black spots on my tomato leaves

[veggiegrower]

Hi,
I wonder if somebody can provide me with some advise as to what is the problem with my tomatoes. I went away for 5 days and when we returned some of our tomato plants leaves have turned yellow and have brown specled marks on them (Bottom leaves effected worse then top leaves). It seems to have effected the plants closest to the door effecting Inca variety the worst. The plants at the furthest end do not seem to have been effected so far.

As far as I know the neighbour opened and closed the greenhouse each day and it looks as though the plants have been watered.

Could this be due to magnesium deffiency?

Shirley is our main crop (7 plants) and 1 each of Inca and Roma. They are being fed once a week with Tomorite The shirley have up to 3 or 4 trusses with fruit on the first two. I live near Southend and the tomatoes are growing in tubs.
Thanks
Stuart

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Stuart and welcome! It certainly looks like magnesium deficiency. I would give the affected plants a foliar spray with the epsom salts mixed with water treatment that I suggested to Martin. The plants usually 'pick up' pretty quickly after treating.

[richardwil]

Just as a matter of interest, Epsom Salts is a product we can buy for our medicinal use. However, what we buy at the chemist is very clean whereas what you get from the garden centre is not as pure and this is reflected in the cost. It is a lot cheaper at a garden centre so buy there for plants and the chemist for you.

I too, have had leaves with the brown/black mottling in the past and have treated it with epsom salts and had great harvests after that. In fact, I often get so many tomatoes all my neighbours get fed up with them. I have cut down on my plants this year and increased the chillies and cucumbers.

Happy gardening

[Sophie]

This seems to be the work of a fungal problem rather than a lack of nutrition. There are some tomato foods that contain control for tomato wilt and blackspot. Follow label directions and water the plants thoroughly in the early a.m. careful not to wet the foliage. Slow trickle around the root zone is best. Planting in an open area where the air can move freely through the plants is also a good control for fungal problems.


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Fruits, Vegetable and Vitamins

[Martin G]

I've needed to re register with a new name.

After my early worries the plants grew on big and strong and have plenty of just ripening fruit....but they've got some other lurgy now the leaves are yellowing and the stems have creeping brownish stain and the plants are beginning to wilt
It looks like disease this time because it's spread onto the nearby plants in gro bags.
Will the fruit small be edible if they still look OK ?

[Lesley Jay]

Martin are the nearby plants tomatoes as well or a different vegetable?

[Martin G]

Tomatoes and courgettes Lesley, the courgette plant is actualy touching both, clearly I planted them too near to each other.

Actually my courgettes are another story of only partial success I planted about half a dozen plants and only two ever grew properly and produced, (though they have produced a lot) the rest went into the compost a long time ago. Hence my disappointment if I lose my tomatoes now the one thing I did make an extra effort for. I share that fascination with them that other seem to have and grew four different kinds in three different ways, ground, containers, grow bags,etc.

Whilst on the subject of winging I am generally disappointed my early work and enthusiasm has been largely in vain compared to last year when I made less effort and got more.

I suspect there was always something wrong with the whole plot most of what I grew was strangely mottled and not right looking, next year I'll make raised beds and concentrate on a smaller area and get that bit as fertile as I can.

Another success is story my chillies on the window sill they are coming now and I'm enjoying using them....strange how they can be variously hot off the same plant.

[Lesley Jay]

Martin can you post a photo please?

I was told by a chilli expert that the heat developes in chillies as they mature on the plant so chillies picked too early will not have a kick.

[Martin G]

Not a very good pic Lesley my camera for some reason doesn't want to let me download any more, the plants to the right of the shot going all black/brown even the tomatoes.

On the chillies front the ones that are not that hot are some plants given to me by a friend but the ones I grew from seed my self and smaller are deadly, I've waited for them to get red.
I had one lunch time in a stir fry I always test a tiny bit raw to gauge strength I always know when they are potent besides the obvious heat....my bald patch sweats, sorry if that's gross

[Lesley Jay]

Martin I'm sorry but they don't look very good. From your earlier description of yellowing leaves and wilting it sounded like fusarium wilt but brown and black on tomato plants and the tomato fruits is usually blight. However blight doesn't start with yellowing leaves. The leaves get brown / black patches on them and the stems also get patches of brown / black. The tomatoes get brown / black patches which quickly rot. Blight quickly takes hold and is devasting. But blight will not affect courgettes.

The tomato plants in the photo especially the ones at the front, look beyond saving so pick the tomatoes, including the green ones, that aren't brown and use them or freeze them for later. The green ones can be sliced and fried or made into chutney.

[Martin G]

Your description is pretty much exact, I'm amazed at how quickly they went from looking good to looking like that.

Is it something that will stay in that ground and get next years attempt?

Given my problems this year what do you think is the best way to prepare for next year? can I decontaminate in some way?

[Martin G]

I've Googled the answer to all those questions.

I reckon I got it started by careless composting there are potato and tomato plants popping up all the time from rogue peelings escaped and scattered from my compost, I've moved it a couple of times.

[Lesley Jay]

Sorry for the delay in replying Martin!!

Careless composting, as you call it, will not cause blight. The only way that rogue potatoes or tomatoes from last year can cause blight is if they had blight last year. The blight spores will over winter in the potatoes and tomatoes ready to devast the next years crop in a wet summer. The plants that 'pop' up would be blight carriers. So it's important to make sure that all the infected tomato plants and tomatoes are burnt but not composted. As I'm sure you have read!

You can still eat the tomatoes that are not affected but they will not keep so you won't be able to ripen the green ones. Either make a chutney with the green ones or put them in the freezer to make chutney later.

If you have potato plants are they affected?

When blight strikes it's extremely quick and as I said before devasting. Next year try growing Ferline tomatoes which are blight resistant and a very nice tasting tomato as well. There is also a beef steak tomato Fantasio which is blight resistant. Be sure to rotate your crops and don't grow tomatoes or potatoes in the same spot for three years. You can also mulch around tomato plants or plant through membrane which prevents spores on the ground being splashed on the lower leaves during a rain storm.

[Martin G]

Thanks Lesley, I didn't mean to sound impatient Google is so efficient any idle moment can be used to ask a basic question so quickly.

It's pretty depressing having to plan for next year already just as I was expecting the one crop I was really interested in just as they are ripening going wrong.
I don't think there is much can be saved the blight has moved so fast, I think I will certainly make an effort to look for those blight resistant varieties next year.
I suppose I also planted them a bit too closely too each other promoting good conditions for the spore to thrive, and I entrusted some one else to water while I was on holiday for a week. I expect they just sprayed everything without worrying too much about watering the plant at the roots without wetting everything else.

[Lesley Jay]

Oh, I spend hours Googling and reading different sites!

It certainly is depressing Martin. The year we were hit with blight I lost all the potatoes (there were rows of them) and digging up rotting, foul smelling potatoes is awful. We had to be certain that not a single stray volunteer potato was left behind. But worse than the spuds were my tomato plants, all forty of them were lost to blight. I was gutted. I love tomatoes. So after that I have always grown Ferline tomatoes. I grow other varieties as well but I hope that if blight strikes these that the Ferline will be okay.

Planting too close together doesn't help with any diseases as the tomatoes need air flow around them. My tomatoes are planted two foot apart and I always planted my courgettes a minimum of three foot apart. Now I grow courgettes in pots.

[Martin G]

I don't grow potatoes Lesley so my loss is only the tomatoes, I did grow some in pots and gro bags three plants to a bag, two would have been better. I might have used too small a pot as the watering needed to almost every day...not sure I'm up for that level of care I'm frightened to turn my back on them, it makes it too difficult to go away.

[Martin G]

I watched Gardeners World on the telly last night.........seems they've had the same problem, there's too were wiped out it must be generally a bad year.

[motheaten]

So this is a honest account of a veg patch, and the tomatoes are ravaged by blight! The Italian plum toms started well, but then the leaves blackened and the stems developed blotches and the fruit started to bruise and rot.

I tried cutting off affected parts,pulling out plants, but eventually it became a mass clearance. Barrow loads of carefully nutured plants have been taken off for burning.

Does anyone know of a good tasty plum tomato which is blight resistant ?

regards dennis