Tomato disease question? Pictures

[wmontanez]

A newbie tomato friend has some tomatoes growing in a very hot and humid country (95-100F 70-80%RH) and after 2 week of non stop rains his tomato plants look bad and the flowers are dropping. I am not familiar with tomato diseases other than late blight but here is some pictures. What is this? Does he need to pull those plants inmediately? Thanks for any help!

[Mark0820]

I'm not good at identifying diseases, so I will let someone else do that. However, it is not uncommon for flowers to drop during extended periods of rain. I experienced that myself this Spring.

[cornbreadlouie]

I've never seen it in real life, but it looks like what I've read tobacco mosaic virus looks like.

I'm sure somebody will correct me soon.

[rnewste]

As there are banana fronds growing in the background, I can only guess that this photo is from Central America region. If so, growing tomatoes there at this time of year would be a real problem with disease, pollination issues, etc. I don't see a single fruitset in any of the photos.

If my location thesis is correct, I would try a more heat tolerant crop next Season.

Raybo

[carolyn137]

I didn't see anything wrong with the picture of the large plant but as the pictures went lower I think I see some lesions on some of the pale leaves, but not with enough detail to be able to ID it as bacterial or fungal.

The lowest picture of leaves looks like one of the two Downy Mildews that are quite common in areas of high humidity and especially if skies are overcast.

I don't see any evidence of typical TMV nor CMV which is far more common in most areas.

What country does your friend live in b/c knowing that might help/

And I agree with the person who said that blossom drop is common in areas with high rainfall.

Also, could you ask your friend what specific varieties he or she is growing and if they're hybrids or open pollinated and if he or she has grown tomatoes before under the conditions you noted.

[wmontanez]

Thank guys~
Raybo you are correct it is in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico. I had advised my friend to try in the cool season after September and not to discourage since I know for a fact of sucessful tomato growing from October-March but he already had the seedlings.

[wmontanez]

Carolyn,

My friend saids he bought the seedlings and only said beefsteak on them. Is the first time growing tomatoes for him since he never had a garden.He did buy compost for a box store and the seedlings.

Should I advice to pull the plants and solarize the soil to try to kill any residual tissue? I am sending him some seeds that might do better over there since my mom grew them in the fall without any issues. She even had Brandywine Sudduth's to give away. I was thinking of Roma VFN.

[ObliqueAngles]

Probably 99% of the problem is from all the wet the plants have been exposed to lately. Ok, the "99%" part was made up on the spot, but you get the idea. :-)

Some of the leaves in the 2nd photo look like they may have some powdery mildew. Remove and destroy the leaves that have brown spots and/or powdery spores. Use a garden fungicide for veggies to prevent the fungus from spreading. Spray leaves, stems, and any fruits that may appear. Powdery mildew will usually subside with drier weather, but sometimes you can't count on that happening soon enough.

Those plants really need some readily available, quick-acting fertilizer. Unfortunately, with the soil being so soggy, the plants would have a hard time taking up fertilizer (and are probably having a hard time using soil nutrients now).

Once the soil dries out, fertilizing would be a priority.

High heat and humidity makes pollination difficult, so the flowers drop because pollination didn't occur.

If they have cooler and drier weather at other times of the year, they may want to consider growing tomatoes then. That assumes that their dry season has minimum nightly temps of at least 55 degrees and doesn't get too much colder than that for an extended period. You would also want to have warm days in the 70s and 80s.

If this weather is a fluke and not really normal this time of year, they may want to tough it out. The plants in the first photo look pretty good from a distance. The plant in the second photo may not be salvageable if what I see is powdery mildew. It just looks like there may be too many leaves involved, but I can't see the whole plant so it's a judgment call your friend should make.

One other thing to keep in mind for the future: Perhaps your friend could get some heavy duty plastic sheeting and somehow cover the soil as much as possible if long periods of rain are expected. This could reduce the watery soil factor. People are clever; they may be able to figure out something to rig up for the next time around.

[b54red]

The lower picture looks like a plant that is very heavily infested with spider mites. I have had several in my garden this year look exactly like that and after diminishing the spider mite population the new growth will sometimes come back nicely but it is very hard to get rid of the little buggers once they infest a plant that heavily.

[feldon30]

The stippling on the leaves does look possibly like Spider Mites. Check the bottoms of the leaves.

Pressing Ctrl + sure helps being able to zoom in and see the detail.

[Heritage]

I agree, it's a heavy spider mite infestation. And difficult to get under control at this stage.

[wmontanez]

Thanks everybody! I am going to advise to pull those plants due to the extent of the problem and start fresh with better choice tomatoes for his weather in the cooler season. I hate to see him discouraged and give up on tomatoes since the rest of the garden is doing great. He had amazing spinach and cucumbers so far plus salad greens.