Late Blight ??

[dipchip2000]

Trouble in paradise this morning. This plant was healthy yesterday morning and looks like this today. It is a Purple Haze that was planted March 1st. So far looks to be only two plants affected and they are growing next to each other and both are Purple Haze. My thoughts are Late Blight. I just wanted to get pictures first and now am going out to pull them and destroy all evidence.I welcome your diagnosis but will not wait to pull them. they are history and will try to keep from infecting the rest of my healthy plants.

ron

[RayR]

Ron, I know Late Blight works fast but overnight?
Are those leaves dry and brittle or water soaked greasy? Late Blight would be the latter. Any stem lesions? Any reports of Late Blight being present in Oklahoma now?

[rsg2001]

Is it just the bottom leaves, or is the rest of the plant looking OK? Are these plants that you raised from seeds yourself?

I find that sometimes the black/purple tomato plants get stuff that looks like that in my garden, particularly Black Cherry, and someone diagnosed it for me as Early Blight, not Late -- they said if you look closely at the leaves you can see the rings but they are hard to see with a black plant. I found the rings. It will not kill the plant all at once and if that's what you have you may still get a harvest. You can help contain Early Blight through regular spraying with a fungicide (e.g., Actinovate, Serenade). And also you'd pick off the affected leaves.

I have never had Late Blight to my awareness in my garden. I understand that Late Blight doesn't look like that; the leaves will look moldy and slimy and the whole plant can be 'consumed' by it overnight. Yours look dry and crispy.

[dipchip2000]

Ray

Leaves were never yellow and are now dry and very brittle. Not noticeable yesterday when I picked tomatoes.Have you got something else in mind. Appears to be dying fast.

ron

[RayR]

Sudden wilt symptoms could be caused by a lot of things down South.
Southern Blight, but I think evidence of the fungus would be seen at the soil line.
Bacterial Wilt would cause sudden wilt too.
Any other symptoms besides the wilted leaves?

[dipchip2000]

Ray

Leaf stems seems to collapse where it reaches the main stem. All seems OK except leaves which the stems narrow and then dry up and get brittle. I have a few new pics which I just took. No main stem dis colorization. Plant actually looks good after pruning out dried and crispy leaves. Havent pulled them yet but dont want it to spread to my other plants. More comments?

ron

[RayR]

Sudden wilting of leaves with collapse of the petiole, no yellowing, no sign of fungal activity and no other symptoms makes me guess it's a vascular disease—Bacterial Wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum). Only way to know for sure is to cut a piece of the main stem and do the water test and look for a bacterial stream oozing into the water. If you keep losing more leaves and it looks fatal, that may be the way to go.

[b54red]

My guess would be Gray Mold. Use the bleach spray mentioned many times on these forums and you should get many more leaves drying up and dying but not the healthy uninfected leaves of the plant. Gray Mold can cause very fast ruining of leaves and it will eventually get some of the fruit and kill the whole plant if left unchecked. If it is not Gray Mold and you are going to be pulling the plants then you have nothing to lose by spraying them.

Add 8 ounces of regular bleach (Clorox) to a full gallon of water and add a couple of drops of dish washing soap. Spray with a fine mist making sure to get all of the plant especially the center where it is shadier and be sure to spray undersides of the leaves as well. Do this very very early in the morning or late in the day to avoid unnecessary leaf burn. If it is Gray Mold then many of the leaves that looked fine near the sick ones will also dry up after being sprayed because they are infected also and the symptoms have just not shown up yet. Wait a day or two then cut off the dead leaves and watch the plant closely for a reappearance of the disease. If you see even one new leaf showing symptoms repeat the process and then after a day apply Daconil. If it is Gray Mold then other plants may be affected already especially black or purple ones so you may want to spray any nearby plants as a precaution. The spray if applied correctly and at the proper concentration doesn't damage healthy leaves unless sprayed in the sun; but leaves affected by most foliage diseases will start to dry up shortly after being sprayed.

The bleach spray doesn't seem to have any residual anti fungal properties so a fungicide like Daconil should be applied the next day after the treatment to help prevent new diseases.

[dipchip2000]

Thanks Bill

I cut off noticeably affected leaves last night. I sprayed all the plants this morning with bleach mixture. Gonna be over 100 degrees here for at least next 10 days. About time to start pruning all plants back very drastically. So much green fruit still on most plants and I hate to cut them off before they ripen. I am still picking over 30# a day and running out of friends to give them to.Plants are all from 8 to 18 feet and most still look good. 10 of my original 60 plants are showing some disease and they are all cherry or smaller salad tomatoes. Kosovo still loaded with 3 approaching 4# and starting to blush slightly. Pics later when they ripen. My only complaint is it is just too hot to do the necessary maintenance in this phenomenal season.

ron

[b54red]

Ron let me know how the spray works. I really think from looking at your pictures that it is Gray Mold and not Late Blight. I have it on several of my plants this morning after the all day rain and drizzle we had yesterday; but I am unable to spray this morning because of the unrelenting wind form that tropical storm in the gulf. It is staying cloudy so if the wind lets up a bit I'm going to break my rule and spray if I can just get a couple of minutes without these awful gusts. I love my tomatoes but not enough to get covered in bleach.

Why do you have to cut back your plants because it is hot? I grow right on through the hottest weather of the summer and fall. Did you allow too many stems to develop and now have a jungle on your hands?

[dipchip2000]

Bill

My cages are CRW and 5ft tall. My plants are 8 to 18 ft and grow out the top and across other cages and hang almost to the ground somewhere. It is so much of a jungle that it is sometimes hard to distinguish which variety I am picking. There can be no air circulation in its current condition and the wind is from SE at two mph. If I dont cut them back I think I will have major problems in July and August. I have always cut them to top of cages and cut off limbs that stick out from cages. When it starts to cool down in late August or early September, they will again start to grow and produce till frost. It has always worked before however I have never had this much mass in each bed of plants. 8 beds 5ft apart and I can just get between them to harvest and work.Only will be 4 plants per 12ft bed next year. I have really learned my lesson well. I am even considering a trellis on top of the cages but I will not do away with cages. I really like them and how well they work in most years. This year just wasn't most years.

ron

[b54red]

Ron the main reason I went to the trellis was because of the very thing you are experiencing. I would get too dense a mass of foliage then massive disease and insect problems that I could not address because I couldn't even hit much of the plant with my sprayer. I have too few plants escape the fusarium problems to have them die before mid June because of foliage diseases getting out of hand. I rarely could keep a plant alive past June until I started using the trellis. Our humidity stays so high that foliage diseases will get started no matter how much fungicide I use because it is washed away most mornings by the water dripping like rain off of the plants. By opening up the plants on the trellis I have greatly reduced most of the foliage diseases but I also don't have the huge early harvest I used to have in cages but I'm not growing for market; only for my family and friends. I still have a hard time giving all the extras away most years.

[Save$]

My unpleasant experience with LB is that the stems, blossom buds, and fruit will turn black. No amount of trimming will save the plant. Even isolated plants 25 feet away will be impacted. Even the hanging plants! The only ones that escape are those in the solar space where there is no air drift. We once had an early frost predicted so I covered my plants with a tarp overnight. I left it onfor a day. When I took it off, the plants had not frosted, but BL there and in only 3 days all the plants were infected. Our extension sevice says LB can't winter over so it must be carried in each year on plants from the box stores. Once it get going anywhere in your neighborhood, you may as well hang it up. There is no running.

[barkeater]

Originally Posted by Save$

My unpleasant experience with LB is that the stems, blossom buds, and fruit will turn black. No amount of trimming will save the plant. Even isolated plants 25 feet away will be impacted. Even the hanging plants! The only ones that escape are those in the solar space where there is no air drift. We once had an early frost predicted so I covered my plants with a tarp overnight. I left it onfor a day. When I took it off, the plants had not frosted, but BL there and in only 3 days all the plants were infected. Our extension sevice says LB can't winter over so it must be carried in each year on plants from the box stores. Once it get going anywhere in your neighborhood, you may as well hang it up. There is no running.

Yes, once your plant is infected, nothing will stop Late blight. But, it can be in the neighborhood and if your plants have been well sprayed with good coverage with Daconil, the tomatoes are protected. In 2009 the late blight outbreak was well publicized and everyone around me had lost their plants by July and I never got it because I sprayed Daconil weekly.

Last year I lost all my tomatoes to late blight though! Why? Because I was alternating Daconil with Mancozeb for Septoria when late blight came up on the winds of TS Irene the end of August. It had been 3 weeks or more since I used Daconil. So it was my fault because I hadn't bothered to check, but found out later LB was confirmed in Burlington Aug. 3, and in Montpelier - 50 miles south of me - about two weeks later. Now I check the u.s. late blight map every week.

http://uspest.org/risk/tom_pot_map

P.S. I just noticed at red dot just southeast of Albany that wasn't there the other day!
P.P.S. And it says spores are forming in Berlin, Vt, which is next to Montpelier - Looks like heavy on the Daconil this summer!

[Save$]

Originally Posted by barkeater

Yes, once your plant is infected, nothing will stop Late blight. But, it can be in the neighborhood and if your plants have been well sprayed with good coverage with Daconil, the tomatoes are protected. In 2009 the late blight outbreak was well publicized and everyone around me had lost their plants by July and I never got it because I sprayed Daconil weekly.

Last year I lost all my tomatoes to late blight though! Why? Because I was alternating Daconil with Mancozeb for Septoria when late blight came up on the winds of TS Irene the end of August. It had been 3 weeks or more since I used Daconil. So it was my fault because I hadn't bothered to check, but found out later LB was confirmed in Burlington Aug. 3, and in Montpelier - 50 miles south of me - about two weeks later. Now I check the u.s. late blight map every week.

http://uspest.org/risk/tom_pot_map

P.S. I just noticed at red dot just southeast of Albany that wasn't there the other day!
P.P.S. And it says spores are forming in Berlin, Vt, which is next to Montpelier - Looks like heavy on the Daconil this summer!

Thank you, never knew that site was available. Never used Daconil. I have it now. It has been raining nearly every day. What do you do if you can"t go 24 hrs without rain? I am thinking of building A frams and put plastic on the upper half the rain runs off, but air can freely circulate around the plants. Think this would work?