Tomato Blight?!

[Tabasco]

This happened pretty suddenly.
I'm doing milk spray, do you think these plants will make it?

[imafan26]

Pick off the lower leaves you don't need. Make sure the leaves go in the trash not on the ground.
It does not look like blight to me but one of the other fungal diseases like black spot, or bacterial speck. Good sanitation and cultural practices (spaced to enhance air circulation, no over head watering, crop rotation, pulling infested plants to prevent others from being infected) and preventive fungal sprays when conditions are humid help.


https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vege ... er/leaves/

[Tabasco]

They all had some on them.
So they are all infected.
Should I pull them all out?

[ElizabethB]

Tabasco - are you in Louisiana? New Iberia area? If so there are so many viruses, fungus, bacteria that plague our tomatoes. If you are in south Louisiana send me a PM. I have some resources that you can access.

Good luck

[Tabasco]

I'm in central Florida.

[applestar]

Start by taking off the affected leaves not taking out the plants.

If you want to be safe, don't prune when the foliage is wet -- only when dry -- and dip your hands in milk (any kind including powdered milk mixed in water is fine) every few plants. Use pruners to make clean cuts rather than trying to pinch off with fingernails. I carry a travel atomizer of rubbing alcohol and spray the pruners after each plant. If any leaves had fallen on the ground, pick those up, too.

THEN spray with 30-50% milk solution, and don't forget to mulch. If you are in Florida, you might be already getting into the high heat and tomatoes starting to frizzle out. So I suspect you can pull the plug on the worst ones, but it's easier to make the assessment after cleaning up the affected leaves.

[Tabasco]

Thanks.

It has spread all around, even to some of the stems up to the fruit.
Here's a stitched together image of various places in my blighted tomato patch.

[Tabasco]

It's Septoria, not blight.
I did some studying on a really nice site called Tomato Dirt https://www.tomatodirt.com/
Ravaged the whole crop.

I planted a variety that can't stand 90+ degrees day after day.
I planted them too close together.
I didn't mulch until there was fruit set.

They are still growing and I'm trying to salvage a harvest, but it's getting pretty thin.
I cropped every single affected leaf this morning.

Looks like my peppers next to them are getting sick now. Those have been producing great.

So I may have to empty my little bed out very early this summer, but you live and learn.

[Tabasco]

My next subject of study will be on getting my bed ready for what I will plant next.

I'm leaning toward more peppers, summer squash, more basil, oregano, and maybe some black eyed peas.

Still trying for a cucumber crop.

I may put shade cloth over part of the area.

[rainbowgardener]

You are doing great learning! You will be much better prepared the next time. One of the things gardeners have to learn is to grow everything in its proper season. Summer is not tomato season in the south, though it is for me. It will help to grow heat resistant varieties (and to give them plenty of room and mulch and all those things you said), but really you probably need to plant tomatoes early Sept for a fall-winter crop, and Jan-Feb for a spring crop and don't figure on growing them through the summer.

[Tabasco]

One of the things gardeners have to learn is to grow everything in its proper season. Summer is not tomato season in the south...

It seems obvious, but when you're new to gardening, or whatever, you tend to be gullible.

You stroll into your local Lowes-Depot-Supply-King nursery department
and assume that you can grow whatever they're selling.
After all, it looks fine (in their cool, shaded, and heavily tended to environment).
Then you put it in your garden and Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!

I grew from seed, just as bad if you are clueless.
All those colorful seed packages looked like a candy store to me a few months ago.
There's no law against selling finicky heirloom seeds basically meant for a science-fiction, hydroponic greenhouse
to unsuspecting swamp-dwellers in central Florida.

I'm being partly dramatic, but it's basically true.

[applestar]

You might want to start thinking about your fall tomatoes from seeds now. How long can you grow them in fall (when do you get frost)?

[Tabasco]

applestar,

I have some Beefsteaks sprouting right now.
It might still be a bit early, but I'm thinking of doing them in containers,
while I do other things where the first plants were.

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