Aside from growing to close together can anybody help with the disease. This is a Cherokee Purple in an Earth Box with new Promix.

Is this starting from the bottom and working up or is it happening throughout the plant? Is the soil wet or dry? How many plants are involved and are they all the same variety? How do the underside of the leaves look?

Off the bat without more information, I'm thinking it may be spider mites but it could be a few other things too. We need more info.

I'm thinking about this and in a greenhouse with plants too close would set off an alarm for a fungal infection. Please take some more pics for us. We need a leaf just starting to show signs of disease and both sides of it. Does it start with little brown circles? Are the leaves mottled before they become all yellowed? Are there any white or gray areas, black spots?

After the photos, I would remove all affected leaves and spray your plants with a mix of dish soap, rinse and then Daconil. After that I would increase your air circulation.

Easy to miss this but Davie is in S Florida so these must be outside. What fertilizer did you use with your brand new Promix? With a decent fertilizer and a good mix the plants should have grown very robustly and healthy green.

And then, bingo, they do start getting diseased. Usually from bottom to top, you may first see spots and then those spots eventually coalesce together until the leaves look totally diseased and near dead. You may see the classic concentric circles of early blight (or may not) or the light centers with black specks of Septoria. Then you may be able to ID. Bacterial spot is also very common. (And you can have more than one disease on the same plant.)

But when looking at advanced dead leaves it may be hard to figure out how it began.

But your leaves aren’t totally dead. And it looks like there are relatively good greens leaves below the yellow? Or am I not seeing this right. If you can eliminate anything related to your mix or fertilizer then I would guess one of the common foliage diseases as now is the time these diseases strike.

But I can’t make out too many spots. Do you have any more photos, closeup shots of leaves and far away of the whole plant??
Could you answer MissS questions?? Then lots of people may be able to help you. (Do your plants look similar to my pics?)


Over the years I have had many plants professionally diagnosed at a lab even when I could make an educated guess what it was as I would be doing this or that experiment and needed to know for sure. Here in South Florida you can take a specimen down to Homestead at the Univ. Of Fl. TREC Research Lab and for $40 (per plant) they will do a complete analysis and give you control options. You only need to take one plant as it is $40 per plant. If another plant has something entirely different you would have to submit that and pay for each one.

I am not suggesting you do this but when you want to know for sure the option is there. But for most homeowners that is overkill if the disease can be diagnosed. It is important to diagnose correctly as some common fungicides like Daconil do nothing for bacterial spot. But you can use copper (OK for organic growers) for 3 diseases mentioned but there are other options if you are not opposed to non-organic products. But I think most just spray with copper and start it preventably before you even see signs of disease. Some may never even know what foliage disease they have they just do the copper. And possibly they alternate or use with Daconil as well.

[[[And as an aside do you have any photos of your plants before they started this decline. When they were at their best??? I am running some experiments and I am kicking myself for not trying out a box with Promix just to compare with the mix I ended up using. And you are using brand new Promix so that would help. And with which fertilizer? Gotta have pics if you have them.Thanks!]]]

Early Blight on Sungold. 2/9/2020. Early Blight on Sungold

In any case, remove all yellowed leaves. They aren't doing the plant any good (no chlorophyll) and harbor the disease. Remove them to a garbage bag so their diseasey-ness is away from the plants.

It looks like Early Blight to me. It is a fungal disease which you can treat with a mild copper spray alternated with Daconil. Remove all affected leaves and bag and dispose of them. Repeat treatment after every rain. Other than spraying, try to keep the foliage dry when watering.

Another set of leaves Front and backside of same leaf

Small black dots remind me of Septoria. The treatment is the same as for Early Blight, as MissS said.

I think your ventilation is not good enough, considering your humid climate.

I thought this could of been cold damage although it never got below 40 degrees.

Seeing the second set of pic's, I agree with arnorrian. Those pics look like Septoria. It is very possible that you have both of those diseases going on. Treat them the same.

The 3rd set of leaves could be from the cool temps. Cool temps make it difficult for the plants to take up phosphorus. If that is the case, what you are seeing is phosphate deficiency. Your plants will recover when it warms up. It could also be sun scald.

I think I see a combination of a number of problems here. I see evidence of both septoria and early blight in addition to what appears to be overall pale and nutrient deficient plants. I am also not seeing much in the way of tomatoes or blooms at all. Are these plants that have already produced and are toward the end of their season? if so, I would let them go. If they have yet to produce their crop and the intention is to continue with them, I think some pretty serious help is needed and it is possible that it is too late.
all diseased foliage removed and bagged.
spray for fungal disease with your choice of antifungal garden product safe for food crops according to directions.
fertilize them with a good tomato fertilizer also according to recommendations depending on the product you choose and maintain even but not excessive watering.
If there are healthy plants in the vicinity, take note of these varieties as susceptible and perhaps avoid them in future.
best wishes, I hope that is helpful in some way.
KarenO

. what appears to be overall pale and nutrient deficient plants. I am also not seeing much in the way of tomatoes or blooms at all. Are these plants that have already produced and are toward the end of their season?

Do you know when you put these plants in your Earthbox? I put some in 3rd week Oct. and I have gotten a fair amount of tomatoes but
some look like death warmed over now.

What fertilizer did you use including any snack? Wondering ,like others , if you got some tomatoes prior to the disease appearance?

Many of my plants planted in the first group in their EB are way too far gone to bother spraying. I am looking forward to taking them out. Some of the later ones could still be worked with, leaves taken off and spray.

When we had that very chilly windy night some plants (not all) the very next day had purply stems and branches and the leaves were botchy dark as well. I think that may be what you are seeing in the last photo.

strkpr wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2020 2:08 am 20200123_141710.jpg

I thought this could of been cold damage although it never got below 40 degrees.

This is cold damage. Don't forget , the wind chill brought the feels like to at or below freezing that day.
Your first set show early blight, then I see the Septoria spots, and finally I see some grey mold on the brown crispy one. Start removing the diseased leaves, and spray with 1 Tablespoon of liquid copper fungicide per gallon water. Add a little squeeze of dish soap for spreadability.
Repeat in 7-10 days, and! also after a heavy rain. Be sure to get over and under the leaves, and down the stem to the soil line. I also mix BT in mine at the same time, because I get caterpillars, and copper and BT are compatible in a sprayer. The copper won't kill the BT, because it's in spore form.

KarenO wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:19 pm I think I see a combination of a number of problems here. I see evidence of both septoria and early blight in addition to what appears to be overall pale and nutrient deficient plants. I am also not seeing much in the way of tomatoes or blooms at all. Are these plants that have already produced and are toward the end of their season? if so, I would let them go. If they have yet to produce their crop and the intention is to continue with them, I think some pretty serious help is needed and it is possible that it is too late.
all diseased foliage removed and bagged.
spray for fungal disease with your choice of antifungal garden product safe for food crops according to directions.
fertilize them with a good tomato fertilizer also according to recommendations depending on the product you choose and maintain even but not excessive watering.
If there are healthy plants in the vicinity, take note of these varieties as susceptible and perhaps avoid them in future.
best wishes, I hope that is helpful in some way.
KarenO

Everything here is 100%.

watered, cleaned off all the dead or dying leaves, changed spraying from copper to daconil also with a spreader/sticker could not find my Dawn. next will be high nitrogen fert. to see if leaves will return.
Next I will break out my
I use it to spray copper on the mango trees.

Daconil is preventive only. Copper is curative.(controll)

Thank you. copper it is. Kocide 3000 Copper Hydroxide - 46.1% or Southern Ag. Copper Ammonium Complex - 31.4%

I use the Southern Ag.

I am going with nutrition on this one. Lots of Celebrity tomatoes then the yellow leaves. No idea why photos flip sideways while posting from my phone.