spots on leaves

9 years ago

First yr gardener, noticed some brown/dark/rusty spots after 1 week of vacation. (drippler system was set up during vacation) After hours of research I couldn't pin point what's causing the spots on the leaves; so i turned to community help! Any help to identify the issues that my tomato plants are having is appreciated.

Symptoms:
- Dark rusty spots on leaves
- Bottom leaves minimally affected on some plants; mostly middle section is affected.
- No spots on new growth.
- already applied neem oil mix treatment 2 days ago (already had dark spots before treatment).
- Some tiny spots on stem too.

Pictures here:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s161/sh/da78bfba-4cc1-4226-a890-dcd507f653d6/8c6c4950ac5b2e21ae482b053d583113

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures 2014-05-01

Comments (2)

dhopman
9 years ago
Pretty sure I have the same problem as you. Mostly the older, lower leaves affected. New growth on top seems fine. More noticeable on underside of leaves. I'm not an experienced gardener but my google searches seem to suggest Septoria Leaf Spot. Would love for someone with experience to weigh in on that.

I have only two tomato plants - a big beef and a cherry tomato. I have only noticed these spots on the cherry plant so far. I'm using drip irrigation but wondering if our rain in northern California last weekend contributed to the fast spread.

I'm planning to throw all foliage that looks infected in the trash (which will probably be 80% of the plant). Then I'll spray with a fungicide and mulch to avoid splashing spores if we get any more rain.

More info here:
http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/publications/fact_sheets/plant_pathology_and_ecology/septoria_leaf_spot_of_tomato_06-30-08r.pdf
andybao
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you dhopman.
Since I sprayed neem oil last weekend, it seems that the situation has not gotten any worse. would I still need to remove infected leaves?
Thanks
-andy