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stella1751
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Black Spots on Tomatoes: Not the Same as Those in the Sticky

Okay. It's late in the season for me to be asking this question, but I can not find an answer anywhere online, and I seriously need to know for next year. Based on the appearance of the leaves on my Better Bush tomatoes, I believe I got Septoria Leaf Spot from the unfinished compost at my municipal facility. My Lemon Boys in the bed next to them never manifested symptoms. I ignored the problem because it wasn't compromising production.

However, mid-season the fruits from both types became sprinkled with anywhere from one to a half-dozen small (1/4") black spots. It's not BER, and the fruit is tasty (especially the Better Bush :P ). They're just plain speckled with these spots. I considered insect damage at first, but I never found any suspects, and we just plain don't have that many insect problems in Wyoming. I considered birds, but many of the tomatoes are not accessible to birds. I actually considered acid rain, but no other plants are affected. I don't think the Septoria Leaf Spot is causing it; my understanding is that this would be quite rare. It has to be a fungus, but which one?

I've been researching this online for six weeks and just can't find anything even closely resembling this. Thanks in advance for your advice. Obi-Wan Helpful Gardener members, you are my only hope :lol:

Lemon Boys:

[img]https://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy292/mitbah/spots.jpg[/img]
Last edited by stella1751 on Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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stella1751
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I'm responding to my own posting to push it back to the top. I'm worried people aren't responding because the answer is so simple you don't want to embarrass me. I'm also worried no one is responding because you've never seen anything like this. So, I just want to say that if you are worried about embarrassing me, please, go ahead. I can take it. This has been making me nutty for four or five weeks now. If you haven't seen it before, I hope you'll respond, too. I can get 60 Minutes out here, and they can do this great documentary on Wyoming's black-spotted tomatoes and their possible indication of a global tomato famine :lol:

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Kisal
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Have you investigated the disease called Bacterial Speck? In tomatoes, it is caused by Pseudomonas syringae. That's what it looks like to me, anyway.

Does the foliage show any signs of disease? If so, that might point to some other problem, instead of bacterial speck. [img]https://bestsmileys.com/clueless/4.gif[/img]

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stella1751
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Bless your heart, Kisal! I've never even heard of bacterial speck, but I just went online to google images, and that has to be it. How odd! One of the fact sheets I looked at said it can be rain-driven. Few of our rains are gentle; most are accompanied by considerable winds.

You win the prize, Kisal: my heartfelt devotion. Now I just need to study this disease and determine where to go from here. You're the best :D

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Kisal
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Glad I was able to help point you in the right direction. :)



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