grey mold on tomato plant???

[nicolicious]

dear everyone -

the following picture is 3 tomato plants -

2 heirloom and one early girl....


all three have the same spreading grey mold? any idea what its from? or how i can cure it?

thanks in advance?


also i have reseached 'grey mold on tomato leaves' and I cant find similar pictures... but the ones that do have it, have it are growing inside a green house and it is from too high humidity.... i am in florida, and its been very mild for the past 2-3 months... no days about 80 really.....

thanks again

[taff]

could be botrytis

[Nicos]

Hello- and welcome to the Vine.

Perhaps you could introduce yourself and your location in your profile?
Could be blight ( less likely) or botrytis- the first is a major problem- the second can often be rescued

[rustylady]

Looks more like powdery mildew than botrytis. Link here Powdery Mildew on Tomatoes: how to identify and treat it

[chris]

I think so too - too humind, strip off the affected, increase ventilation around the plants and make sure you've all dead/old plants/cuttings away from your tomatoes.

[Aberdeenplotter]

looks very much like botrytis to me. This could well have been carried over from last season. Did you clear out and sterilise your greenhouse? It is very important to do so. I would be spraying with an approved fungicide. I won't recommend anything here. Whatever I recommend may well not be available or be approved where you are. Ventilation is hugely important as is control of humidity so look at that as well.

[Spikey]

Looks like powdery mildew to me too.

A simple and fairly effective cure would be to remove the worst of the affected leaves and parts of the plants, only AFTER you have wetted the entire plant down with this mixture; 1 litre of water, half a pint of milk, few drops of washing up liquid, and two table spoons of bicarbonate of soda (baking powder), shaken up well and put into a pressure sprayer.

The liquid does two things..1 it wets down the fungus and helps to prevent the thousands of spores from being released into the air, which will reinfect plants where they land, and 2, the fats in the milk and salts in the bicarb of soda will kill off the mildew in a day or two.

You might have to repeat the spraying a few times to get rid totally.

More airflow (an occillating fan is good) and wiping up any water spills / reducing humidity will help to keep the dreaded fungus away.

The liquid is safe to use on most plants by the way, not just tomato plants.

After the growing season, it's not a bad idea to make up a lot of this mixture but add double the bicarb of soda and spray down the entire inside of your greenhouse or poly tunnel to get rid of spores lurking in cracks and crevices.

I make a weak water / bleach spray and wash down the surfaces, and when dry i go over it all with this milk/bicarb mix...seems to work well for me.

[Thelma Sanders]

You can't spray whole plants with it, but Medwyn recommends lemon juice for botrytis

spray the affected area with acid and that is best done with PLJ, pure lemon juice. Another type of acid that will do the trick is vinegar, both of these are to be used neat but not to spray the whole plant.

If it's only in the leaf then cut it out and spray only the stalk or main stem area where the disease is noticeable. This is actually what they do on a commercial scale by applying the juice or vinegar directly onto the affected part and the plant monitored from that point on.

Overcoming Botrytis in Tomatoes, 18th Aug 1999 | Articles Archive | Medwyn's Exhibition Vegetable Seeds

[Two_Sheds]

all three have the same spreading grey mold?

They look very poorly.

They also look very cramped together, and shady. You need to get more light (lots of light, you can't grow toms in the shade) and air to them, regardless of what the infection is.