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Help! Tomato Disease Identification

Posted by mktzisey Delaware (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 24, 13 at 11:12

Hello everyone!

I've been reading everyone else's postings, but this is my first one and boy, do I need help!

My big beautiful tomato plant has suddenly started dying from the ground up. It is one of those with an heirloom variety grafted onto hybrid roots.

"Spots" started appearing on the lower most leaves (see photos) - which quickly spread until the leaves turned entirely yellow and died. As the leaves die, the stems on those specific branches turn yellow, spreading toward the plant, but otherwise the stem and branches seem to be unmarked. The tomatoes themselves also seem to be unmarked, and are plentiful (looks like they started to grow before this infection got bad) but now that whatever it is is spreading rapidly up the plant, the new tiny baby tomatoes with the flowers still attached (and there are MANY of them) seem not to be growing (not sure yet if this is my imagination) and a few pollinated flowers (when I pull them apart after they fall there are baby tomatoes inside) are falling/have fallen off. Also, while the tomatoes seem to be unmarked, the little green "leaves" (I'm sorry for my ignorance - I couldn't find a name for them) attached to the top of the tomato show signs of dark speckling as well. It is spreading REALLY rapidly up the plant. I've attached a link with photos of all of these things too.

As I said, this is my first post and I hope this isn't too much information! But from looking at others' posts it appears that many tomato diseases have somewhat similar characteristics so I was hoping this would help one of you more experienced guys with identification.

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated!

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of My Tomato Plant


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Help! Tomato Disease Identification

My guess is that it's Early Wilt and I suggest you remove all the affected leaves, along with any dead ones (and weeds growing) on the ground. I'm having the same problem with some of my tomatoes and have been going out daily and removing anything that looks diseased, being careful to disinfect my cutters with rubbing alcohol, and to not touch any "good" leaves after handling the infected ones. I'm sure you will get some other messages, and people will tell you what you can spray your plants with, if you are so inclined.

Your fruit looks great!


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RE: Help! Tomato Disease Identification

IMO it's either fusarium or verticillium wilt. Fairly common and most of us have had it. The bad news is that yes, it does move fairly quickly up the plant. You might be able to stop it by removing the affected foilage and spraying with a fungicide like Daconil. Sometimes it stops and sometimes it doesn't. If you can save most of the plant, the tomatoes should be ok. Like you said, they don't appear to be affected. The little tomatoes that don't appear to be growing is just normal, the plant sometimes aborts them with or without wilt. Not every blossom becomes a tomato.


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