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Diseased Tomatoes

by Will on June 28, 2007

Every year about 1/3 of my tomatoes get diseased and die. It appears to be more than one symptom and can kill one plant and leave another of the same variety untouched. The plants uniformly grow well early in the season. Then in late June or early July, symptoms start to appear. Within a few weeks some plants are so sick, I just pull them out. Sad Tomato

Because I don’t use any chemicals, fungicides, or pesticides in my garden, my solution is to plant at least twice as many tomato plants as we need. I did try an supposedly organic sulfur spray one year, but had no beneficial results.

I would be very interested if anyone recognizes the symptoms in the pictures at this link. Thanks!

Will Sig

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Chemmer July 6, 2007 at 12:03 pm

Some of those pictures do look like blight.

Betty June 10, 2008 at 12:35 am

Yes you right that tomatoes is easily get disease because I plan it in my house yard and have the same problem. But my tomatoes usually get attack by kind of white flys in the leaf and branch.

Steve July 14, 2008 at 10:58 am

Will, I feel your pain, brother. It hurts to loose a tomato plant. I’m wondering what variety or varieties that you plant? I usually get varying amounts of brown leaves as the season progresses but I haven’t lost a plant yet. I did have a problem with blossom end rot two years ago until I figured out I needed to water more frequently. And last year I tried an heirloom (Purple Cherokee) but had the majority of its tomatoes rot or go bad before they ripened, so I gave up on heirlooms (my friend has had success though). So what varieties are you growing, and do they all suffer this fate? I’ve also heard it’s good to rotate where you plant them year to year as the soil can get contaminated with a tomato virus. ~ Steve (a tomato lover indeed!)
PS. I saw this post on your “random posts” section. I’ll click on anything with the word tomato in the title!

Jule Koch May 3, 2009 at 11:42 am

Were in Texas,SE, & can plant early. We planted tomatoes last month in April (this is May 3) & I have notice some of my tomatoes have black spots on the bottom. Also, some of my leaves are turning yellow at the bottom. Solution? Jule Koch

Will May 3, 2009 at 12:36 pm

Hi Jule – Can you put some photos of them online at a site like photobucket or shutterfly or Flicker and then put a link to them in a comment here? We can then see exactly what you have. Thanks!

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