Spots on garden plants

[mystang89]

Anyone know what this is on my tomatoes? It's not just on the tomatoes either. It's on the Green Peppers and Okra. The leaves that have it on them seem to not be doing as well as the rest of the plant.

 

[Marinea]

It looks like powdery mildew. If it is, it will spread, and it's not good. Try some Neem Oil, but do it quick. It's got to get on there before it gets really hot. Repeat it every week or so for a bit, and re-treat if it rains.

Edited to add: there may be other treatments, but we use the Neem Oil because it's organic.

 

[Miss M]

Hmmm... it doesn't look like powdery mildew to me. But if it is, another treatment is plain yellow corn meal. Spread it so that it gets all over the leaves, and the ground around the plants. I got rid of powdery mildew on some dwarf roses this way.

Any chance of better pix?

 

[mystang89]

I thought that was the good pic. My photography skills fail I'll try to get a better pic of them and in the mean time I'll put the Neam and corn meal down. When I use the Neam should I cut off the affected areas?

__________ Fri May 09, 2014 7:37 am __________

Here are a few more pictures. I hate to even mention it but does anyone believe it could be early blight? /shutter

 

[Miss M]

I thought that was the good pic.

Sorry about that... it wasn't a bad pic, it was just that the focus is on the ground rather than the leaves. It's that way in the other pix, too. But I think they're still good enough. If your camera has a macro setting, that might help with close-up focus in the future.

I still don't think it's powdery mildew. I actually don't think it's early blight, either. I'm leaning toward bacterial leaf spot.

http://extension.umd.edu/learn/bacteria ... pot-pepper

https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp ... lspot.aspx

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/ ... din018.htm

There are a couple of other possibilities: http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell. ... html#speck

It's so hard to tell at this early stage, and really only a pathologist could tell you for sure at this point. I have some spots on a few tomatoes like this, myself. I'm going to start spraying with copper. If it's target spot, that could make it worse, but the other possibilities would respond to copper. Copper can be applied every 10 - 14 days, and even to fruit. I think you can pick the next day.

Prune off leaves that are touching or close to the ground. On tomatoes, you can actually prune off all mature leaves below the lowest flowers. This helps keep good air flow through the plant, reducing the spread of disease. http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/t14 ... to-pruning

Don't remove suckers on determinate tomatoes.

Watering with minimal foliage wetting is ideal, as this will lessen the spread of disease as well. This can be done with a drip or soaker system, or with ollas (which you can make yourself WAY cheaper than buying them, just make sure to get USA-made clay pots to be lead-free). You can even make your own soakers with 2L bottles: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Dri ... n-Bottles/

You can also just trim up the leaves, and water close to the ground.

Whatever you use, you should always cut off the affected foliage, unless it is new foliage (in which case, you could end up topping your plant or cutting off fruiting sections). Dip your pruners or scissors into a 10% bleach solution between cuts to help prevent the spread of disease.

Good luck! I fought early blight and leaf spot all last summer, and lost many tomatoes... and still harvested a LOT of tomatoes anyway -- in spite of the fact that I didn't do anything but prune for a long time. I finally tried copper when the new foliage was coming out infected. Shoulda done it earlier.

 

[mystang89]

Thanks MissM. Another person had also mentioned that he thought it looked like a Flea beetle. I googled some images for their destruction and at least one of the images looked very similar. Only difference was the leaf still looked healthy and they had actually holes in them. He suggested using Pyrethin. That sounds like a chemical which I "try" to stay away from but if I can't find a natural remedy I might have no choice. All my tomatoes last year were demolished. Out of 6 plants I got 2 tomatoes. We live off tomatoes here....

Anyway, I think what I might do is to use Neem when it stops raining here, (which doesn't appear to be happening until sometime on Tuesday.) Hope whatever it is doesn't get worse by then.

Thanks for the tips on pruning. I will head out there and start pruning when the weather gives me a chance. As far as watering goes I water by soaker hose attached to a 300gal water tote so no overhead watering for me except for whats in the cinder blocks. <br /><br /> __________ Fri May 09, 2014 10:54 am __________ <br /><br /> Sorry, just came to mind. On the Neem instructions it said to use soap as an emulator or something like that, (I don't have it with me at the moment). How much soap do you all use for 1 gal or so?

 

[Miss M]

You know, I did have a bad flea beetle infestation once. The thing was, it wasn't spots, it was holes.

Pyrethrin is a natural plant extract. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrethrin

Anyway, I think what I might do is to use Neem when it stops raining here, (which doesn't appear to be happening until sometime on Tuesday.) Hope whatever it is doesn't get worse by then.

Yeah, it's supposed to rain til then here too. But we need it.

If it's flea beetles, it probably won't get much worse during that time. If it's bacterial spot or blight, it may get much worse by then.

As far as watering goes I water by soaker hose attached to a 300gal water tote so no overhead watering for me

My husband and I were just discussing something like this yesterday. I may be picking your brain.

Sorry, just came to mind. On the Neem instructions it said to use soap as an emulator or something like that, (I don't have it with me at the moment). How much soap do you all use for 1 gal or so?

Emulsifier. It helps the oil to mix with water, and it helps it stick to the plant. You don't need much, though. In a gallon, about a teaspoon.

Here's a helpful site... they say to mix the soap with the (preferably warm) water first, and then slowly stir the oil in. http://www.discoverneem.com/neem-insect-spray.html

 

[mystang89]

Pyrethrin is a natural plant extract. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrethrin

Thanks much MissM. I haven't had much time to do any studying here lately since I've been so busy. I love being able to use all natural remedies. I know that chemicals are useful at times but I don't think they need be applied unless every other option has been exhausted.

My husband and I were just discussing something like this yesterday. I may be picking your brain.

I've had the garden for about 5 years now and that is the only way that I have watered it. I don't know what I would do without it since the water bill would just be way too high. There are a few ways you can do it but mine is the simplest I can think of. I just have a soaker hose attached to the spicket and turn it on when I need it. The pressure from 300 gal is enough to push the water all the way to the end of the hose. The only problem you get is when you're mid summer, the days are hot, there isn't much rain and you're needing to use it. Since you don't have a full rain barrel you don't have as much pressure pushing the water out so it takes a little bit more time for the water to reach the end of the hose. (Of course, this is all dependent on how large of a garden you have. Mine is about 15'x35'ish.)

What I might do to work around this is to have a second 55 gal rain barrel for a third of the garden. This way the water doesn't have to travel as far and not as much pressure would be needed. It just so happens that I have 2 down spouts near my garden so I have this option available to me.

Another thing I've been told is that you can purchase a water pump and hook a connection to it so it can push the water through at a faster rate. I've never done it and can't see how exactly it would work but I guess someone must have done it.

However its done I would highly recommend it to anyone who has anything that needs to be watered and a downspout anywhere nearby. I do put a screen on the section of the spout that goes into the rain barrel so that all the leaves or shingle grit doesn't get in the barrel.

 

[Miss M]

My only problem would be getting the water to the garden, as I have no downspouts near it. We may be able to modify this somehow, but it'll take some thinking.

Have you been able to figure out what's happening with your plants?

 

[mystang89]

Not with all the rain that's been going on. It's nice and sunny today for mother's day but I don't work on Sunday so I just have to leave this one till tomorrow. There's only a 20% chance of rain tomorrow so I'll try to spray tomorrow with Neem even though Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday it's supposed to rain. I'll just respray Friday I suppose.

I did clip the parts of the plants that were effected but haven't been able to take a look today to see if any of them are bad again. If it spreads to other parts of the plant too rapidly then I won't have any leaves left on the plant to soak up the sun.

__________ Tue May 13, 2014 7:43 am __________

Well, I think I know which one is the culprit. I think its Flea beetles. I was doing an up close and personal inspection of my tomato plants yesterday since the "infection" hadn't spread as much as I thought it would if it were early blight or a mildew. As I looked under one of the pepper leaves I saw this small black insect (and I mean SMALL) which when I went to grab jumped off the leave exactly like a flea jumps off a dog. I had already sprayed with Neem oil so we'll see if that does anything. Do you all think I should continue to prune the "effected" leaves off or keep them there?