Yellow leaves and now brown spots on leaves!

9 years ago

Hello,

I am a newbie tomato gardener and just a week into the growing season am already having issues! I am in Massachussets and I started these plants from seed in late February. They are supersweet100 and Baxters bush. I planted them outside in mid May in a raised bed. I decided to make the bed a modified hugelkulture/lasagna bed. So it has rotting wood on the bottom, then a layer of composted manure, grass clippings, dirt and then the top layer is what I thought was good quality garden soil mixed with mushroom compost. I'm not sure if any I this matters but since I am a total newbie I thought I would give as much information as possible. About a week ago I started noticing the bottom leaves on my plants getting yellowish, I trimmed some of those leaves off. Afterwards I noticed a lot of fruit flies on the soil and on the plants so I sprayed them with insecticidal soap a few times. Then I noticed some brown spots on the leaves. If you zoom into the picture you can see some white on the spots and leaves as well. I googled it and it seems like some sort of fungus to me but I'm not sure. I cut off all the leaves that had the spots but I keep seeing more spots. It started on one side of the bed and it seems to be spreading (the yellowing and brown spots). My bed is in full sun although now that the trees had filled in some of the bed is in partial shade. The interesting thing to me is that the ones in partial shade are perfectly healthy while the disease seemed to start on the side that gets full sun. I also did a home soil test and the soil has a ph of 7 and was low in nitrogen and phosphate so I bought and applied some fertilizer (organic). It has been two days since I applied it so it's probably too soon to tell a difference but I need some help diagnosing what's wrong. I really wanted to grow these organically but I'm desperate to save them right now and am open to using whatever works. What do you think it is? What can I do to fix them? Thank you for your help!

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PRO
PruningHome
last year
First of all, yellowing and brown spots on the leaves of tomato plants can be a sign of different types of diseases, such as early blight, late blight, or septoria leaf spot. These diseases are usually caused by fungi that thrive in warm, humid environments and can spread rapidly in crowded, humid conditions.

Based on your description, your tomato plants may be experiencing some type of fungal disease. Brown spots on the leaves, along with the white residue you mentioned, are common signs of fungal infection. Additionally, the presence of fruit flies on plants could also indicate fungal growth, as fruit flies are attracted to the sweet odor produced by fungi.

To address the problem, it is important to take some steps to prevent further spread of the disease. First, you should remove all infected leaves and dispose of them in the trash, rather than composting them. This will prevent the spores from spreading to other plants. You may also consider applying a fungicide spray to the remaining leaves, especially if you see new spots appearing.

As for leaf yellowing, this could be due to a variety of factors, including nutrient deficiencies, overwatering, or pests. You mentioned that your soil was low in nitrogen and phosphate, so applying organic fertilizer was a good next step. However, it can take a while for the plants to recover, as the yellowing can be the result of previous stressors.

As for fruit flies, you may want to try some natural remedies, such as using sticky traps or applying a dish soap and water solution to the floor. These methods can help reduce the number of flies without the use of harmful chemicals.

Finally, since you mentioned that you are a novice tomato gardener, it's always a good idea to do some research and educate yourself on common problems tomato plants can face. I would recommend visiting a website like https://thegardenplants.com/pests-diseases/leaf-problems/, which from what I've seen has quite a bit of information on leaf problems on various types of plants, although I don't think there is an article on tomatoes many of the solutions for these problems are useful regardless of the plant in question.

I hope this information is useful to you and good luck with your tomato plants!
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