bleach spray

[murihikukid]

Bill...I now am sure I see yellow blotches appearing on my #1 Tasty Tom .....and I have small cuttings that I am trying to root ....I presume everything sooner or later will have to be sprayed.....I am now opening the window in peak daylight hours to let sun and fresh air in so I hope this is a correct action....Regards Ron

[murihikukid]

Bill...Two Plants were sprayed late last night/early morning here before I went to bed ..This morning I also see very small white spots appearing on some leaves .....I am presuming that your bleach treatment will attack most diseases....These plants have been grown inside and I just do not know how they got diseased ...On the plus side I finally see my first red tomato which really lifts my spirits ......

One other question ....Is the bleach spray a preventative treatment ..IE can I spray my small plants as well ....If possible I would like to try and eradicate all disease as I have seeds to propagate and plant in my "inside" growing room... Thanks Ron

[b54red]

Originally Posted by murihikukid

Bill...Two Plants were sprayed late last night/early morning here before I went to bed ..This morning I also see very small white spots appearing on some leaves .....I am presuming that your bleach treatment will attack most diseases....These plants have been grown inside and I just do not know how they got diseased ...On the plus side I finally see my first red tomato which really lifts my spirits ......

One other question ....Is the bleach spray a preventative treatment ..IE can I spray my small plants as well ....If possible I would like to try and eradicate all disease as I have seeds to propagate and plant in my "inside" growing room... Thanks Ron

Ron the bleach spray is in a way a preventive but it has no staying power so it only reacts with whatever is on the plant when it is sprayed. I know it works better for some diseases than for others. I use it on seedlings sometimes but I have a lot of experience with the bleach mixing so you might want to wait til you are more familiar with the reaction of plants to the spraying before using it on seedlings and more familiar with what strength to mix it for various conditions.

I sprayed every plant in my garden Monday with the diluted bleach spray because we had a prolonged rain over the weekend and I feared a bit of Late Blight might have found its way onto a plant or two. So I sprayed everything just as insurance and along with the spraying I took care of a bit of gray mold that had started showing up on some of the lower leaves of my ISPL, Margaret Curtain and Spudakee plants. The one plant that I suspected before I sprayed was showing the first signs of Late Blight did have it so it was a good thing I did the preemptive spraying. I used to wait til I was pretty sure I was dealing with Late Blight but now I don't wait because every day you wait can mean more plants critically infected. The bleach is not sure fire with Late Blight but I have been able to stop it several times without the loss of too many plants as long as I use it early enough and thoroughly enough.

Bill

[murihikukid]

Bill..I am learning all the time...With my plants being inside I thought I might be safe from disease ..My Tomato crop outside in my greenhouse was basicly destroyed last season by diseases...Unfortunately I must have introduced it inside ....I made sure I was careful when watering (that it does not touch the leaves) and its still got a blight .....
I will have to get a program on my spraying to keep my plants "clean" ...At this point I do not see any adverse effects on my plants from my spraying so I will give them another spray tomorrow and go slightly higher up ....I will also spray my third Tasty Tom ..I hope that is OK....Its very important I keep cuttings growing for these...Spudakee? I understand these are very similar to Black from Tula but with a potato leaf....My Black from Tula have been a disaster ..The cuttings were given to me and I have basicly destroyed them as I decided they were not going to produce fruit..the flowers would not blossom and dried up ...I was told one plant looked like it had a potato leaf so it may not have been a Black from Tula...I do have some seeds and will only grow cuttings now from a plant that I myself grow...
Now today I had a visit from 4 policemen ...a lady told them I was growing M in my front room and she had seen either smoke coming from the house or somebody smoking in the house,...Amazing ..I do not smoke anything and it just shows what can happen when one tries to get some early home grown tomatoes for myself..The police could see what they were and it was a bit of a joke ....Regards Ron

[murihikukid]

Bill..I snipped the leaf off and took a couple of photos to show you ..I wonder if this could be from a flying insect?...Regards Ron

[brownrexx]

You did not necessarily introduce disease inside your growing area. Spores are in the air so unless you are using filtered air, they can float inside on their own through any open door or window.

[b54red]

Ron that doesn't look like any disease to me but more like a small bite or from some type of sucking insect.

I am not a fan of Black from Tula though it was fairly productive for me the taste was a bit thin compared to some of the other black tomatoes I grow. Spudakee is one of my favorites because it is both productive and good tasting with slightly better shelf life than many of the black varieties. It is a firm yet very juicy tomato without getting mealy and the flavor is very full. Another advantage of Spudakee is that it is not as susceptible to gray mold as many other black tomatoes but it will get it although it is usually not as bad. It is supposed to be the potato leaf version of Cherokee Purple and for me it is a far more productive plant with better foliage disease resistance than CP. I grew them side by side for years and it always outshone CP down here in our hot humid climate. I like other black tomatoes also like IS, ISPL, Margaret Curtain, Berkley Tie Dye Pink, Carbon, and JD's Special C Tex.

Bill

[murihikukid]

Bill..I have looked for Spudakee over here but no seed supplier has it....Now regards the Bleach Spray...i gave everything a spray last night and cannot see any adverse effects...But How often do I spray and my bleach mix....Cause I am using a 4.95 % bleach can I bring it up equal to a 6% by simply putting more bleach in my one litre of water...

There is a very small light coloured insect that I see every so often ...I do not know what it is or where its coming from..and its the beginning of spring so I presume these insects get more prevalent ...Some time ago I had small black insects but they were coming from banana skins I left lieing around...
Regards Ron

[MrSalvage]

Bill thanks for all the help this year. Your bleach solution was top notch and the results were truly amazing! I can't wait to get started on next year's crop...

[murihikukid]

Bill...I have now bleach sprayed three times ...I wonder if you could find time to take a look at my photos on the thread (link below) that I have just posted.....and make a comment ..
I hope these may answer some questions for me..

I am still concerned that I may not be doing this correctly especially when i see white discolouring appearing on my leaves..I am always hesitant about stripping leaves,branches etc due to my inexperience here...My friend MissS tells me to ensure that you understand that my plants are inside my house ...Tonight I intend to copper spray .....
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...d=1#post591986

Regards Ron

[b54red]

Ron I looked at the photos you have in that link and everything looks okay to me. You have to expect some shriveling of diseased leaves after spraying with the bleach spray and you will see a bit more after using the copper spray. You can remove the bad looking leaves of leave them on but many will eventually shrivel up completely. Just keep an eye out for new diseases and you can repeat the process if necessary. My plants are outside and in a hot humid climate with a lot of disease pressure so I have to use this technique often because if I don't the diseases will overwhelm many of my plants. Good luck.

Bill

[murihikukid]

Bill...Thankyou for your comments ...If only I knew about bleach a year ago when I lost my whole greenhouse crop with all types of diseases...My plants got the copper spray this morning...I am also raising the soil temperature via the air round my drums to get around a 70F soil temperature and I have just put about 3/4 to 1 cup of dolomite lime on the soil of each drum and dug it in with a pencil ? it did the job...I then washed it in hopefully with a litre per drum of seaweed mix.....So I am hoping this will raise my PH from 5.0 to 6.5...

I have now got just about everything I require under control apart from LED grow bulbs for my 6 in 1 Light fittings ...Plans are to have one of these on every plant but not the 5 + 1 but a 3 + 1 ..I have 6 of the 6 + 1 and 10 of the 3 + 1 just posted to me ....Hopefully a power reduction will pay for these in one to two months..
Now I have to get in my seeds ?
Cheers Ron.

PS..I still do not know what the white patches on my leaves are?

[murihikukid]

Bill... Today I took what I think are my best photos of two of my plants so am posting them ...I wonder you could look at them and advise if I should carry on and give them another treatment ...
Now I removed a fireplace to get another freezer in my living room? and I had to cut red bricks to remove them ...I never used my brains and dust went everywhere including all over my plants ...I water sprayed them 3 times to try and remove it....??
As you can see in my photos I have white discolouring on the leaves and I am wondering if this a reaction to the bleach and probably the brick dust still left on the leaves that I could not remove ...???

Anyway I now have Ripe fruit appearing ...So I am rather proud of myself growing them through winter....

Cheers Ron

[murihikukid]

Bill...I feel I am still struggling?...Heres a close up of branches I have broken off...Maybe I should post them on the disease forum...Cheers Ron

[b54red]

Ron I can't tell for sure what kind of diseases you are dealing with or whether you might also have other issues. I am not an expert at growing indoors and when I tried I seemed to have more problems than I do with my outdoor plants once they got large enough to start making fruit. The spindly nature of your plants was typical for me when growing in limited light indoors and no amount of fertilizer seemed to correct it for me. Another problem I had with indoor growing was aphids which would suck on the leaves and multiply far faster than outdoors where natural predators will slow them down some.

Some of the leaves in the pictures you show look a lot like some on my plants after I have sprayed them with the bleach spray. However some of them look like either insect damage or a chemical burn in spots. Did you find this look on the plants new growth or only on the older leaves? If it is on the older lower leaves then it isn't from the bleach mixture being too strong but even if it isn't too strong if it puddles too much on a leaf it can damage it and also damage the edge of the leaf where it pools and drips. Look carefully on the undersides of leaves and see if you see any insects.

I sprayed all of my plants two days ago and have quite a bit of damaged leaves from gray mold that are now shriveled up and some from other diseases in spots. The biggest problem frequently with growing a lot of black tomato varieties is the persistent recurrence of gray mold. The bleach spray is great at stopping it if applied early enough and the copper spray slows its return.

Bill