Tomato plant bottom leaves starting to turn yellow

[ChelswannabeGT]

and dry up. Is this a disease? Also I read that romos produce up to 200 fruits per plant I’m only counting about 45 per plant right now. Also how often do I fertilize, I used a liquid one last time and that was two weeks ago but today I bought some jobe organic spikes. Sorry for all the dumb questions but I got this far from seed, this is my first garden... I’d hate to mess it up now. We are going to have a dry spell for about a week should I wait till rain falls or water with the hose?

 

[Chuck]

and dry up. Is this a disease? Also I read that romos produce up to 200 fruits per plant I’m only counting about 45 per plant right now. Also how often do I fertilize, I used a liquid one last time and that was two weeks ago but today I bought some jobe organic spikes. Sorry for all the dumb questions but I got this far from seed, this is my first garden... I’d hate to mess it up now. We are going to have a dry spell for about a week should I wait till rain falls or water with the hose?

It sounds like early blight. Please send some pictures.

 

[ChelswannabeGT]

It sounds like early blight. Please send some pictures.

 

[ChelswannabeGT]

I think it is early blight how would I stop this? Is my crop going to die?

 

[Chuck]

Yep, early blight. All you can do is manage the problem, you can't cure it. Remove all of the infected limbs and burn them. Try to not let any soil splash upon the leaves. It is getting late in the season and I would imagine your plants are about to end any fruit setting if they haven't already. All you can do is try to maintain the plants until harvest. It is a problem just about all tomato growers have. Be sure that when you cut off a limb that you use a clean tool for the next cut. I wipe down the cutting blades with alcohol. You can slow down the disease by spraying with Neem or a copper fungicide but I have never seen it stopped completely. Just maintain the fruit is about all you can do. As soon as harvest is completed pull up the plant and remove any residue.

 

[ChelswannabeGT]

Yep, early blight. All you can do is manage the problem, you can't cure it. Remove all of the infected limbs and burn them. Try to not let any soil splash upon the leaves. It is getting late in the season and I would imagine your plants are about to end any fruit setting if they haven't already. All you can do is try to maintain the plants until harvest. It is a problem just about all tomato growers have. Be sure that when you cut off a limb that you use a clean tool for the next cut. I wipe down the cutting blades with alcohol. You can slow down the disease by spraying with Neem or a copper fungicide but I have never seen it stopped completely. Just maintain the fruit is about all you can do. As soon as harvest is completed pull up the plant and remove any residue.

Thanks and should I harvest the tomatoes that are at size now but not red?

 

[Chuck]

Thanks and should I harvest the tomatoes that are at size now but not red?

No! Just do as normal but keep the affected limbs pruned off. In fact you should probably cut off healthy limbs that are close to or maybe touching the affected limbs/leaves as they will start showing the disease shortly. I have this problem every year but I have found that if I prune off all of the limbs that may get soil splashed on them early in the season it greatly reduces the disease. This disease doesn't really affect the fruit all that much. This is a soil and wind borne disease so changing the soil won't do much. I harvest all of my tomatoes at the first sign of them turning a little pinkish/red. They will ripen just fine indoors.

 

[DirtMechanic]

A. solani is the fungal agent for early blight. It is found world wide. Below is a screenshot from a paper where oils were tested against it. Note the 100% reductions and the concentration %. These are not the only ones. I use humagro promax 5% thyme oil with satisfaction, but it has to be as a preventative. And it is very important you understand that the oily layer has to remain in place. I found that adding liquid silicone as a micro nutrient in my promax mix actually had an unintend durability effect in my garden. It works like a wax job basically, as silicone is resistant to heat, weathering, and is used inside the plants as a non mobile component of structure where the heat resistance and moisture loss are improved by its presence. It is a fascinating area to learn about.

 

[ChelswannabeGT]

A. solani is the fungal agent for early blight. It is found world wide. Below is a screenshot from a paper where oils were tested against it. Note the 100% reductions and the concentration %. These are not the only ones. I use humagro promax 5% thyme oil with satisfaction, but it has to be as a preventative. And it is very important you understand that the oily layer has to remain in place. I found that adding liquid silicone as a micro nutrient in my promax mix actually had an unintend durability effect in my garden. It works like a wax job basically, as silicone is resistant to heat, weathering, and is used inside the plants as a non mobile component of structure where the heat resistance and moisture loss are improved by its presence. It is a fascinating area to learn about.

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Wow that’s a lot of info. I’m not sure if it’s too late in the game for me to try that though. I just pruned so much off.

 

[ChelswannabeGT]

I pruned so much off my plants. I hope I didn’t kill them.

 

[Chuck]

Wow that’s a lot of info. I’m not sure if it’s too late in the game for me to try that though. I just pruned so much off.

Excellent, not too much at all. Before harvest is over you will probably prune more than half of the plant. Just don't prune one of the fruit bearing stems off by accident. I normally do what you just did WAAAY sooner. It does two things. It greatly improves air circulation and it also doesn't allow soil to splash upon the leaves, both of which are major causes of different types of fungal diseases.

 

[ChelswannabeGT]

Excellent, not too much at all. Before harvest is over you will probably prune more than half of the plant. Just don't prune one of the fruit bearing stems off by accident. I normally do what you just did WAAAY sooner. It does two things. It greatly improves air circulation and it also doesn't allow soil to splash upon the leaves, both of which are major causes of different types of fungal diseases.

Thanks and really I guess it isn’t.. I’m just feeling overwhelmed today. My neighbor told me I’ll have to empty the soil in my beds for next year because of the blight. Which is depressing because that’s a lot of time and money. Is this true?

 

[DirtMechanic]

No. Just till in promax. I did. I tilled 4 times across the winter actually. It was an amazingly different garden this spring.

 

[Chuck]

Thanks and really I guess it isn’t.. I’m just feeling overwhelmed today. My neighbor told me I’ll have to empty the soil in my beds for next year because of the blight. Which is depressing because that’s a lot of time and money. Is this true?

It is and it isn't. Early blight fungus is spread through the soil AND it's also windborn. So even if you did change soil you still might get it. If you were me I'd do what I do. I just keep the soil from splashing up on the plant by using about 3 inches of mulch and I keep the lower limbs that have leaves close to the ground pruned off. You might still get early blight from windborn fungal spores but the odds are greatly reduced. I grew 70 plants this year and 9 had EB. I did what I've suggested to you and kept the plants alive long enough for a total harvest.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Here is a flyer on their product. There are others but I went here because it is an ag product ready to go with other materials. I was reading coneflower works really well also but I just cannot find some of this stuff in a reasonable way.