Early blight or stress?

[SueCT]

It is WAY too early for me to be seeing leaf diseases! Weather has been beautiful. I had just been thinking this morning that this should be a banner tomato year. Then I go out and see this on my plants! I don't see concentric rings and it is not primarily on the bottom leaves. I had planned on starting a spray regimen this week and have already bought Daconil. Is it too late? Should I replace these plants and hope for a late harvest from them rather than investing more time and spraying into plants that are already diseased so early? I never see this type of thing until late in the year, so this is alarming. ( I need to figure out how to make these smaller on Google photos. Sorry.)

[My Foot Smells]

that's what my EB looks like and I just prune it out at first sight usually. a lot of my plants are not greatly affected and "grow out" of the EB when the weather clears.

personally, I would not replace, but I am not the voice of reason either. in addition, I don't spray either for EB, just snip and clip usually.

If anything, a thicker mulch of straw may be helpful. The beds I lay it on thick, don't get it usually, and the once I chinch on, do.

EB is one of my least concerns "down here," might be more of a factor up there in Conn. - IDK.

However, I do use good clean practice and wipe of my clippers with a bleach rag between plants, fwiw.

have a great season and hope you get some solid answers here. and lots of tomatoes.

[Father'sDaughter]

My non-expert first guess would be Verticillium Wilt based on the V shape of the yellowing. I hope I'm wrong and that someone else with more knowledge will come along with a better answer.

[RayR]

That's not EB. If it were drought stress it would be more likely on the very bottom branches.
Get out a strong magnifier or take a good chose up shot of the bottom and top of the affected leaves with your camera, Aphids are about,and the very young nymphs you won't be able to see with your eyes like you can with adults.

[SueCT]

Well I do have some aphids. I found 3 on one leaf, they are very sparse. Enough to cause all that damage already? I did spray with Daconil, which I was planning to do anyway. maybe I washed a few off. Can they transmit diseases as well? What is the best way to deal with them? Is picking off the leaves enough? It looks like there might be a huge number of eggs/juveniles if those little tiny bumps are them. I am trying to resize this with no luck for some reason. Sorry.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by SueCT

Well I do have some aphids. I found 3 on one leaf, they are very sparse. Enough to cause all that damage already? I did spray with Daconil, which I was planning to do anyway. maybe I washed a few off. Can they transmit diseases as well? What is the best way to deal with them? Is picking off the leaves enough? It looks like there might be a huge number of eggs/juveniles if those little tiny bumps are them. I am trying to resize this with no luck for some reason. Sorry.

I think what you have there in the picture are the moulted white exoskeletons the aphids shed as they grow. I'm sure you'd find more actual aphids under greater magnification. They are not known be to vectors for disease but they sure can do some damage to leaves.
Aphids don't lay eggs, they skip that part of typical insect reproductions and just give live birth on the leaves. That is done asexually by the winged aphids which are usually black in color. The nymphs are very tiny like a speck of dust and camouflaged very well against the leaf color.

The first picture is a leaf with aphid nymphs. The second picture is a section of that same leaf at the full resolution of my camera. I posted this picture on another thread but I adjusted the color levels here so you can see the aphid nymphs more clearly and how many there really were. Ya, so by all means remove and trash the already damaged leaves, that's where they are in greater numbers. Luckily aphids are easy to kill if you need to. Insecticidal Soap, Neem Oil sprays for example.. You really don't need to use any really toxic insecticides. A pyrethrin insecticide is fairly safe and kills aphids but like all broad spectrum insecticides it kills the beneficial insects too.
Personally I don't do anything normally other than removing and trashing the damaged leaves, as the natural predators do a darn good job of controlling them in my garden.

[SueCT]

Well, this is so much better than fungal disease this early. I will go out and pick off more leaves tomorrow. I needed to do some preventative spraying anyway, so that is done now. What are the natural predators? Will insecticidal soap kill those as well? I think Safer makes something. If so, I will just pick off leaves and watch. I would rather let the natural controls work if possible. Is there anything I can do encourage that?

[RayR]

There are all kinds of natural enemies of aphids...

Aphid Natural Enemies and Biological Control

[SueCT]

OK, I read importing insects, esp Ladybugs, can bring in diseases that can spread to the local population of Ladybugs and cause big problems. I picked off all the leaves that were yellowing or browning, put it in a zip lock bag in the trash. Hopefully, I got enough of them to give the local natural predators a chance to find them and start controlling them. I am going to plant a couple more in pots and hope for a late frost in case I can't control these aphids. I have about 8-12" plants in cups that nice and healthy but they are Stump of the World, Soldacki and Wes, none of which are early varieties, so I will need some luck to get a decent harvest out them this late. I only have 2 22" pots so I am going to have to choose. I have some Sophies Choice and might have one more Early Girl left but they are not in great condition. I could look locally for plants if anyone has any left, but to get one large enough to make up for the late planting would likely be pricey. Does anyone in shorter season zones, like zones 3-4 ever have any luck with the mid to late season tomatoes? Anyone that has to plant this late?

[zipcode]

Um, I can't see any of OP's pictures. I tried 4 different browsers. Why can everybody seem to see them?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by zipcode

Um, I can't see any of OP's pictures. I tried 4 different browsers. Why can everybody seem to see them?

I don't see any pictures either but I know from experience that when there's just a square thingie to click on it doesn't work for me and my browser.

Carolyn

[SueCT]

I don't know why some can't see them. I still see them fine. I loaded them on google photos and posted the address. I used to post to Photobucket but they locked my account because they found out I was doing it and apparently that is called third party hosting and is illegal with their free accounts. In order to do it I would have to upgrade to 400.00/yr account. Umm, no thanks. If anyone can suggest a better free hosting site, I will upload to that so you can see them. The browser I am using is Chrome.

[SueCT]

Carolyn, I can email the pics to you if you would like to see them.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by SueCT

Carolyn, I can email the pics to you if you would like to see them.

I do have another browser I can use here,but someone above said they had used 4 browsers with no luck.

At this point I think there are enough folks who can see the pictures and try to help you.

Carolyn

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by SueCT

If anyone can suggest a better free hosting site, I will upload to that so you can see them. The browser I am using is Chrome.

Both imgur and flickr will let you embed photos wherever you want. Imgur has a weird structure for organizing your photos that can be a little frustrating at first.