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Is it disease or malnutrition?

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2021 7:43 pm
by Barmaley
Hello,

I found that for the last weeks leaves are getting yellow and got sports on them. What is it and how to fix it?
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Re: Is it disease of malnutrition?

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2021 8:01 pm
by Shule
It looks like a combination of a disease and sucking pest, to me, except the top and bottom pictures look like overwatering. It's hard to say. I don't know.

The fourth picture looks like a disease (like one I got with a couple plants from The Home Depot a couple years ago). It didn't kill any plants, but it gave them some yellowing on occasion. It might do more damage in your climate, but I'm not sure.

The third picture looks like it has evidence of a sucking pest, and it looks diseased, too.

The second picture looks like a combination of various things I've already mentioned, but maybe some sun scald on the portions where the sucking pests were feasting, too. Did you harden it off?

What kind of potting mix did you use?

Do you have drainage?

Re: Is it disease of malnutrition?

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2021 8:52 pm
by MissS
The last three photos look like gray mold to me.
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photo from Johnny's.
Your plants look to be very underfed. They need to be fed and planted out asap. May I suggest that you remove all damaged foliage and then spray with a good fungicide before you plant them out. Hopefully once they have more room and some food they will begin to recover.

Re: Is it disease of malnutrition?

Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2021 5:32 am
by slugworth
dripping just looking at them
much too wet

Re: Is it disease of malnutrition?

Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2021 7:20 pm
by Barmaley
We got a lot or rains lately. How to protect them form the rain? Small pots I can hide but what about large pots?

Re: Is it disease of malnutrition?

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 10:28 am
by Growing Coastal
My tomatoes in pots have a tarp rigged over them every year. No sides, just a roof to keep them dry and free of blight.

Re: Is it disease of malnutrition?

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 11:14 am
by Labradors
I would suspect your potting mix as being too moisture-retentive, but I also think that your plants are stressed by being in such small pots. Egg boxes are really too small to contain seedlings for very long, and when potting up, I would plant one seedling to a pot.

Re: Is it disease of malnutrition?

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 7:58 pm
by MissS
There really is not much that you can do with too much rain. Many of us keep some fungicides on hand (Daconil and Copper) that we use after every rain. Of course if it rains every day then there is not much one can do but wait for things to dry out and deal with the mess then.

Re: Is it disease or malnutrition?

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 9:17 pm
by Barmaley
Are those spots made by fungus? Can copper improve their condition? Should I feed them with fertilizer? The soil is a mix of about 3/5 and 2/5 well composted manure and peat moss with a cup of lime. Some pots are 80% commercial potting mix. Is it true that potting mix does not have nutrients for tomatoes and I need to feed them from day one?

Re: Is it disease or malnutrition?

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 12:42 am
by Pippin
I use sphagnum peat based substrate but mix some clay and wood ash to it. And some organic fertilizer but not too much. My substrate has pre-adjusted pH with magnesium rich lime (as peat can have very low in pH and minerals). For me, your potting mixture sounds quite strong in terms of nutrients.

There are many types of limestone, some low in magnesium. Magnesium makes leaves green as it is essential component of chlorophyl. Similar effect on nitrogen but probably for some other reason. I see low nitrogen symptoms in my plants more often than anything else as I prefer going low rather that high. It is very easy to add nitrogen but difficult to remove it.

Re-potting to larger containers with some other potting mixture sounds like a good proposal to me.

Re: Is it disease or malnutrition?

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:47 am
by mama_lor
Those white spots are worrying. Not sure what they are.

Re: Is it disease or malnutrition?

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 8:34 am
by MissS
What you should do is plant those plants out asap, either in the ground or in 5 gallon pots. They also need a well balanced fertilizer with micronutrients and follow the directions on the label. Most of the spots on your plants are sunscald but the plant in photos 3 and 4 need to have the sick leaves removed and then wash your hands and tools and spray with the copper.