Has anyone seen this leaf problem before?

[edweather]

Leaves wilting and drying crispy. Has been going on for a couple of weeks. I pruned and sprayed a week ago, but it's still progressing slowly. The plant is a Black Cherry, and it's the only plant that has it. Should I remove the plant or keep working on it and hope for the best?

[b54red]

Ed it looks like gray mold. If it is it is pretty far along so you need to treat it quickly to have any chance of that plant surviving. What you see is only the tip of the iceberg so to speak. Usually there is much more of the plant affected that you can't see yet. Spray the plant with the diluted bleach spray and then wait two days and you will see the extent of the infection. All the leaves infected will probably shrivel up and die within two days after spraying. A copper spray may stop it but I don't know with it that bad. Usually a copper spray will stop very early stages of gray mold and it is a very good preventive spray for gray mold. If you use the bleach spray wait two days and remove any shriveled leaves and stems and then spray with a copper spray and then watch it closely for any reappearance of the disease. At the first sign of it showing up treat it again. Before you use the diluted bleach spray you need to read the thread on it from the link below.

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...t=bleach+spray

I usually have already had to treat a few of my black tomatoes or GWR varieties by now but this year I haven't seen a trace of it yet. We are having severely low humidity which is really rare here but it has lessened the foliage disease pressure significantly. I'm sure as soon as we get a few days of rainy weather our usual 90+ humidity will return.

Bill

[edweather]

Thanks for the reply Bill. I gave it the "treatment." We shall see. Probably having somewhat similiar weather to you. Warm, sunny, dry, low humidity. That's all about to change here. Rainy season looks to be kicking in here early this week. We've had 18 days in a row with no rain, and I still had two leaf problems. Septoria last week, and I hit it hard, and looks to be under conrol for now.

[b54red]

What variety tomato has the gray mold on it?

Bill

[edweather]

Black Cherry.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by edweather

Black Cherry.

You have to keep a close eye on any black or GWR variety for the first sign of gray mold which is usually a leaf down low on the plant in deep shade that just looks wilted and wet. Sometimes the gray spots will be the first sign but usually you will first see a wilting leaf on an otherwise healthy plant. After treating with the bleach spray keep a copper fungicide spray on them every week and during rainy periods spray with the diluted bleach spray in the evenings between rain showers every few days to slow down the spread during those times. If you don't it will spread fast in the rainy weather and non of the fungicides really help too much during the rainy weather.

Bill

[edweather]

Thanks. Yea, thought it was weird that some leaves were wilting on a healthy plant, especially with perfect growing conditions. Rainy weather is supposed to kick in this week, and if this plant gives me any more headaches, it might be prudent to remove it. It'll be hard enough keeping the other plants healthy with out an already sick one nearby.

[Worth1]

If rainy weather is supposed to kick in this week black cheery is doomed.
I like the things but they are so prone to this I stopped growing them.
Or if I do they go out later after the damp season.

Worth

[JRinPA]

If that was in my garden I would pull it and that potting soil immediately and maybe spray down the area with bleach. We had grey mold or similar, maybe late blight, one year and it wiped the whole garden.

[b54red]

Gray mold is not bad about spreading to non black varieties. Give the bleach treatment a shot and follow up with the copper and keep a close lookout for it trying to spread. I usually spray all my black and GWR varieties at the same time and during rainy spells I will spray all my plants if I am having any disease issues to help suppress spreading.

Bill

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by b54red

Gray mold is not bad about spreading to non black varieties. Give the bleach treatment a shot and follow up with the copper and keep a close lookout for it trying to spread. I usually spray all my black and GWR varieties at the same time and during rainy spells I will spray all my plants if I am having any disease issues to help suppress spreading.

Bill

Don't know about the rest of the green when ripe types but Aunt ruby's German green trucked right along while black cheery((all of them)) withered and died from this stuff.
The plant was invincible to just about anything and lived all summer and into the fall with no spraying what so ever.
One of the favorites of the deer.

Worth

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Don't know about the rest of the green when ripe types but Aunt ruby's German green trucked right along while black cheery((all of them)) withered and died from this stuff.
The plant was invincible to just about anything and lived all summer and into the fall with no spraying what so ever.
One of the favorites of the deer.

Worth

I only know that it hit two different GWR varieties and some of the black varieties one season. I wasn't looking for it on the GWR varieties and let it get way too far on one of them and ended up losing it. I have never grown Aunt Ruby's German Green before nor have I grown a lot of other GWRs. I just caution anyone having black mold based on what happened in my garden during a time when gray mold was bad.

Bill