Big problems!

[Bruinwar]

It turns out, my plants are not dead. What I thought was disease has not spread further on the plants. It has not spread to my neighbors tomato plants (rented plots). They show some of the same early blight that I had but all in all, their plants are doing great.

For whatever reason, I think I burned my plants with the diluted bleach spray. Maybe I let too much pool up on the leaves. I did it at daybreak so maybe you gotta do it in the evening. It very well might be that both times I had the damage (the second time was on all plants) the day after spraying we had whole days of cold rain stressing out the plants. It might be best when it's hot/humid & being sure to spray with a very light mist, & only at sundown.

As much as I'm kicking myself, at least all is not lost & I am getting some tomatoes. I had to use up some Aunt Ruby's German Greens so I made a large batch of GWR Gazpacho. It is very good! My Black Krims seem to be doing OK also. We finally are getting some good dry weather so that is helping.

The lesson for me is to be very, very careful when using diluted bleach spray. It really doesn't matter though, next year I am moving to new rented plots & these new plots are strictly organic only. No way can I continue to try to grow on my current plot, at least not tomatoes.

Regards,
Joe

[b54red]

I went back and looked at your pictures again and that doesn't look like bleach damage to healthy leaves. Usually if you have any damage to healthy leaves it is a result of the solution being too strong or just spraying them to the point of puddling on the leaves. In either case most of the damage will be confined to the edges of leaves where the spray puddled or on leaves that have a cupped surface where it can't run off quickly enough. I myself got some leaf damage this past week because I mixed in a very heavy dose of dish washing liquid into my bleach spray in an attempt to slow spider mites down. I sprayed to the point of soaking the plants and had a good bit of puddling because I used so much spray soaking the undersides and tops of the leaves that I got some burn. I expected it and it wasn't anywhere near like what you showed. No black spots on stems either except on the plants that had a bit of Gray Mold working.

You do have to be careful with the bleach spray at the higher solution of 5.5 oz to the full gallon of water because that is at the upper range that is safe. Over spraying with that strength can give you a bit of leaf damage and that is why I always tell people to start with the lower mix first. There is always the chance that you got one of those bottles of bleach that is actually stronger than stated on the label. It has happened to me two or three times over the years; but since your new growth seems fine it is probably a combination of disease and over spraying. I have now applied the bleach spray over a dozen times since the first of April and my plants look pretty good except for the mite damage that is really hard to stop in the blistering heat.

I use the medium strength solution of 5 oz. to the full gallon of water unless I am spraying wet leaves immediately after a rain or dealing with a very difficult persistent disease. It is always better to spray with a very fine mist as I have advised numerous times; but even I ignore the advice sometimes. Like I did when trying to do two things at once like this past week by trying to get spider mites and spray for disease at the same time.

Bill