What's wrong with these tomatoes?

Jeff23703 · August 9, 2012

For the past month our tomatoes have been getting worse and worse, but didn't get very bad until a week ago. I thought it might be the heat and humidity so I left them alone. I've looked at all the problem solvers and nutrient deficiencies but can't seem to find a symptom that fits exactly. We have spider mites which lay siege to the gardens every year without fail. I've noticed recent flea beetle damage. Luckily, only a few worms have been found. Septoria and spider mites were a huge problem for the potted plants, which were yanked out and thrown away a month ago. Oddly enough, very similar symptoms can be found on plants almost 100ft away.

The symptoms include:
*Random leaved branches drying up seemingly over night, they're still green too (except for those that dried a week ago, which are brown now). No lesions to suggest fungal attack. The drying seems to start at the base of the branch (or even just one side) and works its way outward.
*The main stems are turning coppery and then brown. The plants are still producing suckers and new branches, but very very slowly.
*After slicing through a stem, it appears to be green and healthy, except for the very outer part directly under the "skin", which is either ever so slightly brown or discolored green like the "skin", but the vascular tissue seems healthy. There is absolutely no wilting.
*The drying of the branches is centered around the upper middle of the plants and spreads from there.

All of these symptoms seem eerily similar to what happened last year when the store bought plants keeled over in a couple of days.

Any ideas? My father's plants are just as green and healthy as can be. He has no spider mites or flea beetles, so I'm wondering if that's the problem. I'm tempted to cut the plants back to the tops of the cages, spray with fungicides and pesticides and hope that the suckers and little branches develop and fruit before frost.

Jeff

lakelady · August 9, 2012

Jeff, there are others much more experienced than I am, but I think if you could post a few pics it would help folks with a diagnosis.

FILMNET · August 10, 2012

Sure sounds like the Fusarium Wilt disease, I have it on a few plant now, last year it was terrible. look for the name here i posted pictures
The fungus live in the ground once its in the plant a slow death,, it takes all the water from the plant, the leaves turn yellow then stems. Actually my center stems stay green with a little brown fungus on sides. Fruits are fine, but stop growing any bigger and any new flowers die.

b54red · August 10, 2012

I don't think what he is describing is fusarium wilt. I had a several of my June plantings take on that look and they did eventually die. I cut the stems and found no symptoms of fusarium and I have had a lot of experience with it. Some of the plants had mild infections of fusarium but the others were not showing any of the signs. I seem to remember seeing this a few times in the past but have no idea what it is but the leaves get an almost dirty look and the stems take on a coppery brown coloring while the plant hardly grows at all. I have two plants out there now that have those symptoms and they were planted the first of June and are only 3 ft tall with very thin stems and almost no growth but they are still alive. The plants I put out 3 weeks ago are almost as big as those earlier plantings. I too would like to know what causes this. The plants did have some problems with spider mites a while back but not now. I have kept them sprayed with Daconil and even tried the bleach spray. I don't know if either has done much good but the plants are still alive while the ones I didn't spray have been dead for weeks. We have had a lot of heavy rain in between extremely hot and humid times. Right now we have been getting rain every day for over a week and I have gotten over 8 inches in my garden since it started a little over a week ago. I now fear all my newer plantings are at risk as it is impossible to spray right now. I did hit them with a little bleach spray between showers yesterday and that may help.

Jeff23703 · August 11, 2012

Here are a few pictures. Pardon the poor quality. I'm not the best at taking pictures... I'd load them into the post, but there are several and they take up a bit of space, so I'm using links.

The first four pictures show the major problem I'm having. The leaves gradually dry out and become crunchy... dessicated, I suppose. It's almost as though they were cut off and hung out to dry. There are tiny light colored speckles on the dead leaves not pictured, but I blame that on the mites. As I dug deeper into the plants, I did start to notice that some leaves had large beige spots where the damage starts. Most, however, don't change color much other than turning a sickly dark green.

Leaf 1
Leaf 2
Leaf 3
Leaf 4

These next pictures show yellowing. This is mostly a problem on a few plants. I suspect it's Septoria, which we just can't seem to prevent or manage. It shows up every year and usually marks the end of our tomato season.

Leaf 5
Leaf 6
Leaf 7

The next batch of pictures show the stems. The first shows a lengthwise cut exposing the vascular tissues. It's actually a bit greener in person. The second shows the outside of the stems. They have an odd "dirty" appearance - green but with tiny brown specks. The third shows the stem with the most severe bronzing. Finally, the fourth shows an odd dark area at the base of a sucker on one of the sick plants.

Stem
Stem 2
Stem 3
Stem 4

These show the odd bronzing from plants roughly 100ft away from those above. Some are in part shade, others in full sun. All were planted a month ago and showed no signs of sickness at planting. The first shows the underside of a Persimmon leaf. It's very bronze colored and shiny. Some of the recent growth on the Persimmon is stunted and has declined, but it seems to have a bit of new growth elsewhere. The second picture shows yellowing at growth points on either a Carolina Gold or Persimmon (can't remember at the moment). In person, it's actually a metallic bronze rather than yellow. No signs of sickness at planting.

Bronzing
Bronzing 2

The first several pictures are from plants that were planted in late April. Not so surprisingly, these issues started to appear late in July when temperatures hit roughly 100 and we had several days of heavy rain. Eggplants are planted 4ft away and are completely problem free, as are peppers 5ft away. All are planted in the same raised garden. The only plants that seem to be thriving are Beefsteak, Black Krim, Tigerella, Bradley, and Cherokee Purple that were planted in part and full sun and separated from the sick plants (except those that are bronzing) by 100ft, but even those are starting to show signs of this mystery leaf death.

To add to the first three groups of pictures, the affected plants are still putting out healthy looking growth at the ends of affected stems and suckers are growing throughout. It's almost as if the plants are trying to race the illness. Some are even producing flowers that bloom before the sickness hits. It's been going on for about two weeks, but with the recent weather and my schedule, I haven't been able to keep a very close eye on them. Now they're nearly leafless and I'm wondering if they can be saved. Perhaps cuttings of the healthier growth at the end of the stems? Cut back and let the suckers grow?

2nd Foundation · August 11, 2012

Jeff, I sympathize with you as I am starting to see similar symptoms as those in your fist group of pictures on two of my tomato plants here in north-central North Carolina.

I'm hoping it's not Late Blight, and rather Gray Mold instead, which is a late blight mimicker. Unfortunately late blight has been identified in several NC counties...
After drought conditions + 100 degree temperatures for over a month, we've recently had a DELUGE of rain- raining almost everyday, and VERY HIGH humidity with lower temperatures- in the 80s. So it's much more conducive to disease.

I am also looking forward to what the experts have to say...

~Caroline

Tomat0r · August 11, 2012

I've had something similar in the garden the past couple years. The stems look like they have a brown-gold dusting on them (but the branches pretty much stay alive), and areas of leaves will die almost overnight. In regard to the whole plant, it is pretty slow acting though. One other thing I noticed is the entire affected area last year would take on kind of a very subtle yellow shiny sheen, like there is a super thin layer of grease on the plant. Oddly enough, it only affected my hybrids last year, but this year it is going after everything.

b54red · August 11, 2012

After looking at your pics I think I had the same thing and still have it on a couple of plants. I don't think it is Late Blight which I have had the dubious pleasure of seeing in my garden 3 times. Whatever it is it is eventually deadly. Most of my plants that had it are already dead and the few left with it are barely staying alive.

Jeff23703 · August 14, 2012

Thank you for the responses.

I still have no idea what it could be. I did find out that the neighbors' plants started to look terrible a month ago. It seemed to spread from one to the other until all three were hit. I'm not sure if the symptoms are the same as mine, but I do suspect that septoria got theirs since mine caught septoria around the same time.

I'm almost convinced that it's not fusarium. One of the varieties that I'm growing is Bradley, which I'm told has resistance to fusarium wilt. Bradley seems to be affected the worse by this mystery illness. An interesting note, the Green Zebra stems do have splotches of brown in random spots of the vascular tissue. Green Zebra is the only one to show those symptoms. I'm almost certain that it's not verticillium since there are no "v" patterns on the leaves. Right now, I'm hoping that it is probably some sort of mold, at least for the plants that are losing all of their foliage.

As for the recent transplants... They're still stunted and "bronzed". The Carolina Gold has lost nearly all foliage but a few suckers near the base. It appears to have been burned by something. Too much heat for such a small plant? The Brandywine shows similar damage. The Persimmon has grown a few inches and the bronzing has taken on a nearly golden color. I should probably note that when I say "bronzing" I mean not just color but sheen too. The bronzed plants have a noticable sheen to them.

Ah, I did find this, however. Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus
I hope this isn't Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus! If it is, I guess I'm stuck with it. Now I'll have to re-plan the gardens too to remove any potential hosts for TSWV. Then again, perhaps this isn't spotted wilt virus. The nearby eggplants are completely untouched.

b54red · August 14, 2012

I don't think this is either TSWV or fusarium wilt. It isn't Gray Mold either at least not in any form I have ever seen. Whatever this is it has been bad this year. I didn't start seeing it until July. It is now on some of my new transplants. It isn't hard to spot as they are the ones that are barely growing while others are looking totally normal. It seems to spread slowly but I have no idea how it is spreading unless it is by whitefles or such.

RayR · August 14, 2012

Jeff, some of the leaf pictures look like Drought Stress, but Late Blight can look more like Drought Stress when the temperatures are high as the pathogen is inhibited. Other than that possibility, I have no clue.

The Stem 3 picture looks something like SunFreak had in Germany.
http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=24042

Tomat0r · August 15, 2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by RayR

The Stem 3 picture looks something like SunFreak had in Germany.
http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=24042

That thread sounds very similar to my tomato problem as well as Jeff's. I dont know if anyone mentioned but with mine I also have something that looks like powdery mildew on a lot of plants, not sure if it's related or not. Random grey spots. One plant that lost half of it's leaves has a lot of new vibrant suckers growing now (in the previously dead area) though that dont seem affected...yet.

Jeff23703 · August 15, 2012

There was a day or two that the beds dried out, but only because they were calling for storms that never came. Didn't want to over water. Other than that, the soil stays fairly moist.

After taking a peek at SunFreak's thread, I'm a bit curious. A new strain of Late Blight... That's scary.

The hairs on the bronzed stems are matted. No spores or fuzzy mold can be found. I'll check for Russet Spider Mites tomorrow. I know that I have the common red spider mites, so I'll spray for them anyway.

For the past three years we've had trouble with tomatoes around this time. I don't remember what happened the first year, but last year was a combination of spider mites and septoria. This year it seems to be septoria, spider mites, and some unknown disease. The bronzing is a new symptom, I think. I have to say that I would not be surprised if it turned out to be Late Blight, except that we haven't had cool enough weather to influence it much. Also, none of the other nearby solanaceae plants are showing signs of Late Blight. But I do agree that the leaf damage is eerily similar to that of Late Blight. I'll have to check after it rains and see if I find any spore growth.

The more I think about it, the more that I'm leaning towards Russet Spider Mites. One of the brugmansia and several daturas have been sickly all season. The brugmansia is showing signs of bronzing and is very stunted... very, very similar to what's happening to the younger tomatoes... and yet the other is 8ft tall and full of growth. The datura has strange holes between the veins (no bugs in sight) and severe discoloration of the leaves. One did defoliate and die. Another, the largest of them, is now showing signs of stunted leaf growth. The odd part: the eggplants and peppers have been left untouched for the most part. The eggplants are just now showing slight signs of spider mite damage.

So, spider mites, russet mites, septoria, and possibly late blight. I hope this isn't the case...

Elliot · August 21, 2012

Jeff, I am having the same problem with all of my tomato plants. Its Aug 20th and my plants are all drying out and dying some of them just have main stems and no leaves left. I tried spraing with copper spray back in July assumming it was blight. It did not help. Now i am left with no more plants. Now my pepers and cukes are doing welll Only the tomatos are suffering. i wish I had the answer so I can prevent it next year

ChrisK · August 21, 2012

These are the symptoms I have been seeing all summer as well. It raced through every row, hybrid or OP, planted in the ground or in pots.

Have not seen it before this year.

August 9, 2012	#1
Jeff23703 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: VA (Zone 8) Posts: 18	What's wrong with these tomatoes? For the past month our tomatoes have been getting worse and worse, but didn't get very bad until a week ago. I thought it might be the heat and humidity so I left them alone. I've looked at all the problem solvers and nutrient deficiencies but can't seem to find a symptom that fits exactly. We have spider mites which lay siege to the gardens every year without fail. I've noticed recent flea beetle damage. Luckily, only a few worms have been found. Septoria and spider mites were a huge problem for the potted plants, which were yanked out and thrown away a month ago. Oddly enough, very similar symptoms can be found on plants almost 100ft away. The symptoms include: Random leaved branches drying up seemingly over night, they're still green too (except for those that dried a week ago, which are brown now). No lesions to suggest fungal attack. The drying seems to start at the base of the branch (or even just one side) and works its way outward. The main stems are turning coppery and then brown. The plants are still producing suckers and new branches, but very very slowly. After slicing through a stem, it appears to be green and healthy, except for the very outer part directly under the "skin", which is either ever so slightly brown or discolored green like the "skin", but the vascular tissue seems healthy. There is absolutely no wilting. The drying of the branches is centered around the upper middle of the plants and spreads from there. All of these symptoms seem eerily similar to what happened last year when the store bought plants keeled over in a couple of days. Any ideas? My father's plants are just as green and healthy as can be. He has no spider mites or flea beetles, so I'm wondering if that's the problem. I'm tempted to cut the plants back to the tops of the cages, spray with fungicides and pesticides and hope that the suckers and little branches develop and fruit before frost. Jeff

August 9, 2012	#2
lakelady Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: northern NJ zone 6b Posts: 1,862	Jeff, there are others much more experienced than I am, but I think if you could post a few pics it would help folks with a diagnosis. __________________ Antoniette

August 10, 2012	#3
FILMNET Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: North Charleston,South Carolina, USA Posts: 1,803	Sure sounds like the Fusarium Wilt disease, I have it on a few plant now, last year it was terrible. look for the name here i posted pictures The fungus live in the ground once its in the plant a slow death,, it takes all the water from the plant, the leaves turn yellow then stems. Actually my center stems stay green with a little brown fungus on sides. Fruits are fine, but stop growing any bigger and any new flowers die. Last edited by FILMNET; August 10, 2012 at 07:37 AM.

August 11, 2012	#5
Jeff23703 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: VA (Zone 8) Posts: 18	Here are a few pictures. Pardon the poor quality. I'm not the best at taking pictures... I'd load them into the post, but there are several and they take up a bit of space, so I'm using links. The first four pictures show the major problem I'm having. The leaves gradually dry out and become crunchy... dessicated, I suppose. It's almost as though they were cut off and hung out to dry. There are tiny light colored speckles on the dead leaves not pictured, but I blame that on the mites. As I dug deeper into the plants, I did start to notice that some leaves had large beige spots where the damage starts. Most, however, don't change color much other than turning a sickly dark green. Leaf 1 Leaf 2 Leaf 3 Leaf 4 These next pictures show yellowing. This is mostly a problem on a few plants. I suspect it's Septoria, which we just can't seem to prevent or manage. It shows up every year and usually marks the end of our tomato season. Leaf 5 Leaf 6 Leaf 7 The next batch of pictures show the stems. The first shows a lengthwise cut exposing the vascular tissues. It's actually a bit greener in person. The second shows the outside of the stems. They have an odd "dirty" appearance - green but with tiny brown specks. The third shows the stem with the most severe bronzing. Finally, the fourth shows an odd dark area at the base of a sucker on one of the sick plants. Stem Stem 2 Stem 3 Stem 4 These show the odd bronzing from plants roughly 100ft away from those above. Some are in part shade, others in full sun. All were planted a month ago and showed no signs of sickness at planting. The first shows the underside of a Persimmon leaf. It's very bronze colored and shiny. Some of the recent growth on the Persimmon is stunted and has declined, but it seems to have a bit of new growth elsewhere. The second picture shows yellowing at growth points on either a Carolina Gold or Persimmon (can't remember at the moment). In person, it's actually a metallic bronze rather than yellow. No signs of sickness at planting. Bronzing Bronzing 2 The first several pictures are from plants that were planted in late April. Not so surprisingly, these issues started to appear late in July when temperatures hit roughly 100 and we had several days of heavy rain. Eggplants are planted 4ft away and are completely problem free, as are peppers 5ft away. All are planted in the same raised garden. The only plants that seem to be thriving are Beefsteak, Black Krim, Tigerella, Bradley, and Cherokee Purple that were planted in part and full sun and separated from the sick plants (except those that are bronzing) by 100ft, but even those are starting to show signs of this mystery leaf death. To add to the first three groups of pictures, the affected plants are still putting out healthy looking growth at the ends of affected stems and suckers are growing throughout. It's almost as if the plants are trying to race the illness. Some are even producing flowers that bloom before the sickness hits. It's been going on for about two weeks, but with the recent weather and my schedule, I haven't been able to keep a very close eye on them. Now they're nearly leafless and I'm wondering if they can be saved. Perhaps cuttings of the healthier growth at the end of the stems? Cut back and let the suckers grow? Last edited by Jeff23703; August 11, 2012 at 01:39 AM. Reason: Link names

August 11, 2012	#6
2nd Foundation Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Central North Carolina 7b Posts: 71	Jeff, I sympathize with you as I am starting to see similar symptoms as those in your fist group of pictures on two of my tomato plants here in north-central North Carolina. I'm hoping it's not Late Blight, and rather Gray Mold instead, which is a late blight mimicker. Unfortunately late blight has been identified in several NC counties... After drought conditions + 100 degree temperatures for over a month, we've recently had a DELUGE of rain- raining almost everyday, and VERY HIGH humidity with lower temperatures- in the 80s. So it's much more conducive to disease. I am also looking forward to what the experts have to say... ~Caroline Last edited by 2nd Foundation; August 11, 2012 at 08:58 PM.

August 10, 2012	#4
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	I don't think what he is describing is fusarium wilt. I had a several of my June plantings take on that look and they did eventually die. I cut the stems and found no symptoms of fusarium and I have had a lot of experience with it. Some of the plants had mild infections of fusarium but the others were not showing any of the signs. I seem to remember seeing this a few times in the past but have no idea what it is but the leaves get an almost dirty look and the stems take on a coppery brown coloring while the plant hardly grows at all. I have two plants out there now that have those symptoms and they were planted the first of June and are only 3 ft tall with very thin stems and almost no growth but they are still alive. The plants I put out 3 weeks ago are almost as big as those earlier plantings. I too would like to know what causes this. The plants did have some problems with spider mites a while back but not now. I have kept them sprayed with Daconil and even tried the bleach spray. I don't know if either has done much good but the plants are still alive while the ones I didn't spray have been dead for weeks. We have had a lot of heavy rain in between extremely hot and humid times. Right now we have been getting rain every day for over a week and I have gotten over 8 inches in my garden since it started a little over a week ago. I now fear all my newer plantings are at risk as it is impossible to spray right now. I did hit them with a little bleach spray between showers yesterday and that may help.

August 11, 2012	#7
Tomat0r Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: California Posts: 3	I've had something similar in the garden the past couple years. The stems look like they have a brown-gold dusting on them (but the branches pretty much stay alive), and areas of leaves will die almost overnight. In regard to the whole plant, it is pretty slow acting though. One other thing I noticed is the entire affected area last year would take on kind of a very subtle yellow shiny sheen, like there is a super thin layer of grease on the plant. Oddly enough, it only affected my hybrids last year, but this year it is going after everything.

August 14, 2012	#9
Jeff23703 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: VA (Zone 8) Posts: 18	Thank you for the responses. I still have no idea what it could be. I did find out that the neighbors' plants started to look terrible a month ago. It seemed to spread from one to the other until all three were hit. I'm not sure if the symptoms are the same as mine, but I do suspect that septoria got theirs since mine caught septoria around the same time. I'm almost convinced that it's not fusarium. One of the varieties that I'm growing is Bradley, which I'm told has resistance to fusarium wilt. Bradley seems to be affected the worse by this mystery illness. An interesting note, the Green Zebra stems do have splotches of brown in random spots of the vascular tissue. Green Zebra is the only one to show those symptoms. I'm almost certain that it's not verticillium since there are no "v" patterns on the leaves. Right now, I'm hoping that it is probably some sort of mold, at least for the plants that are losing all of their foliage. As for the recent transplants... They're still stunted and "bronzed". The Carolina Gold has lost nearly all foliage but a few suckers near the base. It appears to have been burned by something. Too much heat for such a small plant? The Brandywine shows similar damage. The Persimmon has grown a few inches and the bronzing has taken on a nearly golden color. I should probably note that when I say "bronzing" I mean not just color but sheen too. The bronzed plants have a noticable sheen to them. Ah, I did find this, however. Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus I hope this isn't Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus! If it is, I guess I'm stuck with it. Now I'll have to re-plan the gardens too to remove any potential hosts for TSWV. Then again, perhaps this isn't spotted wilt virus. The nearby eggplants are completely untouched.

August 14, 2012	#11
RayR Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Cheektowaga, NY Posts: 2,466	Jeff, some of the leaf pictures look like Drought Stress, but Late Blight can look more like Drought Stress when the temperatures are high as the pathogen is inhibited. Other than that possibility, I have no clue. The Stem 3 picture looks something like SunFreak had in Germany. http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=24042

August 15, 2012	#13
Jeff23703 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: VA (Zone 8) Posts: 18	There was a day or two that the beds dried out, but only because they were calling for storms that never came. Didn't want to over water. Other than that, the soil stays fairly moist. After taking a peek at SunFreak's thread, I'm a bit curious. A new strain of Late Blight... That's scary. The hairs on the bronzed stems are matted. No spores or fuzzy mold can be found. I'll check for Russet Spider Mites tomorrow. I know that I have the common red spider mites, so I'll spray for them anyway. For the past three years we've had trouble with tomatoes around this time. I don't remember what happened the first year, but last year was a combination of spider mites and septoria. This year it seems to be septoria, spider mites, and some unknown disease. The bronzing is a new symptom, I think. I have to say that I would not be surprised if it turned out to be Late Blight, except that we haven't had cool enough weather to influence it much. Also, none of the other nearby solanaceae plants are showing signs of Late Blight. But I do agree that the leaf damage is eerily similar to that of Late Blight. I'll have to check after it rains and see if I find any spore growth. The more I think about it, the more that I'm leaning towards Russet Spider Mites. One of the brugmansia and several daturas have been sickly all season. The brugmansia is showing signs of bronzing and is very stunted... very, very similar to what's happening to the younger tomatoes... and yet the other is 8ft tall and full of growth. The datura has strange holes between the veins (no bugs in sight) and severe discoloration of the leaves. One did defoliate and die. Another, the largest of them, is now showing signs of stunted leaf growth. The odd part: the eggplants and peppers have been left untouched for the most part. The eggplants are just now showing slight signs of spider mite damage. So, spider mites, russet mites, septoria, and possibly late blight. I hope this isn't the case...

August 21, 2012	#14
Elliot Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Hicksville, New York Posts: 503	Jeff, I am having the same problem with all of my tomato plants. Its Aug 20th and my plants are all drying out and dying some of them just have main stems and no leaves left. I tried spraing with copper spray back in July assumming it was blight. It did not help. Now i am left with no more plants. Now my pepers and cukes are doing welll Only the tomatos are suffering. i wish I had the answer so I can prevent it next year

August 21, 2012	#15
ChrisK Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 1,448	These are the symptoms I have been seeing all summer as well. It raced through every row, hybrid or OP, planted in the ground or in pots. Have not seen it before this year.