Tomatoes: how are yours doing? Neighbor reports blight

[Sue Sullivan]

My novice and enthusiastic gardening neighboring is losing most of his
tomato plants to a leaf and fruit disease of some sort. He took a
sample to Fort Collins Nursery and a worker there gave a probably
diagnosis of blight and said it is widespread this year because of the
relatively warm winter and spring.

I've lost a couple plants here and there to what I thought was
transplant stress/failure to thrive and chalked it up to the 100-
degree June we had. I do have some leaves starting to die off on a few
of my tomato plants right now, but I figured that was just late-summer
stress. Until I talked to my neighbor. Now I'm feeling all paranoid.
How are everyone else's tomatoes looking?
Sue

[Marguerita Cattell]

I have maybe 2 of 50 romas with leaf wilt but still fruiting. Today I noticed 2 of 70 cherry and reisentraubes looking purple on the leaf tips.

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[Lindsay Ogden]

My tomato plants are also doing poorly. I only have a few this year, and they are mostly fruiting. My heirloom is not setting fruit.

[jumpN4joy]

I, too, am seeing some sort of a blight or wilt in my tomatoes, particularly romas.  3 of the 7 I started from

seed seem to be compromised but are blossoming - so far no fruit.  The others are doing fairly well so

far but am watching them carefully.  They are blossoming and setting some fruit but not as much as I

anticipated.  First year for eggplant and have quite a few blossoms and several have started fruit - looking

pretty!  Green beans have been a disaster - planted three times.  Second time took but during heat were

slow to grow - blossoms beginning to bear beans so I am pleased.  Third planting 2+weeks after 2nd

failed miserably - 2 plants appeared - that's it!    I thought the romas that were looking wilted may have

been due to root rot as they are slightly down hill from rest of row.  Several of my squash plants are

blossoming but, again, not much fruit.  In general, my garden is somewhat behind as I was busy caring

for husband after hip replacement and didn't get it in til well into 1st week of June and then the heat was

brutal on the little seedlings.  Hopefully, it will rally and we will have a pleasant and lengthy fall for all of

the fruits to ripen and I will be blessed with some stores for the winter!   Ann

 

 

 

[kimmiller59]

I have tomato plants in a space that was seeded with a clover cover
crop and left otherwise fallow last summer. I planted 8 tomatoes I
grew from seed except for one I . I pulled up 2 in late June or early
July that were diseased. One was a Celebrity that is supposed to be
virus resistant, the other a San Marzano (not sure of the resistance
of this type). There is another Celebrity right next to where the sick
one was and it looks fine. Now my only Beef Steak is looking very
sick. About half of it is brown. It was producing well and there are
still big green tomatoes on the healthy half. I don't know whether to
sacrifice it or just trim off the dead portion and hope it survives
without spreading to other plants.
I also pulled up two peppers around the same time as the tomatoes
because of disease that were in an adjacent space, but this area was
not fallow last year.
I know that some virus spreads by insects, and some is in the soil. I
was thinking about covering the garden with black plastic over the
winter, but I also want to put my compost on it this fall. Is there a
problem with doing both of these things at the same time?
Kim

[Sue Sullivan]

I pruned off damaged looking leaves (washing the pruner between plants
in a diluted alcohol bath) two weeks ago on the plants that seemed
largely healthy. Those plants are now showing damaged leaves again,
but nobody has up and died on me. Whatever this is, it's slower moving
than my neighbor reported. It's hit and miss in my home garden and at
the farm where I am growing crops. Some tomatoes look pretty bad,
yellow pears and a moskvich for me, others look beautiful still. I am
inclined to leave plants until enough leaves are compromised that it
is clear it won't be able to ripen fruits up on the vine.

I would think amending beds then covering with black plastic would be
great in the fall. It should trap heat and speed up the digestion of
the compost. I might be inclined to poke some holes in the plastic if
we get a good snow, to give the beds moisture as it melts. I
guess the question is would covering the beds in plastic keep the
soil from freezing thoroughly enough to kill of overwintering
diseases. I might be inclined to remove the plastic in Dec. or Jan. to
allow a hard freeze to happen.

I'd be interested in what others think....

Sue