Fungicide for Gray Mold? - Page 3

b54red · June 2, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Well the dye is cast! I sprayed at about 5 ounces per gallon before I say this post. We shall see the effects. I wanted to jump on it because we've had a cool front come through and the high is supposed to be 84 today and low of 60 tonight. Tonight, I'll try the copper manzoceb mix and hope the relative coolness helps with that too. Thanks for those tips Ivan!

Its really a shame that this is happening now because I've got decent fruit set and tremendous flowering (Texas tomato food has to be at least partly responsible for that, thank you!), so I hate putting out harsh sprays. Still, I think I have no choice but to kill some leaves in an effort to get in front of the disease and keep the plants going longer. I'll report back on the phytotoxicity of bleach and the copper spray when the fall out is more evident. Thanks all for the input!

D.M.

I think you will be fine with the 5 ounces. Of course you will have some leaves that will show the effect by this afternoon if they have any of the non systemic foliage diseases. I could even see a few this morning where I had missed a little of the Gray Mold on my first spraying. That is why I like to do a follow up spraying after I remove the withered leaves. No matter how good I spray I always miss some. My beans lost nearly two thirds of their leaves but they look so much better now and they are growing good after a dose of fertilizer and it looks like they may last longer than I thought. A couple of my tomato plants have no leaves on the bottom half and the rest have no leaves on the bottom third but they once again look healthy except for the couple that are showing some fusarium signs and the few that were the worst hit by the herbicide drift. If I'm able I will use Daconil this afternoon since it has been nearly two weeks since I last used it because of the Gray Mold problems.

Don't you just love the Texas Tomato Food. I just ran out and will order some more this week. I am amazed at the fruit set I have had this season. I think I should have removed some of the tomatoes from the vines; but I have never had this many toms on the vines before and I just wanted to see how they did. There is just no way they will develop to full size with so many fruits on one vine and they are still setting great despite the heat and humidity. Even the young plants I put out 5 weeks ago have abundant fruit set already.

Bill

b54red · June 3, 2013

Dewayne, I had to figure out a new formula for the more concentrated Clorox bleach because someone sent me a PM requesting information on how to use the bleach spray and 5 ounces of bleach added to a gallon of water works out to be about right. It is right in the middle as far as strength is concerned. You could use slightly more if disease pressure is really high or the plants are wet at the time; but what you used is almost exactly the same as what I generally use. I was just being careful because I have not used the new bleach yet and didn't want you to burn your plants except where the mold is.

How did it work on your plants? By now it should have done a job on most of the Gray Mold.

I used a copper fungicide after my first spraying and got a little leaf burn but not much and it does seem to be better with Gray Mold than Daconil. I did a second spray and by late yesterday realized that the first spray and the copper had really taken care of almost all of the Gray Mold except for a few leaves I missed. I was going to apply Daconil just before dark and it started lightly raining so that plan go nixed.

Bill

sfmathews · June 3, 2013

I too found the copper much better at controlling gray mold than Daconil. It has been a week since I sprayed, and I just found a few leaves of it this morning. So tonite, it's another round of copper fungicide. I've been picking cherry tomatoes for a few weeks now and this morning, just picked my first slicer (Jet Star). Need to keep the gm under control.

Dewayne mater · June 3, 2013

Bill - seems I'm lucky so far, or maybe its too early. As of now, less than 5% of my leaves are withering up and dying after the bleach. Note I also sprayed the copper/manzecob mix 24 hours later. I figured leaf burn was inevitable. Still, I think I got lucky because we had an unexpected cool front that allowed all the spraying to happen with temps under 90 and 60s at night.

I think partly what happened is that I did a significant prune of infected leaves before the bleach, then after the bleach just before the copper/manzecob spray, so maybe I got most of the infected leaves by pruning? Who knows. Hoping the worst is over! Thanks for the guidance.

D.M.

Dewayne mater · June 17, 2013

Ivan, Bill, anyone, I've seen somewhere some recommendations about not spraying copper products in 90+ degree temperatures. The bottle I have does not mention that limitation. I would like to try another tank mix of copper and manzecob as I believe the first one was pretty effective. My first question, can I spray Copper and manzecob in the morning when temps are likely in the 78-82 degrees range, if it is going to be in the mid 90s by that mid afternoon? If not, I can't use the products again this season.

Bill - what about bleach...can I spray it in the mornings if it is going to be hot that afternoon? We had a nice storm today and I noticed I have funk going on some lower branches of some plants that could be mold and definitely have some early blight on some others. I'd like to bleach them tomorrow morning and copper/manzecob them the following morning. Mid 90's heat forecast for both days and I'd rather not fry the plants at this point! Thanks for your opinions.

Dewayne mater

PS - after a big scare early on, bleach, followed by copper/manzecob, pulling diseased leaves, and using daconil has been effective. One plant has a pretty good bit of early blight, but otherwise, my plants are healthier than they have been in prior years. Fruit set hasn't been as good, but, I'm pretty sure that is environmental.

b54red · June 17, 2013

First of all I don't think the bleach spray will affect fruit set at all. My plants have been sprayed with it since they were set out and I have the best fruit set I have ever had and I have probably sprayed more often and earlier with the bleach spray this year than ever before.

Mine were also starting to look a little better after 2 days with no rain and then it rained again today so who knows. I just sprayed with copper yesterday morning and didn't see any significant leaf burn and it got up around 94 or so yesterday. I prefer spraying in the evening as that assures less chance of leaf burn in my experience. I use the bleach spray all summer; but I try to spray when the sun is down. I had to go to the stronger mix with the Gray Mold and I used the copper at the stronger concentrations also. I may have gotten a little leaf burn but nothing significant. I had to do something drastic because of the constant showers giving the Gray Mold and other diseases the chance to flourish and now the rain is back before I could see if the stronger copper mix would be more effective than the first mix I used.

I also have the added problem of a good many plants starting to show fusarium symptoms and once they get it they seem to have little resistance to any foliage disease. The grafting has worked because all of the plants lasted long enough to give me ripe fruit and all but a few are still putting on tomatoes. I still can't believe that I have only pulled a couple of plants this late in the season. Usually by mid June I'm down to only a third of what was set out still alive.

Bill

b54red · June 19, 2013

It looks like using the stronger solution of the bleach spray has taken care of the immediate Gray Mold problem followed by the stronger solution of the copper spray. It has now been three rainy days with no new infections. I'm sure I'll see more but the treatment worked. What I did was mix my bleach spray with one more ounce of bleach than the regular mix. I sprayed the plants then a little while later after they had dried I resprayed them with the same mix. I waited a day and then removed a bunch of dried up leaves that were taken out by the bleach spray. All the withered leaves were ones that were infected with Gray Mold and none of the new or healthy growth was bothered by the repeat spray. After clearing out the dead stuff I then sprayed with the copper spray at a higher concentration. I went out today full expecting to see new outbreaks of GM after all the rain but found none. The fusarium continues to do its nasty work but I'm really relieved to have a little break from the Gray Mold.

Bill

b54red · June 28, 2013

The rain just keeps coming in amounts that don't really water them well but keep fungicides washed off and foliage diseases rampant. I am now seeing Septoria breaking out and can't apply a fungicide and the forecast is for more rain nearly every day as far as the forecast goes. We need a few days break from these thunderstorms. Gray Mold is also popping up again even on some of my young plants and even some seedlings waiting to be planted. This is getting really frustrating. The extremely high temperatures are making spraying a real chore and I find myself letting up on it because it is frequently raining late in the day when I need to spray and the plants are just too wet before the sun gets too high to spray in the mornings.

Bill

bower · June 28, 2013

hey Bill,
Just seeing the first signs of grey mold the last couple days of cold wet weather. One of my plants is more susceptible (Zolotye Kupola) , drops blossoms in the cold and also those blossoms are turning moldy as/before they drop in this weather. Also seeing mold forming on the little stems where blossoms have already dropped - and that is the worst, because there are some fruit near by which could be affected if it spreads.

I'm thinking to try straight up bleach on a q-tip on those bad blossom stems. I figure if I cut them off it will just start again further down... What do you think?

b54red · June 29, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by bower

hey Bill,
Just seeing the first signs of grey mold the last couple days of cold wet weather. One of my plants is more susceptible (Zolotye Kupola) , drops blossoms in the cold and also those blossoms are turning moldy as/before they drop in this weather. Also seeing mold forming on the little stems where blossoms have already dropped - and that is the worst, because there are some fruit near by which could be affected if it spreads.

I'm thinking to try straight up bleach on a q-tip on those bad blossom stems. I figure if I cut them off it will just start again further down... What do you think?

I think you need to spray the whole plant with the dilute bleach spray and then follow up with a fungicide. No matter how good your eyesight there is more mold there than you can see.

Bill

June 3, 2013	#32
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Dewayne, I had to figure out a new formula for the more concentrated Clorox bleach because someone sent me a PM requesting information on how to use the bleach spray and 5 ounces of bleach added to a gallon of water works out to be about right. It is right in the middle as far as strength is concerned. You could use slightly more if disease pressure is really high or the plants are wet at the time; but what you used is almost exactly the same as what I generally use. I was just being careful because I have not used the new bleach yet and didn't want you to burn your plants except where the mold is. How did it work on your plants? By now it should have done a job on most of the Gray Mold. I used a copper fungicide after my first spraying and got a little leaf burn but not much and it does seem to be better with Gray Mold than Daconil. I did a second spray and by late yesterday realized that the first spray and the copper had really taken care of almost all of the Gray Mold except for a few leaves I missed. I was going to apply Daconil just before dark and it started lightly raining so that plan go nixed. Bill

June 3, 2013	#33
sfmathews Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Allen, TX Posts: 398	I too found the copper much better at controlling gray mold than Daconil. It has been a week since I sprayed, and I just found a few leaves of it this morning. So tonite, it's another round of copper fungicide. I've been picking cherry tomatoes for a few weeks now and this morning, just picked my first slicer (Jet Star). Need to keep the gm under control.

June 3, 2013	#34
Dewayne mater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: DFW, Texas Posts: 1,212	Bill - seems I'm lucky so far, or maybe its too early. As of now, less than 5% of my leaves are withering up and dying after the bleach. Note I also sprayed the copper/manzecob mix 24 hours later. I figured leaf burn was inevitable. Still, I think I got lucky because we had an unexpected cool front that allowed all the spraying to happen with temps under 90 and 60s at night. I think partly what happened is that I did a significant prune of infected leaves before the bleach, then after the bleach just before the copper/manzecob spray, so maybe I got most of the infected leaves by pruning? Who knows. Hoping the worst is over! Thanks for the guidance. D.M.

June 17, 2013	#35
Dewayne mater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: DFW, Texas Posts: 1,212	Ivan, Bill, anyone, I've seen somewhere some recommendations about not spraying copper products in 90+ degree temperatures. The bottle I have does not mention that limitation. I would like to try another tank mix of copper and manzecob as I believe the first one was pretty effective. My first question, can I spray Copper and manzecob in the morning when temps are likely in the 78-82 degrees range, if it is going to be in the mid 90s by that mid afternoon? If not, I can't use the products again this season. Bill - what about bleach...can I spray it in the mornings if it is going to be hot that afternoon? We had a nice storm today and I noticed I have funk going on some lower branches of some plants that could be mold and definitely have some early blight on some others. I'd like to bleach them tomorrow morning and copper/manzecob them the following morning. Mid 90's heat forecast for both days and I'd rather not fry the plants at this point! Thanks for your opinions. Dewayne mater PS - after a big scare early on, bleach, followed by copper/manzecob, pulling diseased leaves, and using daconil has been effective. One plant has a pretty good bit of early blight, but otherwise, my plants are healthier than they have been in prior years. Fruit set hasn't been as good, but, I'm pretty sure that is environmental.

June 19, 2013	#37
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	It looks like using the stronger solution of the bleach spray has taken care of the immediate Gray Mold problem followed by the stronger solution of the copper spray. It has now been three rainy days with no new infections. I'm sure I'll see more but the treatment worked. What I did was mix my bleach spray with one more ounce of bleach than the regular mix. I sprayed the plants then a little while later after they had dried I resprayed them with the same mix. I waited a day and then removed a bunch of dried up leaves that were taken out by the bleach spray. All the withered leaves were ones that were infected with Gray Mold and none of the new or healthy growth was bothered by the repeat spray. After clearing out the dead stuff I then sprayed with the copper spray at a higher concentration. I went out today full expecting to see new outbreaks of GM after all the rain but found none. The fusarium continues to do its nasty work but I'm really relieved to have a little break from the Gray Mold. Bill

June 28, 2013	#38
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	The rain just keeps coming in amounts that don't really water them well but keep fungicides washed off and foliage diseases rampant. I am now seeing Septoria breaking out and can't apply a fungicide and the forecast is for more rain nearly every day as far as the forecast goes. We need a few days break from these thunderstorms. Gray Mold is also popping up again even on some of my young plants and even some seedlings waiting to be planted. This is getting really frustrating. The extremely high temperatures are making spraying a real chore and I find myself letting up on it because it is frequently raining late in the day when I need to spray and the plants are just too wet before the sun gets too high to spray in the mornings. Bill

June 28, 2013	#39
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,794	hey Bill, Just seeing the first signs of grey mold the last couple days of cold wet weather. One of my plants is more susceptible (Zolotye Kupola) , drops blossoms in the cold and also those blossoms are turning moldy as/before they drop in this weather. Also seeing mold forming on the little stems where blossoms have already dropped - and that is the worst, because there are some fruit near by which could be affected if it spreads. I'm thinking to try straight up bleach on a q-tip on those bad blossom stems. I figure if I cut them off it will just start again further down... What do you think?