Grey Mold???, Blight

[brooksville]

The first one is what I think is grey mold. It is only on Purple Bumblebee. They are spread out in the patch and are next to carbons. These 2 out of 3 plants are the only variety that have these symptoms.

The next is what I am pretty sure is EB. It has flared up on all 3 BW's that we have. They only have 3 fruits on them combined. I sprayed the whole patch with Bill's Clorox solution and I am going to trim plants and spray entire patch with fungicide tomorrow. It was pretty cloudy with a high of 83 today, so I sprayed around 3pm.

We have around 60 plants, so we are willing to pull the PBB if we have to in order to protect the rest. Also, on the PBB, these symptoms were not there Wednesday when I checked them.

The good news is Carbon, ML, Pink Honey, STOW, KBX, CP, BK, Hays, Russian 117, Vorlon, JD's, Rose(has some septoria,), Giant Belgium, Anna Russian, and MagiQo, are holding up nicely. Very little, so far, in the way of foliar disease.

[b54red]

That definitely looks like gray mold. You will probably end up with a little gray mold on your JD's and your Carbon also since they are very susceptible. Keep them pruned so they get good air flow and definitely don't wet the leaves when watering if you can help it. Spray them with the dilute bleach spray. I have had a little better luck with copper fungicide for gray mold but nothing seems to completely protect a plant from it down here if it is one of the ones that is very susceptible to it like many of the black tomatoes are. I usually have to spray with the diluted bleach spray numerous times but it is the only thing that does much good once a plant gets gray mold other than low humidity and very little rain.

I am already looking for gray mold on all of my black tomatoes but so far have only seen it on two leaves on one plant which was a volunteer and I don't know what variety it is. I clipped off the small limbs that had the two leaves and if I see any more at all I will start spraying with the diluted bleach spray late in the evenings to try to control it. Last year I had a JD's Special C Tex that had gray mold off and on from May til November and it made over 50 tomatoes. The secret is to spray when you see the gray mold and later use a fungicide and keep the diseased leaves clipped off. When it is especially bad you sometimes have to spray several times during a week. Sometimes if the weather is really conducive to gray mold there is just no stopping it but that is rare.

Bill

[KarenO]

Agree, gray mold and early blight respectively in your photos.
Bill has experience with dealing with it and agree with all he says.

Doesn't look out of hand yet. prune 1 plant at a time carefully bagging the diseased foliage with as little disturbance as you can manage to avoid spreading the fungal spores as much as possible. clean your pruners between plants with 10% bleach. Next use a fungicide of choice, commercial, copper, or bleach as per directions and then add a clean layer of mulch to cover up the old. Avoid wetting foliage and splashing as much as possible from then on and check plants daily or at least frequently pruning off any spotty foliage ASAP and you should be able to keep control of it. although I doubt it will be eliminated I think it should be manageable
Best wishes, Let us know how it goes.
KarenO

[brooksville]

Thanks guys.

[Gerardo]

Daconil works great for both, just make sure to mix it thoroughly. Keep up the haircuts at the first sign of yellowing. Attack, attack, attack.

[Gerardo]

quick question bill, diluted bleach as in 1tbsp/gallon or stronger?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Gerardo

quick question bill, diluted bleach as in 1tbsp/gallon or stronger?

Here is a link to a thread I started to explain my use of the diluted bleach spray.
http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...t=bleach+spray

Make sure to rinse and flush your sprayer immediately after using the bleach spray and of course don't breath in the spray mist or get it in your eyes.

I just mixed up two gallons of the diluted bleach spray and sprayed all my tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and peppers with it just before it got too dark to see. It has been raining off an on for two days now and when I checked this afternoon I found some gray mold on my Indian Stripe and Indian Stripe PL and on a JD's Special C Tex. No surprise there since I have been expecting it to show up on one or two varieties of black tomatoes for the past week but the very dry weather we were having kept it away until we got some much needed rain. I'll have to be much more vigilant from now on.

I have been keeping my plants sprayed with Daconil every week yet it still managed to get started on a couple of the plants lower leaves. I know I will see it over and over again and since I love black tomatoes I guess it is just something I have to live with. It does give me the incentive to spray the bleach spray more often which is a big benefit to cucumbers and squash as it helps keep mildew off of them before it gets too bad. Since I started growing so many black tomatoes my squash and cucumbers have looked so much better and lived so much longer since Powdery mildew and Downy mildew are not able to get a good start on them. I will still continue to use Daconil and copper sprays as preventative measures because they do help some especially with things like Early Blight.

Bill

[brooksville]

I see what you mean about the spray only turning the infected parts black. I sprayed and some parts of plants that I thought were fine have some disease. I trimmed it all off today and sprayed daconiol. Had 2 plastic grocery bags full. I think one of my obstacles is being so far away from the garden. I am not able to check on things daily. I also have not been to concerned about disease because it is so early and hasn't rained in over 2 weeks till Thursday. Guess you live and learn a little.


I sprayed the cucumbers and watermelon and there was no reaction on the cucumbers. I guess they were fine. The watermelon had some leaves that turned.

[Gerardo]

Great previous thread. Will integrate bleach into the preventative bag of tricks. Thanks Bill.

[Starlight]

Brooksville... I tried for two years to grow Purple Bumblebee here and always ended up taking the plants out. First year I tried strictly containers. Plants looked bad and out they came.

First year I tried them, I thought it was me cuz I am fairly new with tomatoes. Different seed, different source and second year I started seeing problems with it in the containers, so I took all my plants and planted in a neighbors garden. They didn't make it there either.

I didn't even try yet this year with PBB. I have thought about seeing how it does for the fall maybe, but am a bit worried since I have all these new heirlooms I am trying , plus some test grow outs, so I may skip it this year to protect those plants.

Now I grew the Sunrise Bumble Bee and it was awesome. Not the first problem and it just kept on producing and producing and I didn't have tall enough stakes for it, and had to let it ramble across the ground and not one problem with plant or fruits.

Your probably even hotter than me. I just think PBB doesn't like the heat and humidity for us and it is one I would really like to see grow just because I like the name.

[b54red]

Starlight I hate to tell you this but gray mold can be even worse in the fall on black tomatoes. Maybe it is the cooler nights but I have to spray all my black tomatoes regularly with the dilute bleach spray during the fall. If you do the spraying with both the diluted bleach spray and with a fungicide later to help with prevention and also keep the diseased leaves pruned off then gray mold is usually only an aggravation not a disaster. If course sometimes you get a plant that for some reason doesn't respond well to the regimen and it will eventually die from gray mold. Usually the weather has to be really ideal for gray mold for this to happen but I have had it occur a couple of times. In other words don't let a little gray mold scare you off from growing a variety you want.

Bill

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by b54red

Starlight I hate to tell you this but gray mold can be even worse in the fall on black tomatoes. Maybe it is the cooler nights but I have to spray all my black tomatoes regularly with the dilute bleach spray during the fall. If you do the spraying with both the diluted bleach spray and with a fungicide later to help with prevention and also keep the diseased leaves pruned off then gray mold is usually only an aggravation not a disaster. If course sometimes you get a plant that for some reason doesn't respond well to the regimen and it will eventually die from gray mold. Usually the weather has to be really ideal for gray mold for this to happen but I have had it occur a couple of times. In other words don't let a little gray mold scare you off from growing a variety you want.

Bill

I am so glad you said something. That is very important information I didn't know and will be sure to keep an eye out on my blacks.

Have you grown any of these and which ones are ones you have had experience with getting the gray mold? Here's the blacks I know off hand I am growing right now. There may be a couple more that I just don't remember.

Black Cherry
Black Eithiopian
Black Krim
Brad's Black Heart
Black Master
Black From Tula

opps forgot Black Brandywine

I probably shouldn't say anything cuz I'll probably jinx myself, but thanks to your posts and help about the bleach, well let's just say I feel like a brand new pair of sneakers getting to for their first walk.

From all that rain, my tomatoes being a sad, sad mess, broken bent, and foliage looking like it was going to mold, than torndaoes and straightline winds, I actually have some pretty plants growing.

Not as many as I first started with, but I am so excited. I just noticed a couple getting their first flower buds.

I did goof, in that I was in such a panic that the first time I sprayed, was worried I didn't do it enough and gave them a good second spraying a few hours later. Guess I over did it. Got a little bit of I guess you would call it leaf burn. Turned a few leaves in spots pure white, but all new growth has been green and lush.

For the first time ever I may see a whole slew of heirloom tomatoes. I'm as excited as I can be. Once I see the first tomatoes, I'll be doing the happy dance and even have a brand new pair of sneakers I saving for it.

I did buy the copper spray you recommended, but I have no idea how much to use to mix it up and if you spray just the tops or bottoms too. I did read the label, but a label to me is just a label. I'd rather ask somebody who has actually worked with the stuff, seen that it works for them, how to use it and how much The humidity is already getting high here with the temps as you well know.

Thanks for that encouragement. I'll give PBB another go round. I don't even care what it tastes like. I just want to see what a PBB looks like. Took me a couple years to even get seed for it, so I was disappointed when it molded on me.

[b54red]

I have only grown Black from Tula and Black Krim on your list and yes they have both gotten gray mold occasionally. As a matter of fact I think that every black and green when ripe tomato that I have grown has at one time or another experienced gray mold. When it is really bad I sometimes get a little of it on other varieties but the black tomatoes seem to be the most susceptible to it and also the hardest to control it on.

When spraying the diluted bleach spray make sure to do it in the late evening after the sun has gone down. If you experienced any leaf burn on healthy leaves then it could be one of several things. The mix could have been too strong and in that case just dilute it a bit. Spraying could have been done when the sun was still shining brightly on the leaves. Too much spray so that it was just puddling on the leaves; I try to use a high pressure fine mist. The last could be damaged leaves from heavy rain and wind which will be affected by the bleach spray similarly to diseased leaves.

I sprayed all my plants day before yesterday and only had a few leaves that were infected with gray mold or early blight shrivel up.

Bill

[Starlight]

Oh..Oh... : ( I do have one green one out there. Bosque Green Cherry. I had to see what a green tomato looked and tasted like. I'll move it with the blacks for extra watching

With our heat and humidity, should I keep spraying with the bleach every so often or just when I see signs of the mold coming on?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Starlight

Oh..Oh... : ( I do have one green one out there. Bosque Green Cherry. I had to see what a green tomato looked and tasted like. I'll move it with the blacks for extra watching

With our heat and humidity, should I keep spraying with the bleach every so often or just when I see signs of the mold coming on?

Just watch for it and hit it early and don't let it progress much or it is very hard to control. It wouldn't hurt to use a fungicide like Daconil or copper a few hours after using the bleach spray or the next day. Make sure to use the lowest amount recommended on the copper spray as they can sometimes stunt leaves for a while.

Bill