a fungus among us (my plants) ?

[damnruskie]

Hey all.

Ive got what i'm now assuming to be a fungal infection among my plants that I'm hoping someone could help me identify.

Although im currently battling this issue, id like to bring up that prior to this current growing setup I only had one bonsai plant that lived great for about a year or so and then died very quickly and unexpectedly from a white powder coat that will be similar to the one in upcoming pictures. Could be coincidence of course, but Im worried maybe its my environment (I do have some slight mold issues in my apt) or water supply or something?

Anyways heres the story from this current setup with some pictures.

The majority of the disease is in my tomato plants. You can see it most clearly in the leaf wilt. But the leaves dont even go brown. they just get almost soggy starting from the leaf tips until the whole leaf turns a soft soggy mess and then droops off and falls off. This starts with leaves and then progresses to whole branches seemingly those farthest from the light sources.

The other noticeable effect on the plant is these brown lesions that appear everywhere that start off a light brown and turn darker with ,im guessing, age. Theyre a bit hard to capture on camera but ill drop a few attempts in order of increasing severity :

Also, the fungus can be seen in a slightly different form on the dirt of not only the tomatoes, but now also on other nearby plants as seen below.

And I fear its starting to infect not only the other plants dirt but them too

I planted some strawberries and their leaf tips also are starting to die a bit, although these dont seem to get droopy and are just turning brown a bit

So yeah. Its a mess out here. I guess is it all doomed? Ive tried a bit of neem oil spray but after 2-3 days I didnt really notice any effect... Could I try and replant or do I need to basically kill the whole group of plants? Ugh.

Anyways.
Thanks in advance for any tips or info!

 

[Beth_B]

Hi. Sorry you are having troubles.

Sounds like over-watering. Where are you/what is your USDA zone and what are your watering habits? The vast majority of plant illness and death is caused by over-watering. Fungus is pretty much always evidence of this.

Infrequent and deep watering is OK. Constant moistness will kill most plants.
Many if not most plants need water at most once a week, depending on environment. Many vegetable plants are Mediterranean in origen and need deep watering only once or twice a growing season.

 

[damnruskie]

Im zone 6a.

So its not an exact science situation for sure, but I split about a little under a gallon between 8 various size pots that are on average about 3 quarts each and I kinda try to balance the water to account for the pot size. I do this probably every 3-4 days but certainly Ive gone longer without watering.

The top of the soil stays mostly wet at this rate, but does seem to start drying out a bit after three or so days, that being said I suspect the deeper dirt still usually stays wet. So your suggestion certainly seems reasonable, thanks for the prompt input Beth!

Do you think the patches on the tomato stalks and branches will heal or scab over or are those areas for the plant kinda lost? I know sometimes its better to trim some dying regions back but Im running out of things to trim :\

Thanks again!