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adc14_gw

Weird Thing Happening to Starts

adc14
9 years ago

Hello Folks,
I really need your help on this one. Something really strange has happened to my tomato starts.

Just about all my six week tomato plants are exhibiting foliage lesions I have never seen before. I grow all my own plants from seed from various venders - usually Stokes, Tatianias, Johnny's etc. I grow them in sterile non-soil media under fluorescent lights in my basement. I fertilize periodically with a 1/4 dilute hydroponic fertilizer. This has been my procedure for years. About two weeks ago, I noticed the bottom leaves began dry up and crumble . The leaf would develop a brown margin then gradually dry up. The plants continued to grow, but now I notice lighter green spots on some of the leaflets and the browning involves the upper leaflets, too. This is affecting all different varieties from half a dozen different venders. I noticed one plant had what looked like blisters on the leaf. I did buy a few starts from a community garden sale-a couple of tomatoes, peppers. They grow their seedlings in a hoop house. I believe a lot of the toms are from saved seed. Anyway, I looked in various books and seems like it may be bacterial canker, though there is no wilting or stem lesions. Here are some photos. If you can help me out, I would greatly appreciate it. I need to know if I should destroy these plants. BTW, my peppers and eggplant are unaffected and they were on the same shelves and treated the exact same way as the toms.. Strangely, the lesions look a little like early blight, but the plants were never in soil and never outdoors. How could they get that?. Thank you

April Campbell,MD

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