Tomato Disease

Hello,

My tomatoes were doing fine this summer, until they started developing what appeared to be some kind of black mold, the leaves started dying off fast, ultimately killing the plant.

Another thing that developed as well was that the Cherry tomatos I am growing, they are still alive, though suffering from the black spots. The tomatos on these plants, they are growing, but they are growing as if they burst too big for their skin at some point. Wondering what that could be from?

Sounds like blight. Do a forum search, there are several threads that can give you some good info. My tomatoes had early blight, but it began in late July so I managed to get a reasonable harvest without the angst about killing frost. My tomatoes are done now.

Blight would also cause the tomatos to have a ripped seam effect?

Inca Heat wrote:Blight would also cause the tomatos to have a ripped seam effect?

I believe that has more to do with water - irregular watering. Basically the pulp grows faster than the skin.

Chopper wrote:

Inca Heat wrote:Blight would also cause the tomatos to have a ripped seam effect?

I believe that has more to do with water - irregular watering. Basically the pulp grows faster than the skin.

I agree, I have not had issues with my fruit splitting unless they get a lot of water. And my poor tomatoes have had blight for months now; they are almost done.

Gotcha, we have had so much rain in the past month. I had never had splitting cherry tomatos before, it made me think there was some nutritional deficiency. ugh.

If you suspect blight on your tomatoes, and many have it by the end of the growing season, be sure to dispose of your plants, especially the roots, in the trash and not the compost heap. Those spores can live in your soil til next year and you don't need tomato roots with blight spores in your compost to generate for next year. Better safe than sorry.

If early blight starts later in the season, you can usually get a good harvest just the same. The plant will keep on producing for weeks after hit with the blight so don't despair. You won't get a huge crop but anything is better than nothing. Keep picking those tomatoes. They are safe to eat but be sure to cut out any damaged areas or if bad, dispose of the tomato itself.

I found that the cherry tomatoes suffer mostly from their skins splitting when they are overwatered. They grow too fast and split. Next year I'll water the cherry tomatoes less often than the larger varieites and see how that works for me.

quiltbea wrote:
I found that the cherry tomatoes suffer mostly from their skins splitting when they are overwatered. They grow too fast and split. Next year I'll water the cherry tomatoes less often than the larger varieites and see how that works for me.

My tomatoes are in the same bed and get the same drip watering(no over watering & we have had no rain since early may). The plants have all been pretty healthy and growing strong. My cherry & grape type tomatoes all have produced abundant fruit with no spliting. Both of the larger tom plants have had all the fruit split. These were Jet Star & Solar Fire which are supposed to do well in this area.

quiltbea wrote:If you suspect blight on your tomatoes, and many have it by the end of the growing season, be sure to dispose of your plants, especially the roots, in the trash and not the compost heap. Those spores can live in your soil til next year and you don't need tomato roots with blight spores in your compost to generate for next year. Better safe than sorry.

It is my understanding that early blight does not often winter over on dead plant matter, but I put my tomatoes effected by blight not in the compost pile but the burn pile. Late Blight WILL winter over on potatoes because the tissue in the tuber is still viable, so too is the blight.
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Tomato_List.htm

Even with looking at all the pictures, I just can't tell whether or not I've got late blight. I'm thinking no, because the fruit still looks good, it's just the leaves and stems that were having issues. I made the mistake of setting up a sprinkler for my garden this summer when I had to go away for a week, and then when I got back I got lazy and let the sprinkler keep running instead of hand-watering. Then we had all that rain in late August, and my tomato plants were looking terrible (lots of leaves and stems yellowing and then falling off). Since then, I've stopped the sprinkler altogether and the tomato leaves and stems have all recovered.

So I guess it's possible for the plant to be stressed and damaged, but have it not be blight? At any rate, next year I'll invest in a drip watering system I think.

moswell, yes your leaves and plants can get brown and wilt from both over- and under-watering the plants. That sounds like your problem.