pests after vacation, and what's going on with my leaves?

[Chartreuse]

Hi all,

This is my first summer growing tomatoes. Overall they have been doing well, with big healthy plants, and loads of green tomatoes coming along. I went away on vacation for about five days, hoping that when I got back I would see some fruits ripening or at least starting to blush, but no such luck. Everything is still hard and green, sigh.

On the other hand, my garden had a number of unpleasant surprises for me when I got back. My Better Boy had a branch that was completely defoliated, and I'm looking at it totally confused, until I spot a giant hornworm! Boy, those are some big, ugly pests! I have a long-standing phobia of creepy-crawlies that is much better since starting gardening, but I couldn't bear to touch one of these guys, even with gloves on. Just thinking about it is making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. So I cut the branch with the worm off until a plastic bag, so no touching was required, and then dumped it in a bucket of soapy water. Spent some more time looking at that plant, and found one more hornworm, which is now also safely drowning in the soapy bucket. Here's hoping there aren't too many more of these guys if I keep looking for them regularly, sigh. They are just too big for my liking. Ugh.

I also spotted my first two BER's, sigh. Both on Southern Nights. Didn't see any of this on any other plants, and there are still lots of healthy-looking fruits on that plant, so keeping my fingers crossed that there won't be too much more.

I also have a couple places where my leaves don't look too good. A Brandywine has a patch of yellowing, wilting leaves at the bottom of the plant. And there are some grey spots on another plant, can't remember off-hand which it was. I am not sure what these are or what to do about them, so I have attached pics and am hoping some of you can help me out!

[rsg2001]

The first one is definitely early blight, for which you should do preventive spraying (Actinovate, or Serenade, or Daconil, or any of a number of fungicides), and remove the leaves. Eventually it will move up the plant but you can slow it down a lot and get a normal harvest.

The second one looks like - forgive me - possibly bird poop. I have an area that for a couple of weeks looked just like that... there were birds nesting in a tree branch high over that area. They were mourning doves and have since departed the next along with their baby. Yes, it was that color.

[b54red]

I agree the second one is bird poop.

[lakelady]

Originally Posted by rsg2001

The first one is definitely early blight, for which you should do preventive spraying (Actinovate, or Serenade, or Daconil, or any of a number of fungicides), and remove the leaves. Eventually it will move up the plant but you can slow it down a lot and get a normal harvest.

The second one looks like - forgive me - possibly bird poop. I have an area that for a couple of weeks looked just like that... there were birds nesting in a tree branch high over that area. They were mourning doves and have since departed the next along with their baby. Yes, it was that color.

LOL I am SO glad someone else said that because it was exactly what came to mind when I saw the photo !

Yup, I have birds in a tree above some of my tomato plants too!

[Chartreuse]

Thank you so much for your responses! I probably should feel more embarrassed about my bird poop photo, but the truth is, I'm so relieved it's not some awful disease that I'm okay with that.

Picked up some fungicide and BTK yesterday, and especially looking forward to killing those ugly buggers today!