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koalatlady

Bacterial Speck on tomatoes - treat or toss?

Koalatlady
10 years ago

Since I live very close to a county extension office, I often bring them samples of leaves so that they can tell me what might be the problem with my plants. I recently took them some tomato leaves and they identified the problem as bacterial speck. I immediately began spraying with copper fungicide, and while it seems to be somewhat controlled, the problem persists. I have a total of 12 tomato plants-in both raised beds and containers. Oddly, no matter where they are, they all seem to have the same bacterial speck. I'm thinking that that heavy rain we had early last week exacerbated the problem.

So, I have removed three of the plants that had it the worst. But it looks like the others continue to get it from the bottom up and they just don't appear to be thriving. Since it's so early in the fall growing season, should I just yank them all out? Should I continue spraying copper, and if so how often? I know not to apply it too often since it can leach into the soil but I don't know how frequently that means.

In addition, to prevent spread, I am being extra careful with everything I'm doing around the tomatoes. I wear a pair of disposable gloves when I'm removing the leaves. I have been washing down the tomato cages with the bleach solution if I've removed the plant. And the tainted plants are going straight into the garbage bin. I'm just not sure if I'm overdoing it, or not doing enough. Can you tell I'm a new gardener? :-)

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