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Old May 4, 2013   #1
LDx4
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Default First Major Problem of the Season!

I've had an outbreak of gray mold! So far, it's limited to about 6-8 plants in a poorly ventilated area. We had two days of unseasonably warm weather, and this morning the plants were looking bad. They seemed perfectly healthy just three days ago -- so healthy and lush that I thought "I should thin out those plants to increase the air flow" -- but, I didn't get around to it. Then the hot weather hit, and now they look terrible! I cut off all the infected leaves and stems that I saw and my husband sprayed them with b54red's bleach mixture this afternoon after the sun went down. Tomorrow morning we'll spray with copper soap. We've been spraying weekly with Neem oil, but it just wasn't enough.

These are plants that were planted out the first week of March, and they are covered with tomatoes -- DARN IT!
Lyn
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Old May 4, 2013   #2
Tonio
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Sorry to hear about your botrytis issue Lyn. Are these in your lath structures or outside?What kind of neem oil are you using? I saw the pending mini SOSA for thursday/friday, and I irrigated and treated prior to the onslaught. Pending irrigation for tomorrow but I will see the forecast tonight to be sure. My bed soil is still in good moist levels today.

I was decimated last year with powdery mildew, and possibly some other fungi pathogen.
This year I've been using actinovate & serenade every week, and only see insect pressures so far.
I'm kinda worried about the possible rain due on sunday/monday. If it rains, it appears to be a warm temp rain, and fear all kinds of spores will float in. ugh I have many blossom trusses on 7 week old plants in peak pollination state.
Hope you make a quick recovery!!
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Old May 5, 2013   #3
Deborah
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OUCH. Good luck, Lyn !
My toms have yellow spotted leaves on the bottom. I cut them off.
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Old May 5, 2013   #4
LDx4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tonio View Post
Sorry to hear about your botrytis issue Lyn. Are these in your lath structures or outside?What kind of neem oil are you using? I saw the pending mini SOSA for thursday/friday, and I irrigated and treated prior to the onslaught. Pending irrigation for tomorrow but I will see the forecast tonight to be sure. My bed soil is still in good moist levels today.

I was decimated last year with powdery mildew, and possibly some other fungi pathogen.
This year I've been using actinovate & serenade every week, and only see insect pressures so far.
I'm kinda worried about the possible rain due on sunday/monday. If it rains, it appears to be a warm temp rain, and fear all kinds of spores will float in. ugh I have many blossom trusses on 7 week old plants in peak pollination state.
Hope you make a quick recovery!!
Tonio,

These are plants that are in the original lath house structure. The one made from a modified Harbor Freight Greenhouse. So, the air circulation against the back wall is not as good as it is in the other, newer structures. I've always been careful to keep the plants pruned up at least 12-18 in from the ground for that area. But, I hadn't done much drastic pruning yet this year. I make sure to spray Neem every week (right now I've got Safer brand that I ordered from Amazon) and alternating with Actinovate+Excel LG. I had sprayed with Neem on Wed early in the am and then sprayed with BT on Thurs early in the am. I've got half my plants outside the houses this year, and they look fine so far. But now I'm worried about the rain on Sun/Mon too.

Lyn
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Old May 5, 2013   #5
b54red
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LDx4 View Post
Tonio,

These are plants that are in the original lath house structure. The one made from a modified Harbor Freight Greenhouse. So, the air circulation against the back wall is not as good as it is in the other, newer structures. I've always been careful to keep the plants pruned up at least 12-18 in from the ground for that area. But, I hadn't done much drastic pruning yet this year. I make sure to spray Neem every week (right now I've got Safer brand that I ordered from Amazon) and alternating with Actinovate+Excel LG. I had sprayed with Neem on Wed early in the am and then sprayed with BT on Thurs early in the am. I've got half my plants outside the houses this year, and they look fine so far. But now I'm worried about the rain on Sun/Mon too.

Lyn
Rain makes it much worse. Even on well pruned plants it can show up and cause tremendous damage. Last year I got it on some of my plants pruned to a single stem and they had plenty of air circulation but they also got a ten day stretch of rain every day.

I have noticed Gray Mold is worse on the black and GWR tomatoes. It could be because I grow so many black tomatoes but I only grow a few of the green when ripe varieties and if Gray Mold shows up it invariably gets on my GWR toms.

One spraying of the bleach will not get rid of it. After spraying I wait a few days and prune out all of the dead leaves and then spray again. I use a very strong fine mist and make sure to get the underside of all of the leaves and if it comes back I just do it again. I have already treated all of my plants twice with the bleach spray because of extended rainy and cloudy weather. It finally stopped raining today and I've got to get out and do some pruning and tying and spray with Daconil. I'm hoping I won't see any Gray Mold but chances are good after the weather we have had there might be some.

I sure hope you get it under control before it causes too much foliage damage or even fruit damage. Good Luck.

Bill
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Old May 5, 2013   #6
LDx4
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Thanks Bill! And thanks for sharing your bleach treatment recipe with the forum. Good to know that it will require multiple treatments. I'll ask my husband to spray everything again in a few days.

It has only drizzled a few times today, so I went out and pruned some more foliage off. My husband is going to spray the rest of the plants with the bleach before it gets dark, if it doesn't start raining again. He only did half the plants yesterday, so he'll do the rest today. We just bought a new backpack sprayer yesterday, since our old one was not pumping very well, and it really made a big difference!

Most of the plants that had a lot of the mold showing were early reds like Stupice and Prairie Fire. The GWRs and blacks were only planted out about 3 weeks ago, so they're not too big yet. But they probably have it too.

Lyn
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Old May 6, 2013   #7
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Aarrrggg! I hope the infestation is limited to those few plants!

Stay dry.

Steve
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Old May 6, 2013   #8
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Lyn, wishing you the best with containing the mold. I'm sure you'll get plenty of sunny weather there soon. I suppose it isn't as dry (low humidity) as we have here in the valley.

Good luck.
-naysen
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Old May 7, 2013   #9
LDx4
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Thanks Steve and Naysen ~

Naysen, I've been reading about your thrip/mite problems over on the grafting thread -- if it's not one problem, it's another with these plants! You're right, the humidity is higher here since we're closer to the coast, at least in the spring. Come July and August, the heat will start up and then the insect problems will intensify here.

I think we both need some of that good luck right now!

Lyn
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