I live in central Iowa, and I got my tomato plants out April 17th, using Wall-O-Water season extenders. I just removed the Wall-O-Waters a few days ago and the plants where growing out of them. I did remove all lower branches on the plants, and when I put them in the ground I put a fabric mulch down, that allowed water to drain through, but trying to avoid soil splash up to prevent early blight. Yesterday, I saw some specks on one of my brandywine tomatoes. I thought maybe some of you could identify it. I did spray some copper fungicide on all the plants as a preventative and removed the leaf. I'm also conducting a method called the Florida Weave to stake my tomatoes. So I know I have a lot of good airflow to prevent spreading it. Any ideas what disease this is? Also, in the picture I didn't have the weave going, but I fixed that later lol. I had the leaf in my pocket, so it got kind of smashed up when I took a picture.
Tomato Plant bacterial speck?
- Thread starter nmpetersen326
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It is possible that it is a fungal problem but I don't think so. That looks more like insect damage to me. To be on the safe side I would spray with spinosad too.
Thank you Chuck! I took some more photos of some of the spots. I also saw some tiny black flies on the plant this time too. As far as the spots go I noticed a few on another plant but the rest look great. They are harder to see in photos.
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The speck shows a halo. A halo means either a fungal or bacterial problem. Both are caused by water, either rain splashing soil onto the leaves, by the wind transferring soil particles/dust or by improper watering techniques. This looks more like a bacterial problem. I don't think it is bacterial leaf spot, however it could be bacterial leaf speck. Leaf spot has a yellowish halo. Leaf speck a brownish. Did these spots with a halo start at the bottom of the plant and work upwards? With treatment early on there shouldn't be a serious problem.
Right now, they are kinda in the middle of the plant. When I took the walls-o-water off, I took all the lower leaves off to avoid soil splash up, but we have 1.5 weeks of non-stop rain, which may have contributed to the problem. I didn't see any spots with halos when I removed the bottom leaves and branches, but maybe I just didn't notice. I'll keep an eye on it and hopefully, with removing the bottom branches and the copper fungicide will help (if it's fungal). I may put mulch around the base too, since I had to cut the fabric to lay the plants in initially and some dirt may splash up. I use a water wand to water the plants, so I don't overhead water, but water may still splash some dirt up potentially. I think I kept them in the wall-o-water too long and it acted like an incubator for bacteria/fungus probably. That may be where the problem started, but not sure. Speck seems likely, because the weather 1 week ago was fairly chilly, and raining everyday.
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I will use betadine, a few tablespoons in a gallon at least, and kill the heck out of that stuff. Its a contact killer, and washes away fast, but faster than some of the gentle methods. If you have a lot of grass around, its almost always infected with it and it becomes a question of which way the wind blows.