Help! Spots on my tomatoes!!

Hi, it's me again with another tomato emergency!
First, we are DROWNING in north Alabama, so I don't know if that is significant, but it has rained about 6 inches down here in the past couple of weeks. My tomatoes I grew from seeds are never going in the ground apparently, because we are expecting more rain over the weekend, and next week we are expecting as low as 38 degrees one morning!! It's rained about every 5 days since early March, so my new garden hasn't even been plowed yet!

SO...cold and rainy sounds perfect for fungal disease maybe? Anyway, my plants were fine maybe 4 days ago before the deluge. I have 112 mostly in quart pots sitting in the front yard--yesterday a bunch of them had black spots on them. YIKES!!! Is this a fungus? What do I do? Will they ever recover?? Are they contagious?

HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!!

[Annie]

I have the same problem but only on bottom leaves, I need help too. We had 7 inches of rain but mine are in whiskey barrels. This one plant has 28 tomatoes on it. My poor grandson lost 4 plants to the rain. Could this be a too wet a problem or is it a fungus. What do I need to spray with.

so sorry Annie! At least you have hope of getting some actual tomatoes!! haha I started seeds in early March and I've lugged 200 tomato plants in and out for 2 months now still in pots! haha I left them out the last 4 days because they are now in such big pots and getting so big that its exhausting! Guess I screwed up. I think I'll just grow them all in the dining room They looked better in there
hahaha
I think I'm a bad tomato mom.

[Dewayne mater]

That appears to be a mold to me. Theoretically, Excel G and actinovate will help as Excel G is a systemic fungicide. The nuclear option is the diluted bleach spray that has been discussed several times on tville and even recently. Search bleach and you'll get there. Hopefully, some others can give a second opinion about the spots. Those are small plants though, so you might consider discarding and getting some replacement transplants that are healthy.

Dewayne mater.

[Annie]

I have mine in whiskey barrels since the 1st. of March. Then we started getting cold nights but in April when it hit 34 I covered them all and actually I think the cold weather has helped them. I have just 17 plants and they are all full of tomatoes and are over 3 feet tall, I have started to stake some. They are all heirlooms except two hybrid. I only have one plant that looks exactly like yours but I still don't know what to spray it with. Somebody tell us wht to spray it with. Annie Where do you live in Alabama. I am from Birmingham but have lived so long in Tex. I hardly remember it.

[b54red]

I am having the same problem both with my seedlings outside and my plants in the ground. Maybe today it won't rain. We really need a break but not that 5 or 6 month drought we have had in the past few years.

[Annie]

Dewayne I have searched bleach and can't find it. Help

[Dewayne mater]

Just search for any post from Bill...B54red. As far as I can tell, he was the one who has taken the risks and honed the process down to a workable solution. It is a painful solution though, as often times by the time you see mold damage, it is 10 times as prevalent (or more) than what you see and those affected areas mostly die off from the treatment. The most recent one is still active: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=27907

Bill - is this mold?

Dewayne mater

[b54red]

It could be or it could be just leaves becoming saturated with too much moisture and no ability to dry out because of the cloudy cold weather we have been having. I am going to watch my plants for a couple of days since we are now having sunny weather.

I tend to use the bleach spray more liberally than most would but then I have much more experience with it than most people since I have been using it for years. I recommend someone who is using it for the first time use it in a slightly lower concentration than what I generally recommend. The reason for this is they may apply it more heavily than I do. I bought a very expensive SP Systems sprayer which allows me to spray a very fine mist with little or no run off. Using a regular sprayer might cause more puddling on leaves and result in more leaf burn than I get.

At first I thought the death of so many leaves when using the bleach was a bad thing but now I know that it is a very good thing in the long run as it kills the spores and stops or slows the spread of most foliage diseases. The sooner you use the bleach spray the less leaf lose you will have. I tend to spray at the first signs of disease because if I wait I invariably have a much worse problem to deal with.

I only use Clorox bleach and they have changed the formulation of the product so the new stuff is considerably stronger. I am going to start out with 5 ounces of bleach added to a full gallon of water and adjust it a bit one way or the other. If I get any burning of new healthy growth then I will use a bit less bleach and if it does not kill the diseased leaves then I will go up a bit. In the past I have tried some of the cheaper bleaches and some of the formulations are not consistent. I have had some that were just way too dilute and some that were too strong and some of them didn't even mention the formulation on the label. I hate that they changed the formulation on Clorox because I had gotten so used to mixing it and have had no problems getting the mixture just right the past few years. In my old age I'm hoping I won't forget the change Clorox has made to its formula and mix it with my old tried and true recipe. If I do I'll kill some plants or at least badly burn them.

Bill

[ginger2778]

It looks alot like Septoria to me, which I am unfortunately very familiar with after this season. I found that liquid copper spray works very well. I also found that the strength they recommended to use it at was way too strong causing the growth centers to deform for weeks at full strength, so I learned to use it at half strength which worked really well. Whatever you spray, be sure to do it only early AM or very late afternoon, or it will cause leaf damage from the sun. I would think bleach would work well too. Copper is considered organic, but is a heavy metal. I tossed worry about all that out the window when my plants got sick.
Marsha

[b54red]

Marsha I have what I believe is the same thing and it really doesn't look like Septoria. I have had Septoria many times in the past and it didn't look quite like this. It looks very much like some of my grafts that I left in the humidity chamber too long. I think this is caused by too much water. My plants didn't dry out at all for a full week. Before the rain and mist started my tomatoes looked fantastic with no sign of Septoria and only a little Early Blight on some lower leaves that I removed promptly. I had a few varieties that were totally unaffected by this stuff and the rest have various stages of it. I guess I'll know in a few days if it is Septoria because if it is it will spread fast.

Bill

[ginger2778]

It's what I had too, got it after several days of so humid that the dew was dripping off the leaves. Maybe I didn't diagnose it right. It spread really fast, and copper spray stopped it dead in its tracks. I tried Daconil first though. That didn't do squat.
I sure would like it diagnosed if it isn't Septoria.
This season I am going to try your bleach solution because it makes sense.
Marsha

[Annie]

Thanks for all the advice. Would someone post a picture of what Septoria looks like and will the bleach work on that also. Thanks Annie

[kath]

Originally Posted by Annie

Thanks for all the advice. Would someone post a picture of what Septoria looks like and will the bleach work on that also. Thanks Annie

Lots of photos here:

images septoria leaf spot on tomatoes - Google Search

I can't answer the bleach question, though.

kath

Here are a few closer pictures of my tomato spots!