Bacterial Speck

[Salty_Dog]

3 of my plants seem to have this Bacterial Speck on the lower leafs.
The 3 plants are also next to each other, and the spread of the disease seems to be more concentrated in the first plant, then less and less in the adjacent plants until the 4th plant in the row has none.
We also just had a spell of cooler rainy conditions.... if that helps in the diagnoses?



This is exactly what it looks like.

I have read Copper Spray can help this???
I have been told by a Tomato Growing friend just to get some Tomato Dust

aka
http://www.yates.com.au/products/pes...s-tomato-dust/

Mmmmmm i see the Tomato Dust has Copper as a list ingredient.

Seems that is the answer then.
Is there any chance this kind of disease can travel from plant to plant via other means, ie. insect? Should i move the infected plants?

All are in containers, so moving is easy.

Many Thanks

[mvan]

I fought this all season. I sprayed at least 4 times with copper, and towards the end of the season I got Mancozeb, which I used two or three times. I never did beat it because the rains just kept coming. I did manage to get a decent harvest though. But I had a lot of dead leaves.

I hope you can get ahead of it.

Matt

[Salty_Dog]

Wow, thank you for the heads up Matt.
I hadn't been overly concerned until i just read the trouble you had, i better get right on it today.

So any idea if it spreads from plant to plant?
Should i dust/spray all my plants just in case?

Thanks

P.S. I see that Mancozeb you used is serious stuff, i guess i'll find it at the local Farm Supplies store
http://www.kendon.com.au/Catalogue/h...l/mancozeb.htm

[mvan]

Salty,

I don't mean to make you overly concerned. It didn't kill any of my plants and didn't even affect the fruit until the very end of the season. It just kept me busy removing dead foliage and spraying. And like I said, we had a really wet season.
I'm not sure exactly how it spreads, but for me it started on one plant and before long, they all had it. Probably easily spread by the bugs that go from one plant to another.
As far as the Mancozeb, I think the one I used was from Bonide. A few tablespoons per gallon. With about 3 gallons I could spray 20 plants.
Alternate using Mancozeb and copper.
I would definitely spray all your plants as a preventative.

Matt

[Salty_Dog]

Thanks mvan,

I just tended to my plants now. It doesn't seem to of spread (yet) and some of the leafs ended up completely yellow/brown (only a couple).
I just removed them.

One thing i am trying to understand is when you say it was a wet session for you.
Do you mean, this type of leaf diease thrives in wet conditions or do you mean that everytime you applied the Mancozeb or Copper it rained, thus washing it off.

And as you say, it doesn't seem to effect the overall health of the plant and fruit... But i'd like to get on top of it before it becomes a bigger problem.

Thanks

[mvan]

Originally Posted by Salty_Dog

One thing i am try to understand is when you say it was a wet session for you.
Do you mean, this type of leaf diease thrives in wet conditions or do you mean that everytime you applied the Mancozeb or Copper it rained, thus washing it off.

Both!

I guess I really meant that the wet conditions allowed the disease to thrive, but it didn't help for spraying either.

[Salty_Dog]

Ok, that makes perfect sense mvan.
As this condition has only turned up after our spell of unsessional cool and rain that just passed.

I shall kept an eye on them after such conditions from now on.
Thank you for the advice.

[RonnyWil]

Here is a product you might want to try. It is basically hydrogen peroxide with an agent in it to keep it from breaking down in the light. I just use regular 3% hydrogen peroxide, one bottle to 10 bottles of water, and use it all before the light can break it down.

Here is a couple of links. One is for the product and the other is a link to using peroxide in the garden.

http://www.biosafesystems.com/product_oxidate.asp

http://www.using-hydrogen-peroxide.c...de-garden.html

[Wi-sunflower]

I can't say for sure, but I believe Bacterial spot and speck is mostly spread because of the wet conditions. I do know that the spores can survive on things in the greenhouse, so if you had it there in the past, you should spray down the plastic and benches with a bleach solution before the next season in the greenhouse.

We've had it bad in the past out in the field on our bell peppers. Leaves drop off like fall trees. Ugly. The only thing that seemed to help was a product called Copper Count and another with copper that I can't remember the name right now. The Copper is the vital ingredient.

Back when the disease was fairly new, the university meetings I went to spoke out adamently AGAINST seed saving saying the disease could be seed borne. I was big into saving rare hot chiles at that time. Then, as now, all my seeds get a bleach water rinse in the final rinse. The next year, the only plants in my greenhouse that had Bacterial Speck were from commercially purchased seed. None of my own seed had any problems.

Carol

[Salty_Dog]

Ended up getting some Copper Oxychloride Fungicide.
Wasn't exactly what i was looking for, but all that was available from our little and poorly stocked hardware store.


http://www.amgrow.com.au/products/di...xychloride.htm

[PNW_D]

You might want to give the following a go (try it on one plant) .... worked wonders on my black spot infected rose this summer - haven't tried it on tomatoes though. Only needed a few sprays to clear up the problem - stopped mildew on my dahlias too - although it made no difference to mildew on cukes

Roses: Mix 3 tablespoons natural apple cider vinegar in 1 gallon water. Fill garden sprayer with the mixture, and spray the roses daily to control black spot or other fungal diseases.