Hello all, I have a tomato plant issue I really hope someone can help me with. Everything was fine until about a week ago and now it appears all my tomato plants are dying. It looks like some kind of disease, but I have looked online an can't seem to find an exact match for what is going on. I have included a picture, I hope will help. Thank you in advance.
Sorry but it could be late blight disease, which is affecting tomatoes to a great degree this year:
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/PhotoPages/Impt_Diseases/Tomato/Tom_Late.htm
and
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=late+blight+tomatoes&aq=1&oq=late+blight+&aqi=g10
Possibly Verticillium rot...Here is an excellent Tomato disease and cure site that may be useful to you.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/tomatoproblemsolver/ Click on the section leaves for pictures of damage.
Thank you for the replys. I think it's Late Blight. I did a bit of checking around now and it looks exactly like my problem. Really sucks. I bought the plants from Lowes in June. Is it possible I bought them with the disease, or did it just become infected from my garden? I don't want this to happen again next yer. Thanks again.
Since you're in NJ you might want to listen to Ralph Snodsmith on WOR radio each Sunday morning from 8 to 10 AM. He has talked about tomato blight and it seems this past spring with all the cool temperatures and the unusual amount of rain were contributing causes.
I wouldn't necessarily blame the store where you bought them since so many people have this problem and the tomatoes were purchased at a variety of stores.
Destroy (do not compost) affected plants and clean up fallen leaves.
On another show today a farmer was interviewed and if you have tomato blight dig up the plant (or plants) cover the entire plant with a plastic bag, tie it closed, leave it in the sun to cook and kill the virus. There is no cure for it and it is the same blight that caused the famous Irish potato famine.
My mother lives in Western New York and she told me today that they were having a really bad late blight problem this year. She said that the local nursery people told her that it was affecting the NE really bad this year. She has a large plot just for tomatoes and she said she lost over 3/4 of her plants to it.
The last report I heard was that the box stores often get their tomatoes from the same few companies so buy plants locally from those who grow them from seed to try and avoid the problem next year.
It is also a good idea to rotate where you plant your tomatoes to avoid soil borne diseases. Farmers do crop rotation for just that reason...plant your beans where the tomatoes were, tomatoes where the lettuce was, etc
Unfortunately the blight we are being wiped out with is in the air. The predominate air flow is West to East. It has been determined that a major big box store's seedlings from known sources is why it spread so quickly as they moved those seedlings from Fla. to points throughout the Northeast. It is known that the blight can be in the seed so seed from any source is subject to having this blight internally for you to worry with in future years if the seed came from effected plants.
The world overcame the potato blight. While that was not a nice story you can be realtively sure the world will overcome this tomato blight. Papa John's and other pizza or tomato product dependancy food services may take a hard hit.
The most hit plants seem to be the modern F1 hybreds. The least blight is seen as slight to non-existant on the heirlooms. If you have similar observations it may pay to buy your 2010 seed now. I project a run on heirloom seed which may create a shortage.
Absolutely Doc. Understand the airborne blight.....lots of family was in Ireland during the blight....curses to lord John Russell....but the rotation is just a precautionary for the other tomato nasties. Not much other than destruction for Phytophthora infestans affected plants.
This was the end of the old Copper Beech, next door, due to Phytopthera canker. Sad day in the neighborhood.
