eMy plant leaves on my golden sun tomatoes are turning like this. My other tomatoes are fine. Any ideas what is happening and how to help? Near NC coast – zone 8b/9a
That is either fungal or bacterial. Cut those leaves carefully cleaning the tool after each use. Hit the plant with peroxide then next night a good anti fungal. Good luck if you leave it it’s gonna spread to just about every plant
Cali_Yogurtfriend624
Did somebody spray Neem recently?
If they did, this might be because the Neem oil dilution formula was not correct.
Or….the formula was incorrect, and they did it during the heat of the day.
If that is not an incorrect formulation of Neem oil or another oil based product, you need to dump that plant right away and wash anything that came into contact with it, IMHO.
A from LHTP SoCal
Ordinary-You3936
Ok this is really interesting. I had the exact same thing last season in early spring. The marks were sunken and black just like that. It arose after a series of cool wet weeks and almost every tomato,pepper, and potato plant got it. I spent weeks trying to figure out exactly what it was but never was able too. The closest thing I found was bacterial speck or a black spot fungal disease. Even all the plants at every nursery around me got it! I’m in coastal NY btw. I sprayed with copper fungicide and soon warmer weather came and it completely disappeared never showed back up, and I didn’t lose a plant or a harvest to it. I assumed that because the fungicide worked it was a fungal disease but apparently copper fungicide can cure some bacterial infections as well. Anyway my advice would be to use a copper fungicide. I used bonides concentrate.
NPKzone8a
Agree with the others that this looks a lot like a fungal disease. I would treat it as such without delay. Cut away infected foliage, dispose of cuttings in the trash, not into the compost, disinfect the pruning shears, spray ASAP with your favorite antifungal.
I would also spray the other nearby tomatoes that currently look OK. They are probably also infected but just have not yet begun showing obvious changes. Most fungal foliar diseases have a 7 to 10-day incubation period before the infection becomes obvious.
Copper or Daconil would be my first choice of agents, diluted as per manufacturer’s instructions. Mancozeb would also be an option if you have it on hand. I would use whichever of these you can get hold of first. Don’t order something online and wait a week or two.
Spray at dusk. Saturate the plant until it is dripping. Be sure to get the underside of all leaves as well as the stems. Repeat in about 5 days.
Millenial Gardener Youtube channel has additional recommendations that are specific for coastal North Carolina. You might find it helpful.
ASecularBuddhist
It looks like the leaves got wet.
feldoneq2wire
With the lack of yellow ringing around the brown spots, this rules out fungus like septoria and alternaria (early blight). This looks like bacterial speck to me.
Are you using a sprinkler to top water or are you watering the ground with soaker hoses, drip tape, irrigation line, or a watering can?
6 Comments
That is either fungal or bacterial. Cut those leaves carefully cleaning the tool after each use. Hit the plant with peroxide then next night a good anti fungal. Good luck if you leave it it’s gonna spread to just about every plant
Did somebody spray Neem recently?
If they did, this might be because the Neem oil dilution formula was not correct.
Or….the formula was incorrect, and they did it during the heat of the day.
If that is not an incorrect formulation of Neem oil or another oil based product, you need to dump that plant right away and wash anything that came into contact with it, IMHO.
A from LHTP SoCal
Ok this is really interesting. I had the exact same thing last season in early spring. The marks were sunken and black just like that. It arose after a series of cool wet weeks and almost every tomato,pepper, and potato plant got it. I spent weeks trying to figure out exactly what it was but never was able too. The closest thing I found was bacterial speck or a black spot fungal disease. Even all the plants at every nursery around me got it! I’m in coastal NY btw. I sprayed with copper fungicide and soon warmer weather came and it completely disappeared never showed back up, and I didn’t lose a plant or a harvest to it. I assumed that because the fungicide worked it was a fungal disease but apparently copper fungicide can cure some bacterial infections as well. Anyway my advice would be to use a copper fungicide. I used bonides concentrate.
Agree with the others that this looks a lot like a fungal disease. I would treat it as such without delay. Cut away infected foliage, dispose of cuttings in the trash, not into the compost, disinfect the pruning shears, spray ASAP with your favorite antifungal.
I would also spray the other nearby tomatoes that currently look OK. They are probably also infected but just have not yet begun showing obvious changes. Most fungal foliar diseases have a 7 to 10-day incubation period before the infection becomes obvious.
Copper or Daconil would be my first choice of agents, diluted as per manufacturer’s instructions. Mancozeb would also be an option if you have it on hand. I would use whichever of these you can get hold of first. Don’t order something online and wait a week or two.
Spray at dusk. Saturate the plant until it is dripping. Be sure to get the underside of all leaves as well as the stems. Repeat in about 5 days.
Millenial Gardener Youtube channel has additional recommendations that are specific for coastal North Carolina. You might find it helpful.
It looks like the leaves got wet.
With the lack of yellow ringing around the brown spots, this rules out fungus like septoria and alternaria (early blight). This looks like bacterial speck to me.
Are you using a sprinkler to top water or are you watering the ground with soaker hoses, drip tape, irrigation line, or a watering can?