NEED 2nd OPINION ON DISEASE ID

[JC's Garden]

Went out to check my tomatoes and found 1 plant with leaves turning brown along an edge or just the outer half. No yellow. Stem looks good. The upper leaves with no brown have purplish veins on the underside. There is a purplish hue on the whole underside of those leaves.
I think I know what it is but, it's the first time I've ever seen it and need help.
I apologize for the poor quality. Couldn't get my iPhone to focus properly.
In your answer please state if you have seen this before or if it's an educated guess.
There is not a lot of room for mistakes with tomato diseases these days and I'd like to get it right.

[JC's Garden]

It wouldn't let me post but one when I posted and now I've posted one twice and don't know how I did it or how to take it off. Sorry Mods.

[JC's Garden]

Oh yeah. It rained 1 1/2" Fri, 1" Sat, 1" Tue (today). No other water.

[rainbowgardener]

We would need to know more about the conditions. The purplish undersides of leaves is very common in tomatoes grown in cool conditions. You are in GA which makes it seem unlikely that it is still cool this time of year. The reason why they get the purple when the soil is cool is that it makes it difficult for the plant to uptake phosphorus. So anything else that caused a phosphorus deficiency would do the same thing.

Is that the true color of the plants or is that an artifact of the camera and lighting? If it is the true color, then your whole plant is kind of pale and yellowish, which also suggests nutrient deficiencies.

The brown leaf edges generally indicates root injury, quite often caused by heavy amounts of fertilizer applied too near the roots. This injury often results in browning and die back of the ends and margins of the leaves. Other possible causes are root injury caused by nematodes, insects or physical injury by cultivation. Also overwatering or underwatering along with diseases might cause leaf-tip burn. Were you trying to make up for the nutrient deficiencies by adding a bunch of high-number fertilizer?

But I only see a couple of leaves with browning. If that is all there are and no further leaves start showing the browning, I would just figure it is some kind of localized injury and not worry about it.

[JC's Garden]

Yes, it's hot here.

Growing organic, top dressed, only added about 4 cups of compost, no chemical frets.
iPhone pics not the greatest, it is a little darker green but still off color. There were more damaged leaves but I had to crop the pics to get them uploaded.
At planting, container was filled 1/2 way up with incompleted compost then filled with rich soil and watered to let the compost compact a little, then I finished filling with rich soil. My compost has yard clippings in it that are high in sand content and drain well. Plenty of browns and greens.
Insects are under control and no cultivation.

Pulled back soil on 2 sides, roots look good.

Lost 1 plant to Southern Blight a few weeks ago, checked above & below soil line. Looks good.

Checked it this morning and it looks like it has dark streaks running up and down the stalk. Might just be the dew but I looked for those yesterday and didn't see them.

The plant is in isolation, just to be safe.

RG, thanks for your input.

[applestar]

Checked it this morning and it looks like it has dark streaks running up and down the stalk. Might just be the dew but I looked for those yesterday and didn't see them.

The plant is in isolation, just to be safe.

...what do you think it is?

Did you see this thread about the stalk borer? https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... 0&p=336411

[JC's Garden]

Did you see this thread about the stalk borer? https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... 0&p=336411

Yes, I saw the post a day or two ago while surfing the site. Since SVB hit me hard this year, I checked when I was checking for Southern Blight.

I'm holding my opinion to myself for the time being but I will say that I pruned and then sprayed all tomatoes with a gallon of 2Tbsp baking soda - Neem mix. That might give me away.

[imafan26]

Sounds like there may be a couple of things going on. It is great that you are doing things organically. Tomatoes are heavy feeders especially of nitrogen while they are growing. You said you used compost but may have been unfinished. The problem with unfinished compost is that it is still decomposing and while it is doing that it uses up nitrogen and will compete with the plants for the available nitrogen. That could result in paler looking plants. Usually nitrogen deficiency shows up on the lower leaves first but young plants will look pale.

I don't like to use a lot of compost especially in containers. If I use more than 20%, I have problems with not only nutrients being absorbed by the compost but with the containers staying wet for too long. That will lead to the root problems.

Another cause of brown leaf tips is fertilizer burn especially if you use a raw form of nitrogen like manure, and don't mix it in well enough or use too much of it. Manures also contain a lot of salts and those salts can also cause tip burn.

It could also be the beginning of southern blight which would make sense since the plants are pale and you said that you had unfinished compost in the mix. The fungus that causes southern blight needs the undecomposed residues to initiate the infection.
https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/oldnotes/vg9.htm

Diseased plants should be bagged and trashed and not composted. If you have had a serious disease problem, the infection may persist in plant residues left behind in the soil. It is best not to plant the same crop or any member of the same family in that spot for a while. If you have the plant in containers, the soil should be sterilized or disposed of and the pot bleached before planting again. To be safe the next plant should be from a different family that does not get that disease.

Compost should be finished before mixing it in. Cold compost can still have weed seeds and disease. Hot composting kills most pathogens. Unfinished composts will compete with the plants for nutrients especially nitrogen.

[JC's Garden]

One of my replies went away.
Thanks for your replies. The unfinished compost in the container does have sand in it to allow drainage. It was compacted so it is at least 8" below the surface. The compost I added (4 cups) is a mix of 1 part cow manure, 1 part mushroom compost and 1 part rich soil I had used in my greenhouse. Last week, before the rain started, I was watering container plants every 24 to 36 hours as indicated by observed plant needs either in the morning or late afternoon. I was getting my best production watering late.
I had 5 grocery bags of leaves I cut off of plants throughout my garden. That included in ground and container plants alike. No compost added to the in ground plants.

[JC's Garden]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...........

It's hit everything but the Pink Brandywine.

[rainbowgardener]

OK now with the defined spots, I would say probably septoria. That would be what you were treating with the baking soda & Neem oil. (Although most of the common tomato diseases are fungal and would get the same treatment.)

Septoria is the most survivable of the tomato diseases. My tomato plants usually have at least some before our humid summers are over. I just keep pulling off the affected leaves. By the end of the season the plants are pretty bare at the bottom, but still producing well.

[JC's Garden]

Septoria is what I've thought as well. When it first showed up, after a wet weekend, it wasn't as well defined as it is now. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was looking at one disease or a combination of diseases.
It's been a week without watering my containers or in ground plants. Well..... I did lightly water in some bone meal. I guess it rained more than I thought it did. It rained again yesterday and we have more in the forecast. Welcome to South Georgia.
The Cherokee Purples have the least resistance. I've lost a couple of plants. San Marzano's were hit hard but I haven't lost any. Super Sioux, and Amana Orange are so, so. I thought the Brandywine's would have the least resistance to disease but, even though they have it, they show a relatively small amount of damage. My red grape tomatoes are holding up the best.
Prune and spray. I guess that's my life for a while.