What is causing my tomato leaves to brown and curl?

[NewbieGrower]

Noticed tonight some black flying bugs hovering over my tomato and pepper plants. Also found leaves with black patches and end of a leaf or two brown and curling on end. I sprayed insecticidal soap for obvious flying insects. Then decided to go ahead and begin regular spraying of copper. We have had torrential rains almost everyday for past 10 days. So fungus definite possibility.

[AlittleSalt]

I brightened the picture to help others see it.

[NewbieGrower]

Sweet million Resistance: Fusarium Wilt Race 1, Root-Knot Nematodes, Septoria (Leafspot), Tobacco Mosaic Virus, so something else.

Insect damage obvious with dotted damage but brown leaf curl and black????

[AlittleSalt]

The first three pictures in post #1 on this thread http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=45168 is Sweet Million with Fusarium race 2 or 3. It looks nothing like your picture.

[NewbieGrower]

Thinking I should spray Spectracide Immunox Multi-Purpose Fungicide Spray Concentrate For Gardens. It is systemic with active ingredient, Myclobutanil. If fungus, Copper will have hard time killing it. Or is FERTILOME LIQUID SYSTEMIC FUNGICIDE II better choice?

[RayR]

Originally Posted by NewbieGrower

Thinking I should spray Spectracide Immunox Multi-Purpose Fungicide Spray Concentrate For Gardens. It is systemic with active ingredient, Myclobutanil. If fungus, Copper will have hard time killing it. Or is FERTILOME LIQUID SYSTEMIC FUNGICIDE II better choice?

I don't know what the problem is with your plant, bugs or fungus (I don't recognize it as any fungal disease I know about.) It's pretty difficult to recommend a remedy when the problem hasn't been diagnosed. Spraying stuff as a shot in the dark never made much sense to me. Read the labels for the product and see what pathogens it it rated for and what kind of plants.
I don't know about the Spectracide stuff but I know the Fertilome stuff contains Propiconazole and should nor be used on food crops.

[NewbieGrower]

Originally Posted by RayR

I don't know what the problem is with your plant, bugs or fungus (I don't recognize it as any fungal disease I know about.) It's pretty difficult to recommend a remedy when the problem hasn't been diagnosed. Spraying stuff as a shot in the dark never made much sense to me. Read the labels for the product and see what pathogens it it rated for and what kind of plants.
I don't know about the Spectracide stuff but I know the Fertilome stuff contains Propiconazole and should nor be used on food crops.

"Spectracide(R) Immunox(R) Multi-Purpose Fungicide Spray Concentrate For Gardens
Prevents and cures all major diseases including Brown patch, Powdery mildew, Black spot, Rust and others listed. It can be used outdoors on roses, flowers, ornamental shrubs, trees, lawns, nuts and vegetables.

So not only cures, it prevents. With the rain and humidity here in Mississippi, it sure couldn't hurt and I can use all the fungus protection possible.

[Country Breeze]

It's hard to tell from just that pic. Any chance on getting a few more pictures including the underside of the leaves?

Where the leaves in the picture touching the ground?

[ScottinAtlanta]

Bill's bleach.

[MissS]

Is that a dry leaf or is it wet? If wet, please post a picture of a dry leaf that has not been in contact with the soil. We will need both the top and underside of the leaf to help with the diagnosis. In the meantime, remove all lower leaves that are in contact with your soil.

[NewbieGrower]

The leaves were wet (I had just sprayed the insecticidal soap) and collected to take photo. I pruned my plants a month ago so nothing within two feet of ground surface. Interestingly, I added pine straw mulch just last week. I notice others have had problems with pine straw, so removed the pine straw this morning. Will get some pine bark nuggets for mulch.

I removed most of the affected leaves last night. I was out inspecting leaves this morning and but found a few leaves I missed with brown. Attached is photo of back of leaf while still on plant. Also, the front after picking it off. Also, I see some black even on stems that rubs off. Maybe it is just mold. Pine straw gets moldy fast.

Happy to see no more flying insects this AM. The insecticidal soap took care of those.

[Gerardo]

From the location, it might be associated with moisture or whatever you sprayed pooling towards the bottom of the leaf.

Is it generalized or just those plants?

edaphic/containers?

Precipitation lately?

Humidity levels?

Heat Waves?

Time of day when you apply concoctions? Time elapsed between them.

More pics please, especially of the whole plant and the undersides of leaves.

Not quite roguing time yet, nonetheless, keep it in mind as a possibility.

[NewbieGrower]

I only have two EarthTainers. The peppers in one had a few flying bugs but no foliage issues. I look at my tomatoes every day so not many leaves affected yet. I picked off affected leaves so not many left that aren't healthy. The leaves affected were on lower part and outside cage. I put pine straw mulch only on tomatoes, not peppers, a week ago.

We had 10 days of torrential rain from Tropical Storm Cindy. My poor rose bush leaves never got dry between downpours and had serious black spot even on stems, but that is rose bush vulnerabilities. It is 50 yards away from the two EarthTainers. Humidity 70% the last couple of days. We have had mild June as far as humidity until last week. No heat wave yet with just two days above 90. Even a few nights where temp was down to 50.

This hybrid is both heat and humidity tolerant so shouldn't have problems with minor humidity and heat we've had so far.

I have kept my tomatoes pruned with fewer leaves/nonbearing branches for good air flow. In fact, may appear to some to look sparse to some but doing best to prevent fungus. Plant and leaves appear healthy except for the few affected leaves which I removed immediately. The fruit is prolific and are unaffected at this point. I have a mockingbird that pecks about 1 or 2 tomatoes a day leaving holes about 1/4" round and to center. No tomatoes with more than one bite. I always remove those as I find them. No signs of caterpillar infestation (holes in leaves). Just pinprick holes from insects I spotted yesterday. Only one leaf had the brown top curl.

I applied insecticidal spray close to dusk last evening and followed with copper but no copper spraying before yesterday. Had thrips about month ago and insecticidal soap eradicated that in a day or two.

[Gerardo]

You're doing all the right things. Copper is about as good as it gets at erasing the blackboard. As long as you have fruit, other things are more cosmetic than anything. The problem is they hit us right in that soft spot, the unrealistic one wishing for lush, disease-free plants 100% of the time.

I suspect something percolating within TS Cindy provided you an exotic gift that keeps on giving.

Perhaps bending those puppies downwards to keep them within the realms of your cage can make it easier to use a bird net.

[Country Breeze]

They look good overall.

Have you fertilized at all?