Tomato leaves... am I screwed?

Everything in my garden was going well until I woke up to tomatoes looking like this, and getting worse. I've sprayed them with neem oil, castile soap, organic cayenne pepper, and recently baking soda, while they grew to this size without any issues. I have backup tomatoes but I wish this didn't happen. Any idea on if this is fixable or will it inevitably kill the plants? Both my Sweet 100 cherries and Oaxaca heirlooms seem to have it. They are planted next to healthy okra.

It doesn't look that bad to me. I had to really zoom into the photo to see what you are talking about. When I have tomato leaves that look diseased, I just pinch them off. Tomatoes respond well to pruning. Just leave a set of leaves on the top. If they are diseased too, pinch those off when the next set of leaves starts to grow. How big are your tomato plants? Are they spaced so they don't touch each other?

Well it's gotten worse as expected, it's on many of the leaves. Not terrible but...

The plants are all done with SFG. So 1 tomato per SF. They're definitely a bit cramped but SFG always looks cramped, my first time trying it. Plenty of air flow, should not be an issue, the leaves are always moving around.

Never really been a tomato person, I thought I got lucky but apparently not. The South Florida humidity is no joke. I might have messed it all up spraying them with something that was mildly infected, sometimes I crush super hot peppers and put them in the mix.

Now that I look at my other tomato seedlings, they too have some spotting. I am 90% certain this occurred from a recent bi-weekly soap spraying. I hope they can recover...

Jeff Steez wrote:Well it's gotten worse as expected, it's on many of the leaves. Not terrible but...

The plants are all done with SFG. So 1 tomato per SF. They're definitely a bit cramped but SFG always looks cramped, my first time trying it. Plenty of air flow, should not be an issue, the leaves are always moving around.

Never really been a tomato person, I thought I got lucky but apparently not. The South Florida humidity is no joke. I might have messed it all up spraying them with something that was mildly infected, sometimes I crush super hot peppers and put them in the mix.

Now that I look at my other tomato seedlings, they too have some spotting. I am 90% certain this occurred from a recent bi-weekly soap spraying. I hope they can recover...

Being that you are in Florida where it is very humid, I would make sure there is lots of space between each tomato plant and train them to a single stalk tied to a pole and that you prune all the extra leaves off of. Tomato diseases love humidity and you want to get lots of air in there. Air blowing through tightly packed leaves is just going to spread whatever it is on the leaves. My climate is bone dry through most of July and August and I can just let my tomatoes sprawl all over the place and on top of each other and they are happy and healthy, but as soon as the first sprinkle of rain comes at the end of August or beginning of September, they get all sorts of diseases if they aren't spaced, pruned, and trained.

To clarify, square foot gardening is fine but I'd put one tomato in a 4x4 bed and surround it with a bazillion other low growing things and root crops and keep the tomatoes (and other nightshade plants) spread out far apart from each other. Social distancing for those guys! 😂

That might be Septoria, which is a fungal disease.  As you said it might be caused by your humidity.

When I lived in Florida my Sunday shoes would mold sitting under my bed.

Watering your plants via trickle irrigation will help to keep the foliage dry.

If watering using a drip system from overhead, do it at a time of day that allows the foliage to dry quickly.

It is best not to water your plants in the evening since this allows the leaves to stay wet overnight.

I hope this will get figured out and you will have lots of lovely tomatoes.

As I said I am quite certain I sprayed the plants with a diseased pepper of some sort... Oh well. These spots were nowhere, then on every tomato plant even my brand new seedlings after I sprayed that blasted spicy pepper spray.

I use a soaker hose setup for now until I switch to non-chlorinated rain water.

where I live you have to grow your tomatoes under cover because they will. get. mold. period. your luck determines whether it's powdery mildew or black mold (black mold is much worse). Even under cover eventually they will get it. Same with my long beans. I spray, either milk or baking soda, until I feel like it`s not helping, then I start taking off the most affected leaves. I still get tomatoes.

Now that we have the photos in the earlier post, could you please post additional photos so we can see what "getting worse" looks like?  I agreed with others that the initial spots did not look too bad and may just have been a reaction from the spray that you used.  If possible, please try to post a few more photos.  Thanks!

Sorry I had to rewrite the whole text after a 2nd look

If I click on the picture it opens in a separate window and this you can magnify
(Just as a hint for anyone didn't know)

Septoria (fungal disease) from Anne is a good if not the best guess.

It will affect the leaves but not the fruit.
A thin mix of baking soda (a good spoon full), a little spoon oil and a squirt of mild soap per Gallon helps here to reduce the disease and keep it at bay.
Fungal diseases are hard to eliminate but in this stage you have good chances.

Sun, space, and airflow are the best ways to prevent fungal disease. Rodale’s organic farming and gardening magazine Mike McGrath suggests at least 2x2ft for tomato plants.

I’d spread 1-2” of good compost and possibly do an early morning compost tea and/or kelp spray.

I do not think this is a standard fungal disease from soil splashes or humidity. From time of posting, I am 90%+ certain it's from a spicy pepper I decided to add to my spray this time because the caterpillars were rampaging. It was foolish, and unsanitary. Luckily, I just checked and yes more leaves have been infected but as far as I can tell the spots are not getting worse, per se... I'm hoping it's not dissimilar to a skin rash on a human.

I will spray baking soda weekly from here on out, otherwise only castile soap with organic cayenne powder, maybe monthly neem oil.

Let's hope everything is fine regardless. I sure hope it's just a little blemish. The tomato seedlings I sprayed were 100% healthy prior and now have some spotting, but it has not gotten worse.

My climate is nothing like yours, so this may seem like a dumb question, if it is my apologies.  I'm wondering why spray so regularly?   Spraying organic is way better than nasty chemicals, but it still kills indiscriminately so the good bugs die with the bad.  Plus it's adding moisture to what sounds like an already damp environment. I know sometimes you just have to intervene, but I find if Im patient a lot of issues will right themselves.  Maybe in a small area try not spraying anything, and see what happens.  Maybe some of the fungal issues will improve, maybe not, might be worth a try.  Good luck to you, I know how frustrating it is to see perfectly beautiful veggies develop problems.  Gardening is always an adventure.

I agree about not spraying biocides, organic or not. I use only kelp/seaweed for its micronutrients and immune system support, and compost teas for biodiverse inoculation of the plant so that any disease organisms are consumed, competed with, or simply given no space to live. I’d be especially careful with wetting tomato leaves, hence suggesting it be done in the early morning so it will dry within an hour or so. I do not spray in the sun as it kills the microbes in my tea, and the water droplets can act like magnifying glasses and cause sunscald.

When you are spraying the soap or neem oil, it has to be when its cool out and cloudy, or you can shock the plant and damage the leaves...

Aside from that, overtreating can cause more damage than a little mildew. Make sure you have full sun and don't overwater.

Actually looks like spider mite damage though. Check with a strong magnifier and also look for webs. If the plants came from a nursery, this becomes more likely, but can also come from other plants.

If it is spider mites, the organic recommendation from The Natural Gardener (one of the oldest organic nurseries in the country) is regularly spraying the leaves with a water jet, taking care to hit top and bottom of leaves.  It physically knocks them off the plant and they prefer hot and dry conditions.

This blog post describes a similar problem at a commercial farm -

https://www.sustainablemarketfarming.com/tag/tomato-plant-with-aphids-and-sooty-mold/

"We have been dealing with it by jet-washing some of the tomatoes every sunny day, and we are winning."

seems  encouraging

Winter is the best cure for spider mites and starting from seed will prevent bringing them into your garden from a nursery...

They're pretty wide spread in the south.  They are related to spiders and weave themselves little hang gliders to coast in the breeze from one area to another.   Double checking that I stumbled across why water jetting may help.  Apparently the eggs are far more viable during dry conditions.

The mites are easy enough to remove (inspite of being too small to see), but the eggs left behind will survive almost anything, including wet environments, even inside a humidity dome.

Freezing temperatures or an extremely high carbon dioxide levelseems to do the trick, but this is not always possible to achieve.

When the temps fall into the mid 40's they will stop actively spreading also.

Hi, Jeff

I was wondering if you figure out what your pest was?

If so how did you do to remedy this situation?

Did you find any webs as you will see with spider mites?

Did it turn out to be fungal?

If so did you treat it with something like this spray:

https://permies.com/t/93537/toxic-Fungicide#1423936

Sorry for the late response.

It would appear as though our sandy Florida soil is rampant with root knot nematodes. I cannot vegetable garden here anymore, except for planing fruit trees. My entire 2023 batch of in ground plants was wiped out.

I have to stick with potted gardening. Once the plants start to die, they're dead, it's only inevitable. Without fail, when you pull them up to inspect the roots and there will be knotty, bulging roots.

I have solarized the soil once, the nematodes returned for all intents and purposes, immediately. I have tried an organic nematode spray, but it did not work. There does not seem to be any particular solution for keeping root knot nematodes out of sandy soil permanently other than try and grow hardy native vegetables only or fruit trees. Everything gets washed down deep into the sand rapidly.

I have covered the ground with wood chip mulch but I do not expect it to do anything. The only solution I can come up with is move to a new location.

I am not sure my inspiration, Masanobu Fukuoka, can play much of a role for vegetable gardening in Florida with the extreme conditions and pests. I'm trying my best to "do nothing" but even our native tomato, the Everglades tomato, could not survive the root knot nematodes.

Have you tried beneficial nematodes? The most diverse mix I could find has worked for me with several different infestations (carpenter ant, flea, flea beetle). If it had been spider mites, I’d try a few species of predatory mites, as well as green lacewings (which I’d feed and help reproduce with umbel family flowers).

I've read a couple of interesting solutions Jeff. Please keep in mind I haven't tried them, but I thought I would throw them out there.

One article claims if you rototill ever 10 days through the summer it brings the nematodes to the surface and they are baked by the sun.  It sounds like a lot of work, and will kill a lot of the good stuff too. I guess if it worked then you could add a bunch of compost, cover the bed and start over.

The other which would be my favorite option is to mass plant marigolds. For spring and summer. When they start to fade till them in. I have read many times marigolds kill nematodes. I prefer this option because it only requires tilling once so it's way less work, and less damage to the good soil life.  You get to have a bed full of flowers, and if it doesn't work, you aren't out much.

I don't know if you want to try one, but I thought it was worth passing on.  I'm lucky enough to have decent soil, but I use raised beds.  It's easier to keep the weeds, and gophers out of my garden.

So sorry for your troubles. Hope you find a solution that let's you grow your veggies.

As I had said I am a fan of Masanobu Fukuoka and I'm not sure fighting upstream is worth it.

I have since added 6 more banana trees. Torrential downpours have plagued us after months worth of drought, lighting in the lightning capital of the U.S. is never a joke, however the sun is shining heavily in between.

My Suriname cherry went from barebones to lush in just a few days. My pepper plants are having a bit of trouble because they likely could've used some extra sand in the mix for their wet feet... but the plants took note that spring is here, as if overnight.

I am just going to keep adding trees and edible shrubs. Around these new trees, once added, I will be putting all my potted plants, that way I get the best of both worlds. I will have a few in ground groups of course, such as tobacco, but I am going to just cram it with the benefit of the tropics, generally gigantic perennials, often toxic unless cooked, such as Chaya, and then hyacinth beans, longevity spinach, more and more cassava... and then all my interesting medicinal herbs, for health, fragrance, eyeball pleasure, experiments, this way I am not stressed about the garden. I will do what is easiest and use my work to produce abundance in various forms, rather than use all my work to try and produce abundance of a few forced crops that I would enjoy marginally more.

I think the main issue with the tropics and trees, is patience. If I move, all of my in ground work will have been for nothing, but then again, it's not that much work compared to the potted plants.

Instead of an extremely tiny and mediocre vegetable garden, I am going to make a literal food forest of more trees and large perennials, canopying vast diversity below.

I just ordered a number of new seeds to play. My pond is setup. I "inoculated" it with local pond water from a preserve and may have gathered a few aquatic type plants. So... everything seems to be going remarkably well.