Biofungicides

[Marturo]

Hello.
I would like to open a discussion about Biofungicides & tomato's.

Here in the Mountains of Western NC we have tomato blights you can set you growing calendar by.
For the last season I used both Cease & Garden friendly fungicide. I shot it every 7 days with Spinosad & Bee Safe.
Perhaps I should have shot it every 3 days at first.

Our last spring was crazy cool & wet as compared to the previous season, it was warm & dry. I used only the GFF 2 seasons ago.

Have you used any Bio fungicides on your tomatoes? Do you water your seedlings with Biofungicides?

You can watch the U toob video's & see how like other bacillus, these 2 take over & kill or leave no room for bad actors to survive.

You can see how well the Brandywines grew at first.
Then when loaded with fruit, the leaves start turning yellow & dropping off letting the fruit sunscald. Every season for the last 30 seasons.

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[bower]

Hi Marturo, and welcome to the forum.
Way up north here we used to get some nasty blight in the hot weather that lasted a week, and then it was over.
Fast forward to the 2020s, we had hot weather for months instead, very very humid, and the blight that was nasty in 2022 was even worse in 2023. I never had these diseases so bad, so I'm all over this biofungicide topic to learn whatever I can.
I've been reading about Alternaria blight which seems to be the worst one here as soon as we hit 25C it goes nuts. And as you said, leaves are dropping and the fruit gets sunscald, especially if the timing of the heat is worst possible as it was this year, very lossy.
I haven't used any of the sprays you mentioned, but will be considering every possibility going forward (as long as its natural, since I don't use chems).
I was reading about seed treatments recently, out of concern that the seeds might carry blight. Garlic extracts (for example, 10 g to 100 ml cold water) were strongly antifungal and didn't affect germination, according to the studies I read. Cinnamon is very antifungal but inhibits germination, so maybe best for cleaning surfaces (thinking greenhouse).
I think the Alternaria blight has a lot of hosts in the environment, and there's no way to avoid it entirely. So using beneficial fungi or bacteria to keep it friendly for the plants makes a lot of sense.
Do you rotate your tomatoes?
I am changing out all my potting mix this year, to try and avoid soilborne effects. But that is just to give the plants a fresh start, considering the spores are blowing around everywhere, well it's only to head start them for whatever comes...

[Marturo]

Do you rotate your tomatoes? Yes every two years.

Having recipes from Organic Farming & gardening on how to blend the Bad bugs up in a blender then filter & spray on your effected plants.
That was back in the 70s when an Organic Biofungicide was only a dream. I have seen gardeners use so much copper on their plants the plants turned blue. A biofungicide is a living protectant that works with the plant & bolsters the plants immune system.

2 seasons ago I started using,

Started using it on the seedlings for water & misting. We had 0 problems with our seedlings, they were perfect.

Our fruit trees have always had problems with organic fruit quality. For the last 2 seasons the fruit trees have been great, Peaches, Apples, pears , the Biofungicides have worked well. Now for the Tomatoes & the early & late blights. I think I need to spray every three days in the spring. I just don't know yet.

[MissS]

Your saying that this happens every year. That's unusual for blight but not impossible. Do you have any pics of your plants when this is just starting out and as it progresses? I'm not so sure that blight is the problem here.

[Cranraspberry]

@MissS the second picture immediately made me think of fusarium since that’s what our non-resistant varieties look like by late August. But I think there are a lot of diseases that could give you a similar result in the end.

Regarding biofungicides I use Revitalize (same bacillus as GFF) early in the season, but with our humidity that alone just isn’t enough. Once early blight starts showing up I switch to a hydrogen peroxide spray that for me has been extremely effective. 4-8 oz/gallon weekly and more frequently if it’s very rainy.

[GoDawgs]

Regarding buofungicides I use Revitalize (same bacillus as GFF) early in the season, but with our humidity that alone just isn’t enough. Once early blight starts showing up I switch to a hydrogen peroxide spray that for me has been extremely effective. 4-8 oz/gallon weekly and more frequently if it’s very rainy.

I just found an article in my files that expands on this use of hydrogen peroxide to stop fungal diseases:

https://www.therustedgarden.com/blogs/v ... ine-theory

[Cranraspberry]

@GoDawgs that’s exactly where l got it from - Gary is about a 40 minute drive away from us, so I figured if it works for him it will likely work here as well. Anecdotally since we’re in a community garden I can see the difference between our plants and the ones around us and our leaves stay healthier for much longer than most others. But then of course the fusarium sets in and our non-resistant varieties get really sad really quick (even the resistant ones struggled last year till it cooled down with the notable exception of Momotaro).

[Marturo]

This is Blight according to the NC ag station here in Fletcher.

Every plant gets it regardless of OP or Hybrid.

Before The blight.

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The pictures show a plant laden with fruit & exposed to sunlight.

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[Paulf]

Since most blights are soil borne in nature and the fact that the blight pathogens exist in almost all soils, they can be devastating to tomato crops. That said, the most common method to reduce the efffects of blight (notice "reduce") is keeping the plants as healthy as possible. Most important is to eliminate direct contact of tomato leaves with soil. Water splash, either from overhead irrigation practices or rain (which is difficult to control) by a good mulching program. Trimming the bottom leaves and stems so they do not make soil contact helps. If watering is necessary that should be done at the base of the plant rather than by sprinkling.

Sometimes blight infection is inevetible but can be held back. Fungicides, chemical or otherwise, can be useful if used properly and at the right times. In my early days of tomato gardening, plant spacing was very thick and close together. The lack of air space between plants only worsened the diseases (blights and wilts). Good air flow was as important as mulching. As soon as my garden was mulched and plants were spaced apart from each other the wilts and blights almost...almost... disappeared.

The above plantings look like a commercial row of tomatoes meant to have maximum production. Commercial growers need heavy harvest and a few days of disease free growing can mean the difference of an income or losing the farm. For backyard growers production is secondary to a good supply and the flavor of homegrown tomatoes. Fewer plants kept healthier will result in more total tomatoes and longer plant life.

After beginning a mulching program, stopping overhead watering (not figured how to direct rain to the base of the plants rather than on the leaves), giving plenty of space between plants for airflow and using CRW cages for even more airflow, diseases have been reduced greatly so that biofungicides have been practically eliminated. Tomato plant life has been extended up to frost. Blights and wilts are not eliminated completely but held at bay for most of the season and by late in the year we have had our fill anyway.

[worth1]

Taking into account that the leaves are all gone one could simply put a shade cloth over the tomatoes and stop the sun scald.
Naturally sun scald happens before the tomatoes start to turn red in most cases.
Just a thought.

[MissS]

@MissS the second picture immediately made me think of fusarium since that’s what our non-resistant varieties look like by late August. But I think there are a lot of diseases that could give you a similar result in the end.

Regarding buofungicides I use Revitalize (same bacillus as GFF) early in the season, but with our humidity that alone just isn’t enough. Once early blight starts showing up I switch to a hydrogen peroxide spray that for me has been extremely effective. 4-8 oz/gallon weekly and more frequently if it’s very rainy.

You and I are thinking on the same page. Fusarium or verticillium wilts are a very good possibility. In the later stages like in the photo above, they can all look very similar.

[Cole_Robbie]

Relating to what was said above about hydrogen peroxide, a diluted bleach solution will do the same thing for less cost. I would prefer peroxide if I had just a few plants, but it gets expensive at scale.

I once knew a guy who said the healthiest tomato plant he ever grew was a volunteer that sprang up underneath the ladder to his above ground pool. His grand kids played in the pool almost every day and splashed the plant with chlorinated pool water.

[Cranraspberry]

The folks over on TV seem to have great results with bleach. I’ve never tried it - I really dislike the smell, and suspect it would be frowned upon in a community garden setting (I always get a lot of questions when I’m out spraying from other community gardeners and just passers by).

[AZGardener]

I've used Gary's peroxide treatment for early blight, it worked well for my plants. I haven't had a case of late blight fortunately.
I use 8TPSP per gallon, a weaker solution than Gary's current recipe of 12TBSP per gallon.

[pepperhead212]

I use the H2O2 for most of the plants, especially later in the season, and I use the 8 tb, or a half cup/gal, and get good results with most things. Earlier in the season I use potassium bicarbonate as a prophylactic, and when combined with oil (just 1.5 tb + 4 tb oil, plus an emulsifier), and that, or simply baking soda, works better than many stronger fungicides. Unfortunately, it's not good once temps hit 90°, which is why I switch to the peroxide. And I still get that for $1.25/qt at the dollar store, so that's 16 gal of spray.

[Cranraspberry]

Target is the cheapest I’ve found - $0.99 for 32 oz. I use it a lot for cleaning (hot water+peroxide+squirt of blue Dawn is a fantastic shower cleaner), so add a couple of bottles any time I’m ordering something from Target.

This year I attempted to follow up with Revitalize the day after spraying H2O2 to reestablish the beneficial bacteria, but frankly even with my tiny garden it was a little too much and I don’t think the Revitalize made that big of a difference once disease pressure was strong. I got pretty burnt out by August, attempting to take things a little easier next season.

[MissS]

@Marturo the good news is that you do not have late blight nor do you have either of the wilt diseases. Closer images are needed with both sides of your leaves and pics of your stems as well. I am suspecting that you are experiencing early blight which is controllable with fungicides and bleach sprays along with removing any diseased foliage. Your biofungicides may work and also a milk/water spray. If you experience this on your crops this year then start a thread in our disease forum when it first starts. It will be easier for us to diagnose and help you if we can see it in it's early stages and close up.

[Marturo]

As I said before this team of Biofungicides did make a big differences on all of our fruit & many other veggie's.
Like Thuricide & Spinosad work these 2 Biofungicides are alive & work on & in the plants.

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/early-blight-of-tomato
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/tomato-late-blight

[bower]

Alternaria blights are definitely becoming a problem here, and I'm going to start a thread (before we plant again!), to discuss all of the associated issues: resistant varieties, host plants in the field, and other control measures. I'll just share this article on holistic management which you might appreciate, @Marturo .
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8451811/

[Wildcat82]

Alternaria blights are definitely becoming a problem here, and I'm going to start a thread (before we plant again!), to discuss all of the associated issues: resistant varieties, host plants in the field, and other control measures. I'll just share this article on holistic management which you might appreciate, @Marturo .
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8451811/

From your article I read the following:
Wild genotypes of potato and tomato in the Solanum genus, originally from South America, are a beneficial resource of germplasm resistance to EB disease.40, 41, 42 The genotypes that belong to S. habrochaites and S. arcanum were found to be moderately or highly resistant to EB.5, 43

There is a wild tomato called Arcanum Pink Cherry that is an S. arcanum specie that may be very resistent for EB. HR seeds sell this variety and may be something you want to try in your garden. Here's what HR seeds says about it:

Arcanum Pink Cherry Tomato, Solanum arcanum X. This tomato originates from our gardens in Hazleton Pennsylvania USA. It is a natural cross that came up as a volunteer in 2022. We believe its a cross between a Solanum arcanum and a Solanum pimpinellifolium, but can't conform this. The fruits are a pink cherry tomato with pink flesh inside and is about 1.25 inches round and weighting around 1 Oz! Plants can get to 6 feet tall in really good soil but tend to stay around 1.5 feet tall. The tomatoes get the hallmark wild arcanum stripe on the bottom. They have a really nice taste and go great in salads, eating fresh and for tomato sauce and paste! Open pollinated, indeterminate, regular leaf, cherry, mid season, pink, fresh, salad or sauce, 69 to 91+ days.
https://www.hrseeds.com/product-page/ar ... -tomato-hr