Tomato Plant Diseases to Be Aware Of

There are numerous tomato plant diseases that every gardener has seen at one point or another. Early blight is the one that will be most recognizable to gardeners as plants worldwide are known to be affected by it. Plants that are most affected by it include tomatoes. The disease hits in hot, humid weather. The spots appear on the plants as black spots and are surrounded by yellow. The plants leaves become diseased and spotted in this manner and the leaves of the plant begin to fall. One way to protect plants from the disease is to use flood irrigation rather than spraying plants with water.

The tomato spotted wilt virus causes the fruits to be pale in color and the tomatoes do not thoroughly ripen. The tomato plant foliage affected by the virus looks wilted and unhealthy. The foliage gets spots of an orange color between the veins. Also, small brown spots will appear on the older leaves. For plants that are affected by the virus causing the leaves to spot or wilt, keep the weeds in the planted area under control as well as keeping thrips out of the planted areas.

Similar Diseases to Take Caution Of

Another disease affecting tomatoes is septoria leaf spot, which is similar to the spots and the wilt seen on the early blight infected plant, but it is different in that the spots are usually smaller. The septoria leaf spot disease makes the plants have dark specks in them, with no spots on the fruit. The way the disease starts on the tomato plants is with yellowish spots on the leaves, usually after the first fruit appears.

Look for symptoms on the plant to start at the bottom of the plant. The spots become grayish or brownish, with spots in the middle, and will have a yellow ring around them. Heavily infected leaves of the plants will fall off.

top