What is this? I thought mites, but my spray isn't working

brasscow · July 11, 2011

Hello all

I'm trying to figure out what is devastating my Amish pastes. It's slowly catching on my bed of romas too (no pics). It was moving slowly for a couple of weeks and now it's moving fast. I've been spraying ortho elementals but it isn't helping and I can figure out what my next move should be.

Please help!

Suze · July 12, 2011

Is there a particular reason you thought it was mites - are you seeing mites on the undersides of leaves?

If I enlarge your pictures quite a bit and look closely, I can make out some spots/lesions. Septoria or Early Blight is my guess - both of which are foliar fungal diseases. The spots look a little small to be EB, though.

Suze · July 12, 2011

Can you take an extreme closeup of some of the spots I'm seeing? Maybe use the macro function of your camera.

Alternatively, do a google images search on septoria and early blight and see what you think. Bacterial speck/spot is also something that occurred to me as a possibility due to the smaller size of the lesions, but I have a feeling it's more likely fungal foliar disease.

I'll also add that even if you are seeing some mite activity, there of course could be more than one problem going on in your garden.

brasscow · July 12, 2011

Suze,

Thank you so much for the info! I have had some spider webs across the plants and had seen some other photos that made me think it might be spider mites.

I did a little more thinking on the matter after you posted I decide it is most likely septoria. If it were a bug there would be parts of the plant eaten, and that just isn't the case.

I'll try to get photos when the rains have passed, but I've now treated with daconil and stripped most of those nasty leaves. I'm hoping I can get this under control before I'm all out of foliage!

Thanks again, I'll send a reply later on if I can get a better photo of it.

Firstcrush · August 12, 2011

Hi Brasscow,
Did you ever get to the bottom of this problem. I am seeing this on 4-5 of my plants, 2 of which are Amish Gold, coincidentally (maybe) that were planted from seed. My are yellowing from the bottom up and 2-3 look pretty close to death, one I have removed already.
I have been trying to do the investigative work to figure out, but I definitely have more than one thing going on, so its tricky.
Thanks for your help,
Donna

Calcruzer · August 17, 2011

To me it doesn't look like a disease, just a symptom of a nitrogen deficiency. Adding a little Sustane or similar fertilizer may cure this up quickly.

P.S. I'm having the same thing happen to my plants. Originally I put lots of Sustane on them and they all grew great, but with no fruit. So I hit them heavy with phosphorus fertilizer (fish bone meal and Jobe's tomato spikes) and got fruit. Now they are doing what yours are doing on some of the plants (but only on the lower leaves) which makes me think I need to put on a balanced fertilizer (but minimize the watering to get the fruit to ripen). Most of the plant still looks great, but they aren't as green as originally when there was no fruit. Back then they were growing at a foot per week).

Calcruzer · August 17, 2011

I should point out that mine have no spots/lesions--so yours might be a different problem than mine.

July 12, 2011	#2
Suze Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Texas Posts: 3,027	Is there a particular reason you thought it was mites - are you seeing mites on the undersides of leaves? If I enlarge your pictures quite a bit and look closely, I can make out some spots/lesions. Septoria or Early Blight is my guess - both of which are foliar fungal diseases. The spots look a little small to be EB, though.

July 12, 2011	#4
brasscow Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Iowa (Z5) Posts: 3	Suze, Thank you so much for the info! I have had some spider webs across the plants and had seen some other photos that made me think it might be spider mites. I did a little more thinking on the matter after you posted I decide it is most likely septoria. If it were a bug there would be parts of the plant eaten, and that just isn't the case. I'll try to get photos when the rains have passed, but I've now treated with daconil and stripped most of those nasty leaves. I'm hoping I can get this under control before I'm all out of foliage! Thanks again, I'll send a reply later on if I can get a better photo of it.

August 12, 2011	#5
Firstcrush Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA Posts: 20	Hi Brasscow, Did you ever get to the bottom of this problem. I am seeing this on 4-5 of my plants, 2 of which are Amish Gold, coincidentally (maybe) that were planted from seed. My are yellowing from the bottom up and 2-3 look pretty close to death, one I have removed already. I have been trying to do the investigative work to figure out, but I definitely have more than one thing going on, so its tricky. Thanks for your help, Donna

August 17, 2011	#6
Calcruzer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Scotts Valley, CA Posts: 10	To me it doesn't look like a disease, just a symptom of a nitrogen deficiency. Adding a little Sustane or similar fertilizer may cure this up quickly. P.S. I'm having the same thing happen to my plants. Originally I put lots of Sustane on them and they all grew great, but with no fruit. So I hit them heavy with phosphorus fertilizer (fish bone meal and Jobe's tomato spikes) and got fruit. Now they are doing what yours are doing on some of the plants (but only on the lower leaves) which makes me think I need to put on a balanced fertilizer (but minimize the watering to get the fruit to ripen). Most of the plant still looks great, but they aren't as green as originally when there was no fruit. Back then they were growing at a foot per week).