bleach spray

[TexasTomat0]

Double post

[b54red]

This crazy low humidity is really helping with foliage diseases this year. I don't believe I have ever gone this far into the season without seeing at least some EB or gray mold. I usually have to use the diluted bleach spray at least once in April and usually more often and here it is nearly mid May and I haven't needed it yet. I just got in from closely inspecting my tomato plants and found no early signs of disease. I'm sure this will all change next week when chances of rain increase most of that week and with that will come the inevitable high humidity that is normal down here. I would love it if it rained good and then the humidity continued to be so low. We had one day last week with humidity of only 22% during the day. The humidity is less than 50% already and the morning is just beginning. Even though the humidity goes up at night when I check my plants first thing in the morning it is so strange to find them dry. Usually they are dripping with moisture almost like it had rained the night before. The only downside I am seeing is the need for much higher than normal watering as the plants seem to be sucking much more water out of the beds than normal. I'm enjoying it for now.

Bill

[roper2008]

I'm going to try your bleach spray. I'm starting to see some grey mold starting on
my Black Cherry. My Carbon tomato plant on other side of yard is not showing any
grey mold so far. It does seem to only affect my black tomatoes only.

[TigrikT]

Bill,
Would your bleach spray help with bacterial leaf spot on peppers?
Thx

[b54red]

Originally Posted by TigrikT

Bill,
Would your bleach spray help with bacterial leaf spot on peppers?
Thx

I have tried it with limited success. Leaf spot on peppers is almost impossible to stop from my experience. Once it gets started it seems like it can only be slowed down a little. I've tried copper spray, Daconil and the bleach spray along with removing any infected leaves but eventually it just keeps right on damaging the peppers. Last year was the second worst year for BLS on my peppers; but I was able to get a decent crop. This year I have a whole new batch of bell pepper seedlings to set out in the next week or so in hopes that I can have a good fall harvest. My bells that I set out this spring have just now started setting fruit. We had very cool nights up until a few weeks ago and I am guessing that hurt fruit set but you just never know with peppers. I just spread some wood ashes around the plants and watered it in to give them a boost of potash in hopes it will further boost production. I haven't seen any BLS on the plants yet and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be delayed in showing up this year long enough for me to get a decent harvest. I am keeping them sprayed with copper as it seems to prevent BLS more than the other things I have tried. I am also trying a lot of new varieties that have varying degrees of BLS tolerance to see if I can find one that resists that plague more than the varieties I have been growing. I am also growing all my old favorites so I can compare results. If I find a promising one I will post the results.

Bill

[TigrikT]

Bill,
Thank you.

Do you put your new batch into the same soil? If so, do you do anything to the soil? I have peppers in containers. EarthBoxes, actually. And can just install a new plastic mulch cover.

I have read that peppers develop resistance to copper, and the new recommendation is to alternate copper with biosides (AgriPhage, Serenade, Seaweed etc) + Phosphorous Acids(Excel LG, Agri-fos ets.)
Serenade + Copper is considered fine too.

I did some culling of the most infected ones, removed all infected leaves from the remaining peppers, gave them MiracleGro to revive quickly, sprayed with Mancozeb+Copper.

Lately our night are below 61F, and this is considered unfavorable for BLS. No new infection yet.

Interested to hear about resistant cultivars, how they are holding in home gardens.

[Worth1]

Just thought I would let folks know I added Bleach Spray to the tags on this thread.
This way you can find it easier.
The rain is killing me and I had to use it on my Thia basil, it will either work or it wont, nothing to lose.

Originally Posted by Worth1

Just thought I would let folks know I added Bleach Spray to the tags on this thread.
This way you can find it easier.
The rain is killing me and I had to use it on my Thia basil, it will either work or it wont, nothing to lose.

Thanks, Worth.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by PlainJane

Thanks, Worth.

You are welcome, right after I sprayed I got pounded with another giant rain storm.
I have no idea how many inches it was but one of the biggest so far.

[b54red]

Sorry your having so much rain Worth. There is little that can be done to stop the damage of too much rain for too long. We are having the exact opposite problem. I dread my next water bill. The good side is diseases are usually far less in dry times but things grow slower and tomatoes and other fruits don't set as well.

I used the bleach spray on English peas multiple times this year and it really slowed down the mildew. Each day after spraying they would look so much better for a few days or a week before the powdery mildew would start showing up again. It extended their life by about 3 weeks and so extended the harvest and production. I used slightly less then 5 ounces of Clorox to a gallon of water. Next year I may use it a bit stronger since their seemed to be no negatives at the strength I used. I use this slightly weaker mix on cucumbers and squash as soon as I see the first signs of mildew on the underside of any leaves.

Bill

[Worth1]

Out of all this horrible weather I have two set Cherokee purple fruits on one plant.
The other two Beef steak and pineapple have nothing.
My mix is about 1.5 ounces of bleach to one quart of water with a drop of dawn dish washing liquid.

Bacterial speck or spot is the culprit me thinks.
Tiny little black specks on the leaves and it happened over night.
Plant smallpox.
All tomato leaves cut off that had any sign of it or anything.
I just prayed again.

[Dark Rumor]

Just gave 14 tomato plants a major haircut then followed by a bleach spraying. I am seeing signs of leaf disease. It is much easier to spray after trimming away the older branches/leaves. Will probably spray daconil this weekend, depending on the rain.

The rain seems to bring the leaf disease.

[b54red]

If you are having spot and speck problems I would suggest you use copper spray instead of Daconil because it seems to work better on them and it doesn't wash off nearly as fast as Daconil. When it is raining a lot every day then the bleach spray used during the lulls will reduce the disease problems caused by so much rain. I have used it several times a week with no ill affects when near constant rain is happening here. It really doesn't seem to have any lasting affect but it does kill off a lot of stuff that is starting up on plants during those times so that when the rain finally does let up you at least have a fighting chance to save your plants.

Bill

[Dark Rumor]

Thanks Bill, I will give copper sulphate a try

[Worth1]

I am happy to report that the bleach spray is a complete success.
The spots have stopped and new growth is forming on all Thai basil plants like it was never there.
I literally sprayed/soaked them every day for a week until the rain stopped.
What looked like sure death is no more.

Thank you so much Bill for your research and recommended mix.
Here are a few shots of the plants where the disease was and after.
Started out as tiny black spots on everything.
IMG_20190518_36688.jpg

IMG_20190518_25176.jpg

IMG_20190518_13446.jpg

IMG_20190518_1572.jpg