I've been growing tomatoes for years and have never seen anything like this strange fungal growth. A few of the parts of my vines have touched the ground in places. It is there that this growth totally engulfs the vine and foliage and for lack of a better description, looks very similar to dried up dog poop.
I had it in a couple places where the outer color was pale yellow, similar to pollen and another where it was white. I picked through this stuff and it is very wet and dark in the central part and kind of mealy. I've only seen it in 3 places, on different plants so far, but I've never seen anything like that before. Just wondering if anyone else has had an issue with this type fungus.
Any info would be appreciated. By the way, I did cut and toss out the affected parts of the vines.
I forgot I had downloaded a site for tomato diseases and fungal problems. I found the culprit. It is Sclerotinia Sclerotiorum or for the lay person "White Mold".
Like all fungal problems they recommend crop rotation at a 3 yr. basis and to help control it, to spray prior to planting with a Broad Spectrum Fungicide and again once the plants are growing well.
I'll do the rotation thing but it really is not an ideal situation since my garden is pretty small and I'm assuming any fungal spores generated in my almost 2 rows of tomatoes is pretty much everywhere in the garden.
Like all fungal problems they recommend crop rotation at a 3 yr. basis and to help control it, to spray prior to planting with a Broad Spectrum Fungicide and again once the plants are growing well.
I'll do the rotation thing but it really is not an ideal situation since my garden is pretty small and I'm assuming any fungal spores generated in my almost 2 rows of tomatoes is pretty much everywhere in the garden.