Tomato Problem

[Nyboy]

Something is going on with my tomato plants. starting with leaves on bottom working it's way up plant. The leaves turn bright yellow then get tiny black spots all over ( looks like leaves sprinkled with pepper). Started off in one plant now 5 have the same thing. HELP

 

[so lucky]

You don't see any insects, Nyboy? Are they heirloom tomatoes, as opposed to some newer VFNT hybrids? Sounds like a disease to me. Possibly due to rainy weather? Just guessing here. Some more knowledgeable gardeners will chime in, I hope.

 

[seedcorn]

Look like this?

http://gardening.about.com/od/probl...Controlling-Early-Blight-On-Tomato-Plants.htm

 

[Nyboy]

Heirloom doesn't look like early blight photos. whole leaf turns yellow then tiny black dots follow.

 

[catjac1975]

That is a common blight that I see a little of nearly every year. I don't do a thing. My plants never get defoliated and the fruit seems to ripen just fine. The photo that seed corn showed is not what I was thinking of.

 

[Nyboy]

Thanks Cat I like the don't do a thing

 

[ninnymary]

That has happened to me before. I pull them off because I like my plants to look pretty. Like cat says, it doesn't seem to afffect production. Now I just pull all off all lower leaves and it also makes it easier for me to water them because I can see where the stem is.

Mary

 

[journey11]

Septoria leaf spot, maybe? Read here, scroll to bottom for better pics.

 

[Smart Red]

My vote would be for leaf spot as well. I haven't seen it since I started covering the bed with newspaper or brown grocery bags and straw. You need to stop the water from splashing back up on the leaves.

If there are only a few leaves involved, they can be removed since the problem will spread from them to the next leaves. I suggest heavy mulch over the soil - no soil or compost in the mulch.

Blight would appear as black spots surrounded with yellowing circle. Black leaf spot just has the black spots with no circle around them.

 

[catjac1975]

Thanks Cat I like the don't do a thing

Several years ago we lost nearly all of our tomato plants. A fungus or virus spread across the whole state. Supposedly in started from a big box stores' seedlings. I did have resistant varieties as well as some heirloom. My best recollection was that the Roma types fared OK. One disaster in 37 years not too bad. I will always grow at least some resistant varieties. You could pull of the effected leaves but I do not think it will make a difference. At the end of the season I would dip the tomato cages and/or stakes in bleach and water to kill any residual disease.