The poor tomato plants! Your life in the bed is not so easy. They constantly have to defend their health against all kinds of diseases. Often that doesn't work. Sometimes ugly spots appear on the leaves. Could it be the dreaded leaf spot disease?
Leaf spot disease is fairly easy to spot
Disease symptoms in tomatoes
Leaf spot disease can be easily identified as such on closer inspection. These are the signs that point to them:
- Spots 4-5 mm in size
- they are watery and gray inside
- a dark border separates them from healthy tissue
- the rest of the sheet yellowed
- the lower, older leaves are affected
- there are black spore bearings on the underside
- they can grow together to form large areas
Notice:
Leaf spot disease can often be seen on tomatoes when celery grows in the immediate vicinity. This is very susceptible and in turn becomes a source of infection.
Effect on tomato fruits
Although the tomato plant is beautiful in appearance, it is invariably cultivated for its fruit. Therefore, with any tomato disease, the question immediately arises: will it ruin my harvest?
The red tomato fruits are not infected by this fungal pathogen. Accordingly, nothing stands in the way of their consumption. However, depending on the severity of the infestation, the harvest will be more modest. The leafy green supplies the energy that is required for fruit formation. The less healthy leaf mass is available, the fewer or smaller tomatoes can be expected.
fight disease?
The red fruits remain edible, and the tomato plant in this country is an annual plant anyway. Does it make sense to give the chemical industry more sales? Home remedies do not help against this fungus called Septoria lycopersici.
However, it must be warned against ignoring this disease. The fungal pathogen can spread to other nearby plants. Leaf spot disease also affects, for example, cucumbers, arugula and many other types of vegetables and flowers.
Appropriate countermeasures
Remove any stained leaves from the tomato plants and collect fallen specimens as well. They all have to be thrown away. But please do not compost! A damp and wet environment favors the spread. In the following year at the latest, make sure that your tomato plants are dry and airy.
From now on, if you are not already doing it this way, only water your tomatoes over the root area. Estimate whether you can leave the diseased plants for a while longer. However, at the latest after the harvest, you should immediately clear them out of the bed and then dig them up deep.