's EarthTainer tomato plant leaves suddenly developed splotches. Is this fungus?

[jtjmartin]

I've had plants that look like that as the later stage of sunburn. If it spreads, it's not sunburn though.

There's a lot better experts than me on the site though. I'll watch and learn!

[zipcode]

Looks like some sort of burn, probably not sunburn though. Around those spots however I seem to see maybe spider mite damage? Can you take a really close look under the leaves?

[NewbieGrower]

These are 2 friends EarthTainers I built and setup for them with my seedlings. Have been growing great for more than a month until suddenly both called with problems with leaves on same day. Plants put in EarthTainers a week apart and they located 25 miles apart. Found it very unusual for plants to have same problem appear same day. Here is photo of 2nd friend's plant (taken last night so did best he could). The leaves on exposed areas damaged but those inside cage, shaded by other leaves have no damage. The 2 days before we had unusually bright sun with high UV index. Temp in mid 80's. Previously, it has been overcast or raining with low UV index. My EarthTainer planted one week later and located 15 miles from the others shows no damage.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by NewbieGrower

My friend's EarthTainer tomato plant leaves suddenly developed splotches. Is this fungus?

This is not fungus. These are scars caused by an insect eating the leaves. Thrips do this, some beetle family bugs do this, can you see any bugs? They might have left by now. Anyways, for sure it isn't fungus or bacterial.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by NewbieGrower

These are 2 friends EarthTainers I built and setup for them with my seedlings. Have been growing great for more than a month until suddenly both called with problems with leaves on same day. Plants put in EarthTainers a week apart and they located 25 miles apart. Found it very unusual for plants to have same problem appear same day. Here is photo of 2nd friend's plant (taken last night so did best he could). The leaves on exposed areas damaged but those inside cage, shaded by other leaves have no damage. The 2 days before we had unusually bright sun with high UV index. Temp in mid 80's. Previously, it has been overcast or raining with low UV index. My EarthTainer planted one week later and located 15 miles from the others shows no damage.

Your friend's damage looks like a physical injury or chemical burn, does not look like the same thing as yours. Acid rain? Hail maybe?

[NewbieGrower]

Here is my other friend's plant 25 miles away. Same problem, same day. Is this fungus? Sunburn? Happened in one day involving multiple leaves.

[MissS]

It looks like a burn to me.

[NewbieGrower]

We had bad hailstorm here last week. Not much at my house but both theirs hit pretty bad. So concensus seems to be that this is physical damage (sunburn or hail stone). So just watch and see if doesn't spread.

[NewbieGrower]

We don't get acid rain here in Mississippi. But did have hailstorm last week.

[TessSR]

Remove the affected leaves and toss in the trash. If it happened again, it maybe something to look further. It could be a disease or mites. Goodluck!

Originally Posted by NewbieGrower

My friend's EarthTainer tomato plant leaves suddenly developed splotches. Is this fungus?

[NewbieGrower]

Wind damage? We had very bad wind storm a few days ago (trees down). 60mph.

[Lee]

I would guess spider mites or thrips as well.
Ask them to check on the undersides of the leaves with a magnifying glass to see if they can find any insects.

You can use a number of methods to remove from high power water mist to wash them off to pyrethrum (sp?) or neem oil base sprays.

I don't usually see wind/sun damage happening to such mature leaves/plants, and it's not hail damage.
Only way I could see it being sun damage is if they sprayed the leaves with something in the middle of the day... ie. sun/magnifying glass effect.

Lee

[NewbieGrower]

Originally Posted by Lee

I would guess spider mites or thrips as well.
Ask them to check on the undersides of the leaves with a magnifying glass to see if they can find any insects.

You can use a number of methods to remove from high power water mist to wash them off to pyrethrum (sp?) or neem oil base sprays.

I don't usually see wind/sun damage happening to such mature leaves/plants, and it's not hail damage.
Only way I could see it being sun damage is if they sprayed the leaves with something in the middle of the day... ie. sun/magnifying glass effect.

Lee

Even with leaves hitting against cage in strong wind? I am making "housecall" tomorrow and will check out everything carefully.

[Worth1]

I'm going with some sort of skeletonizing critters.
Worth