Yellowing Tomato Leaves

[AlittleSalt]

The tomato plant below was green and healthy looking 4 days ago. It is growing in full shade now. It has some tomatoes on it that I was hoping would ripen even though it is in full shade. Three days ago, I went out into the garden and the leaves started changing color. Yesterday, there were more yellow leaves, and today this.

Our high temps have been lower 80s and lows around 58F. My thoughts are that maybe it's because it is growing in shade and it is late October? Maybe a disease?

[ginger2778]

Looks like fusarium.

[b54red]

I agree it looks like fusarium.

Bill

[AlittleSalt]

I was going to ask our local ag agent but he is out of town. I agree with it looking like fusarium. What is strange about it is the plant has two main areas and it is only on one of them. The other side is green. I'm about to go pull it out now.

[b54red]

That is not unusual for fusarium to move up one stem first. Sometimes the other stem can remain healthy for a good while but most often it too will get the yellowing soon after the first stem wilts.

I have had a terrible time with fusarium in my garden for over 35 years. I finally started grafting heirlooms onto rootstocks of varieties with strong fusarium resistance. I have had the best luck with varieties that are resistant to all three races of fusarium since I seem to have them all in my soil. By grafting I get the benefits of heirlooms without the tendency to die from fusarium before they make any fruit. I also have problems with nematodes but they usually take longer to kill a tomato plant than fusarium; but it helps to have resistance to nematodes also with your rootstock.

You could go with hybrids but I have not found a hybrid that has triple resistance that is also decent tasting; but some like Big Beef with resistance to two strains of fusarium are not bad.

Bill

[AlittleSalt]

I read this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusarium_wilt

Fusarium oxysporum is a common soil pathogen and saprophyte that feeds on dead and decaying organic matter.

So I'm thinking I invited it into my garden by digging in oak leaves in December/January every year?

[Worth1]

I wouldn't jump on the f wilt train yet.
personally I have never seen it where I live in Texas.
Worth

[AlittleSalt]

Worth, I live on the county line of Johnson and Hill counties.

So far,
from http://txmg.org/johnson/resources/ve...ohnson-county/ I have read that "Fungicides help control blights and buying VFN plants help fight verticillium wilt" and "Spider mites are a likely warm-weather problem. Yellowish areas on older leaves suggest you should check the undersides for microscopic spiders and treat with a miticide every three days following directions."

So Blights, Verticillium Wilt, and Spider Mites are in my area. However, I've only read the one site so far.

[Worth1]

F wilt and v wilt aren't the same I dont think.
I'm not a plant doctor.

Worth

[Worth1]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...abK6Shao70oUvw

[AlittleSalt]

Maybe these pics will help. I just took them a few minutes ago. The first picture is the tomato plant with the yellow leaves on the back of the leaf. 2nd is a different Tomato plant and only the lower leaves look like this. Pics 3 and 4 are pepper leaves. Last pic is from an okra plant

[AlittleSalt]

This is a tomato from the second picture above. This is the first tomato with this late blight looking spot on in that I have seen in growing for the past 4 years. It is a Rutgers tomato that was growing in the shade about 3 feet high.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

This is a tomato from the second picture above. This is the first tomato with this late blight looking spot on in that I have seen in growing for the past 4 years. It is a Rutgers tomato that was growing in the shade about 3 feet high.

That spot also looks like Grey Mould. I do see some on the leaves of your previous post.
It doesn't kill plants outright like late blight does, just makes it all look ugly.
I did harvest a good number of fruit from my plants that had Grey Mould, but I didn't pull them as the plants can grow out of it when sprayed with a good fungicide.

[AlittleSalt]

beeman, I'll have two more pictures tomorrow (10-24-14) The first one will be of the infected Rutgers plant that the tomato came from. The second pic will come from a Rutgers plant growing 6 feet away. Both growing with the same amount of shade, planted from seed and then transplanted the same days. Oh, I looked up grey mould after your post tonight.

The pictures I took had way too much sun in them.

The plant the tomato came from is 4.5' tall and 20 inches wide.

The plant 6 feet away is also 4.5' tall but it is 36 + inches wide with a lot more tomatoes and leaves growing on it.

[AlittleSalt]

My local ag agent sent me this link http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/v...roblem-solver/

He is going to look at the pictures I sent in on Monday. If/When I find out what is going on in my garden, I'll post the findings here.