Help - White Leaf

[user10]

Hi all, I am having great difficulty with my tomato leaves. This is happening not only to me, yet several people in my street.

To start off, the leaves are thinning out, with a curve facing down words. If you flip the leaves over, you can see a white dot. The white dot spreads till the leaves fall off. Do to that, the stems are not growing in it’s regular speed.

We are all puzzled.
We all have different tomato plants, soil, fertilizer,…….everything different.
I would think that the only cause can be the weather. It rained quite a bit for weeks, could it be bad drainage ?? or simply dampness ??
This has never happened before.

Any help would be appreciated
Thx

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by user10

Hi all, I am having great difficulty with my tomato leaves. This is happening not only to me, yet several people in my street.

To start off, the leaves are thinning out, with a curve facing down words. If you flip the leaves over, you can see a white dot. The white dot spreads till the leaves fall off. Do to that, the stems are not growing in it’s regular speed.

We are all puzzled.
We all have different tomato plants, soil, fertilizer,…….everything different.
I would think that the only cause can be the weather. It rained quite a bit for weeks, could it be bad drainage ?? or simply dampness ??
This has never happened before.

Any help would be appreciated
Thx

Photos of the spots, and upper and lower of the leaves would be a great help to us.

Marsha

[user10]

I do not have a camera off hand, sorry. I can tell you that the upper and lower of the leaves are similar. Even the new born leaves begin early.
I did go to the hardware store this morning. They told me to buy Diazinon 12.5. That is just in case of bug infestation. I bot the item even though the problem is not the case. I sprayed four tomato plants only to see any improvements. I will also try today in fixing my soil (drainage) .

Thx

[bcday]

It sounds like downy or powdery mildew. High humidity will encourage growth of mildew. Where in Canada are you? Is there a garden center or plant nursery nearby where you can take a few leaves to get a diagnosis? If not, go back to the hardware store and tell them you need a fungicide that contains copper, chlorothalonil, or potassium bicarbonate.

[user10]

This summer, the humidity level has been very very high. I am from QC. Just before and after Calgary's disaster, we had many storms and many cloudy days
Yes, now I think it is some sort of mildew. I copied and posted an image off Google. The pic is exactly like my leaves except my leaves are curved down words. Yet there is another problem now. Me and my neighbours talked and examined. We used a magnifying glass only to see some sort of white lice. I am lost. Where are these white lice from? Do they form from the mildew? Is there a solution ?
No garden center or plant nursery nearby, as I know of. I will go back to the hardware store.

user10http://onvegetables.files.wordpress....-jul-12_f1.jpg

[bcday]

The white lice could be aphids, which are sometimes called "plant lice". Aphids also can be green, red, or black. Aphids shed their skins as they grow, so you also could be looking at the empty shed skin, which would appear white. Another pest of tomatoes are whiteflies, which are white and about the same size as aphids, but they usually fly away as soon as you touch the leaf. I don't think live whiteflies would sit on the leaf and let you look at them through a magnifying glass.

For powdery mildew, there are some homemade potions that many people on this forum use instead of buying expensive sprays from the store. You can look for them using the search link at the top of the page. These homemade sprays use things like milk or bleach. Be careful because some of them kill the diseased leaves even faster than the disease would, but are not supposed to harm healthy leaves. I tried milk and it did kill the diseased leaves, but the plant soon put out new healthy leaves.

You might also ask one of the moderators to move your thread to the "Common Garden Diseases and Pests" section where it could get more attention from people who can give you a little more information.

Drier weather will help too.

[user10]

Thank you very much for everything bcday.
I sat down once more and looked at my tomato leaves. It must be the Aphids. I found green & black yet not red.
I will search for the homemade sprays, and I will ask for transfering this thread.
The clouds are not helping us. We need more sun. It is sprinkling on and off right now. One neighbor is saying that misty rain is more farther worse then normal rain.

user10