Fungus Amongus!

[Jamlin]

My garden has okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, mustard, broccolli and an assortment of herbs. Everything was growing fine from seed, but then I purchased a "Better Boy" tomato plant from Home depot and added it in. About the same time, we experienced an onslaught of yellow butterflies. They flocked in swarms of hundreds to the cucumber plant. Now, I mention both of these things because I probably have two problems not one. Ok, there is also the fact that we have had no rain here in South Texas where I live for around 4 months and the temperature have been in the 100s during the day. To compensate, I water twice daily. We also have an inordinate amount of alkalinity in our water. Well two things have occurred: The cucumbers started growing well and producing in abundance, but all of them had orange or yellow skin before mature. Now the leaves are coated with a black kinda furry substance and yellowing and dying. The cucumber problem is due to the butterfly larva etc I think. However, back to the tomatoes: The home depot plant produced a whopping 28 tomatoes that almost turned red, when suddenly the entire plant turned a sickly yellow and died. The tomatoes developed black spots and all rotted internally. The next to go was the entire batch of mustard. Now, all of the tomatoes (cherry) that were in the vicinity of the dead one are also turning yellow/brown and dying rapidly. Only the ones on the far side of the garden are thriving normally. The thyme seems to be slightly affected, and the broccolli not too badly. The okra is not affected at all. Now my theory is that this is a contagious fungus, and I do not know what to do! Are there safe fungicides? Will I have to rip out all of the affected plants and treat the actual soil before replanting? Or, is there something that can be done to treat the survivors? I have invested a lot of time and energy and this is quite a large project! Please help!

[birdhouse-lady]

I'm in the Texas Hill Country, just outside of San Antonio and I am having the exact same problem. I did discover white flies yesterday on the undersides of my Okra leaves. Does anybody have a Homemade remedy to spray for whitefiles?

[opabinia51]

Try a weekly dose of neem oil.