New gardener needs help with spotty leaves please!

sweetdz · June 1, 2011

I have only been growing tomatoes for two years so any help would be greatly appreciated. I am growing about 10 tomato varieties (all OP except 1) this year. They got a little cold damage the day after they were transplanted but seemed to be settling in well. I went to check on them and pull suckers today and found that one of the plants has spotty leaves. It is the one F1 variety I planted this year -- Sun Gold.
Nobody else is showing any spots except this one plant.

I battled bacterial spot last year so I am pretty familiar with what that looks like but this looked a little different to me. Any feedback as to what this might be and what to do about it would be great!

Thanks,
Kelly

bcday · June 2, 2011

It's hard to tell with such small spots but my first guess would be Septoria. This is a fungal disease that sometimes shows up early in the season and can defoliate a plant if not treated aggressively. It is spread by splashing water as from rain or overhead watering, or by your hands or clothing, bugs, tools, air currents -- anything that will pick up spores from an infected leaf and move them to a healthy one.

What I do is remove the spotty leaves and seal them up in a plastic bag so the spores won't get spread around, discarding the bag in the household trash. Then spray the plants with Daconil (chlorothalonil) or a similar protective spray to thoroughly coat the tops and undersides of the leaves to prevent infection of healthy foliage.

Try to avoid getting the foliage wet when watering the plants. Fungus spores, like plant seeds, germinate and grow better under moist conditions. A layer of mulch under the plants will help to keep rain from splashing spores back up from the soil too.

Keep up the preventative spraying until at least several weeks pass without any new spots on the leaves -- there are spores germinating on healthy leaves right now and they will mature and pass a new generation onto any unprotected foliage. And at the end of the season, dispose of the plants in the trash. Septoria can overwinter on dead plant debris.

RadiantSeaRodent · June 2, 2011

I had the same kind of spots appear on my Sungold F1 this year, too. It affected almost all the leaves growing on the middle section of my plant. I picked off all the affected leaves I could find and sprayed, and I haven't seen it reoccur since. The plant has produced pretty well so far, even with our wacky weather.
Didn't seem to spread to the neighbor tomatoes, either. Good Luck!

sweetdz · June 2, 2011

Thanks for the feedback. I will pick off all the infected foliage today and dispose in the garbage. I think I will try copper or neem oil spray first. Glad to hear it didn't seem to spread to other plants!

Thanks again!
Kelly

b54red · June 2, 2011

I think that young Sungold plants just have bad looking leaves. Every one of the seedlings I had looked like they had some kind of foliage disease but it disappeared after a few weeks in the garden.

June 2, 2011	#2
bcday Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NY z5 Posts: 1,205	It's hard to tell with such small spots but my first guess would be Septoria. This is a fungal disease that sometimes shows up early in the season and can defoliate a plant if not treated aggressively. It is spread by splashing water as from rain or overhead watering, or by your hands or clothing, bugs, tools, air currents -- anything that will pick up spores from an infected leaf and move them to a healthy one. What I do is remove the spotty leaves and seal them up in a plastic bag so the spores won't get spread around, discarding the bag in the household trash. Then spray the plants with Daconil (chlorothalonil) or a similar protective spray to thoroughly coat the tops and undersides of the leaves to prevent infection of healthy foliage. Try to avoid getting the foliage wet when watering the plants. Fungus spores, like plant seeds, germinate and grow better under moist conditions. A layer of mulch under the plants will help to keep rain from splashing spores back up from the soil too. Keep up the preventative spraying until at least several weeks pass without any new spots on the leaves -- there are spores germinating on healthy leaves right now and they will mature and pass a new generation onto any unprotected foliage. And at the end of the season, dispose of the plants in the trash. Septoria can overwinter on dead plant debris.

June 2, 2011	#3
RadiantSeaRodent Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 16	I had the same kind of spots appear on my Sungold F1 this year, too. It affected almost all the leaves growing on the middle section of my plant. I picked off all the affected leaves I could find and sprayed, and I haven't seen it reoccur since. The plant has produced pretty well so far, even with our wacky weather. Didn't seem to spread to the neighbor tomatoes, either. Good Luck!

June 2, 2011	#4
sweetdz Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2011 Location: Richland, Michigan Posts: 5	Thanks for the feedback. I will pick off all the infected foliage today and dispose in the garbage. I think I will try copper or neem oil spray first. Glad to hear it didn't seem to spread to other plants! Thanks again! Kelly

June 2, 2011	#5
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	I think that young Sungold plants just have bad looking leaves. Every one of the seedlings I had looked like they had some kind of foliage disease but it disappeared after a few weeks in the garden.