Sorry, I'm getting impatient, so no picture yet... A few of my seedlings in peat pots have yellowing leaves (starting at the tip and working up), some are ashy colored/withered at the very tip and some have tiny black splotches within the yellowed area. I transplanted some of my tomatoes to larger cells last week, and those seem to be doing fine. I've separated the sickly ones to another room, but it looks like a few more are just hinting at discoloration (hopefully my paranoid eyes are just exaggerating). I'm hoping I just waited too long to transplant them, put the light too close or something along those lines... but it's the black splotches that are really freaking me out. Once again, sorry about not having a picture but it was impossible with my camera phone, so I'm waiting on Rob's real camera.
Lexxi from your description it sounds like your plants may be affected by one of three common blights that affect tomatoes. Septoria leaf spot and Early Blight are the two most common. The third is Late Blight, which usually only occurs after unusually cool, wet weather. These are all airborne fungal diseases that require dew or rain to infect the plants. These diseases build up very quickly in wet weather and cause dark leaf spots followed by yellowing and defoliation (leaf drop). They may also produce spots on the fruit. Cut off the affected foliage, however these blights are difficult to control once they become established. Once your plants are outside mulch the base of the plants with 1-2 inches of straw, newspaper or other organic materials and water the plants from the bottom. Consider spacing the plants farther apart than you normally would to increase air circulation and use a fungicide as required.
Thanks so much Eileen. I thought it might be a blight and it was probably my bad. I bought two already-started plants last week from a department store (I knew it was stupid, but they were cheap) and may have forgotten to wash my hands after handling them. I started these seedlings about 5 weeks ago, they have a few sets of leaves. Do you know if I could spray the healthy looking ones with a fungicide now?
I would give it a try Lexxi as it's better to attempt to stop the blight in its tracks before it spreads to your healthy plants. Let me know how your seedlings do won't you?
update on seedlings If I had posted a picture in the first place, I think it would have been easier to identify. Upon further research it seems like they're suffering from a Phosphorous deficiency more than anything. I feel so silly, because the lady at the garden center mentioned something about a lack of nutrients in this year's peat pellets and that using organic fertilizer much earlier than usual seemed to help. The two varieties I'm left with seem to be doing better (Tiger Tom and Cheeseman's) but I wish I hadn't thrown out the rest . It's all right though, lesson learned. I went to the local nursery and bought up a whole bunch of their very healthy looking starts. Black, Cherokee Purple, Old German?, San Marzano, maybe a Brandywine pink, Patio, a Glacier or Siletz. I always get so excited that everything becomes a blur, lol.
ok I love archive posts now i know what is wrong with my tomato plant it is Late Blight we had very cold wet weather and hence the description of the start of this blight luckily the ffruits were unaffected but we got them off not so long after it started, the other two plants remained unaffected, At least now i know what the trouble was, can i put this plant cut down iinto council gren recycling or does the plant need burning?
