Quote:
Originally Posted by VC Scott
Ed:
One other thing I would check for is tomato russet mites. You need a 30x magnifying glass to see them.
Usually they start at the bottom and work their way up. Check the stems just above soil level. Are they bronzing?
Sometimes the wind will blow them to the top of the plant. They love to feast on new growth. They can cause stunted growth. In some cases blossoms will turn brown and fall off before they even have a chance to open. The weather in your part of the country is very hot now, which TRM love.
In your first picture there is a brown and crinkly leaf at lower left that looks like possible russet mite damage.
In your second picture I see a few leaves (bottom middle, middle right and middle left) that look like early blight. However, there are other leaves yellowing that don't look like early blight. You may have more than one problem going on. The highest yellowing leaves and the paler leaves above look suspicious to me.
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Aha! I also just assumed my recent "little-leafed" plants were caused by mites, thanks for confirming this as I was only guessing. Unfortunately the spider mites are slowly but surely taking over and I noticed that all the upper stems had weirdly small leaves. So far it is happening to mainly the hybrids in my garden, so I figured they must react differently to the onslaught than the heirlooms. This year, the damage from the mites is slower than the past 2 years. Must be because of the winter rains that eased our long drought. I did no spraying at all this year; last year it seemed it was a losing battle and the spraying just made them stronger than ever so I stopped. I hope my plants can hang on for a bit longer.
August 6, 2017
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