Bacterial Infection on Tomatoes

My neighbor has a serious problem with an bacterial infection on his tomatoes. I looked it up, but couldn't figure out exactly which kind it was. The sites I looked at mainly said to spray with fungicide and to remove the leaves. It said the main cause was wet leaves, but with all the rain we've had, there isn't much I can do. I explained this to my neighbor who has yet to do anything about it. His garden is adjacent to my fence and I know this can spread to my tomatoes. Anyway to prevent this from spreading to my plants? What about a good way to take care of the problem on his plants? I don't remember the name of the infection and don't have pictures, but the all the lower leaves have dark spots with yellow rings around them. The leaves curl up and die and is now spreading up his plants. More than half of the lower leaves are dead.

Check out this site
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/tomatoproblemsolver/

Thanks for the link, but I've already checked it out. That's the one I used to figure out it was an infection and at least now I can remember the names. I'm not sure if it's bacterial speck, gray leaf spot, spotted wilt or a combo of the three. It did help a little, but didn't give any preventative measures or any certain type of fungicide they know will actually work. I've bought fungicide in the past that didn't work, so I like to know some that will.

Hi,

I had what I think is a similar problem with my tomatoes, I diagnosed it as Blight. I used "Ortho Max Garden Disease Control", readily available at Home Depot or Lowe's (green bottle, yellow cap).

A couple plants it got it under control, a third plant that was covered with it, is not doing as well. I finally pruned the whole thing a couple days ago to see what happens. Some of my tomatoes plants are getting beautiful new growth, I hope the same happens with this one plant as well....Good luck

AuntBusy, I am guessing you are talking about Early Blight? Early Blight is fungal, and as you say, it can be prevented with Daconil, marketed as Ortho Garden Disease Control if applied approx once per week early in the season. I recommend its use to prevent early blight, septoria leaf spot, anthracnose fruit rot, etc. I have found it in red bottles labeled Daconil. Always get 29.6% chlorothalonil as that's the correct concentration for tomatoes (once you dilute and spray it, it's less than .5% concentration).

Melissa is talking about Bacterial Spot/Speck which unfortunately there is no good publicly available treatment for.it. Some folks use copper sprays but then you have the concern of soil toxicity of adding too much copper.

I can only think of increasing plant spacing so the leaves do not touch, pruning off any diseased foliage quickly, and a thick application of mulch to prevent soil splashback.

Bacterial problems are a real pain and I know of few solutions.

This message was edited Jun 29, 2009 9:03 AM

thanks feldon, I'm glad I didn't go and buy something that wouldn't have really worked. Luckily, it hasn't spread to mine. The constant rain has stopped and the sun is out, so the leaves aren't wet anymore. Maybe I'll get lucky.
I have a large pile of mulch that I recall mentioining he could use to prevent splashback to his garden, but I didn't actually think it would make a difference. I read it here on DG and told him about it, he wasn't interested though.
I start all my plants from seed and his are store-bought. Maybe he bought diseased plants and it just spread when all the rain started.

You should call your local cooperative extension and report your blight, or what ever it is that attacks your crops, as they keep statistics on that stuff, and could instruct you on what remedy works best in your area.

The reasoning behind reporting it is, if left untreated, the problem will become airborne and the potential to spread and infect commercial crops is very real.


Cornell University, here, hosts the website for the New York State Integrated Pest Management:

http://nysipm.cornell.edu/


Texas A&M (link above) hosts a good Texas IPM site, here's the main page:

http://ipm.tamu.edu/

Not sure I could find one for Indiana, but, google "integrated pest management" +Indiana, and see what you find.

Definitely contact your local co-op ext.

Hi !

I think that like many of us here I started growing my tomatoes and then tried to solve each problem that occured with one specific product.
So I just wanted to share something with you because I noticed that it was getting harder every year for my tomatoes to be really good and juicy and I had some frustration with the quality of them and the yearly diseases.
Then I found a great e-book I wanted you all to know about. It's written by a guy whose grandfather was a farmer and had found a really easy way to litteraly double his tomatoes and make them taste really good with NO chemicals or products.

It's pretty simple. Actually, tomatoes don't need leaves, only 3, no more. It's astonishing ! I really wasn't sure about this and now they are soooo good and I didn't have to deal with any disease ever since ! ;) And I have plenty of them now (I live in the South of France)! In case you're interested, I'm pasting the link to the e-book below, it gives step-by-step instructions to have beautiful tomato plants and juicy tomatoes with natural and traditionnal tips.

Tell me if it worked for you ! It's worth the read, truly.
http://www.joyfultomato.com/index.html?hop=kleio

The tomatoe secret is just trying to sell you the information. Saw this a couple of months ago in a magazine. Promised all this information but when you get into it he wants some bucks up front. Sounded like a scam to me. If not I apologize.

The disease has taken over my tomato plants. I removed the infected leaves quite often hoping it wouldn't spread anymore, but it's a lost cause. I should rip out the plants and throw them away, but they have a lot of tomatoes that should be starting to turn red soon. I am concerned about eating the tomatoes from the plants that are diseased. Is there any harmful effects eating them if the actual tomato itself still looks good?

Hopefully a forum administrator comes along and removes the SPAM by "Tomatoesecret" above. We're not impressed.