There's a fungus among us....

[curly_kate]

Ugh! I have a mini greenhouse, and went to check on the babies, and saw my lovely seedlings with this:

and this!

Many of them went in the trash, including ALL of my Kelloggs breakfast!!! The rest got a serious haircut. I'm guessing it's a fungus of some sort, but I've never had any kind of problems with seedlings before. Any ideas what it is?? It will crush me to lose all of my tomato seedlings.

 

[digitS']

Kate, I'm not very good with these things but I don't want your question to slip down the list.

First of all, the picture of the yellow leaves isn't very clear and the picture of the single leaf doesn't look like it is very seriously diseased, at least, at the moment. As best as I can tell, they don't look like the fungus diseases I have had to deal with - botrytis and mildew.

Here are Cornell University's pages on plant diseases. You can look thru information and photo's of a number of common tomato diseases - fungal, viral, bacterial. Bacterial diseases usually have specific sites on the leaves - specks, spots, cankers - from which they widen out, as the affect other areas of the leaf. I suppose that leaves viruses like tobacco mosaic (which I know nothing about).

I am wondering if there is a nutritional deficiency. Are those 8-ounce cups? Some of the plants are quite large and may have been there quite a long time, to be growing in only about 1/2 cup of soil.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Kate, I think Steve nailed it with the nutritional deficiency, and that close up of the single leaf looks more like a burn to me. Maybe your mini gh got a bit warm? Don't despair, tomatoes are tougher than we think sometimes, and can survive a lot of abuse!

 

[curly_kate]

That's a relief!!! I couldn't find a single picture that looked like what was on the first plant! The weird thing about that, tho, is that it's on my much smaller plants, too. It's like the leaf turned white. I will replant right away! I'm using a packaged soilless potting mix, and fertilizing occasionally with bat guano, so it seems like if they are in the right sized pots, they should be getting enough nutrients.

Off to find some bigger pots!

 

[vfem]

My suggestion is to give them a mix of bone meal and crushed egg shell. Dry the egg shells completely and give them a whirl in the food processor to get them fine. Occasionally, when the milk is gone and fill the jug with rinse water and give the milk infused water to my seedlings. It gives them a little boost they need.

You can also do some compost tea at this point, they look big enough they need more nutrients then they will get from a starter mix.

I do have to concur with Thistle & Steve.... doesn't look like a fungus I've seen, and I would go with deficiency first before giving up them. They can pull through!

 

[lesa]

I think bigger pots and some potting soil is all they need. Since you are transplanting, I would go ahead and bury some of that stem. I only use that seed starting soil less mix, to start the seeds, once they have a set of true leaves, I transfer to container with potting soil. They look fine- no need for panic.

 

[curly_kate]

They look fine- no need for panic.

Unfortunately, I already did panic about it, but it's nothing that I can't fix.